Nation: Help from the Hyperhawks

For two arduous years, President Johnson has sought in vain to end the war in Viet Nam, and—with little more success—to convince the world that this is indeed his aim. Abruptly, and to his own surprise, the President last month got an assist from the adversary. By a vituperative rejection of the latest U.S. peace proposal, North Viet Nam's Ho Chi Minh displayed unmistakably his own hawk's plumage. Last week U.N. Secretary-General U Thant, long a stringent critic of U.S. policy in Viet Nam, was also rudely rebuffed by Ho.

Thant, reiterating his fears...