(See Cover)
Streaking in like vengeful lightning bolts, the F-105 Thunderchiefs loosed their bombs, rockets and cannon fire on a North Viet Nam highway bridge, sent it crashing into a gorge. Speeding southeastward, they knocked out another bridge leading to Laos and long used by the Communists to send troops and supplies into South Viet Nam. With fuel and ordnance still to spare, the Thunderchiefs swung back north, destroyed a key railroad bridge in North Viet Nam. Only then did the pilots of the U.S. Air Force's 67th ("Fighting Cock") Tactical Fighter Squadron follow their leader, Lieut. Colonel James Robinson Risner, back to their base at Danang.
Last week, day after day, in unremitting, round-the-clock attacks, scores of U.S. airmen carried out such missions, both north and south of the 17th parallel. Rumors of peace talks still wafted from capital to capital. In the U.S., professors at Harvard, Syracuse and Western Reserve universities held all-night "teach-ins," protesting U.S. policies in Viet Nam. Near week's end some 12,000 students staged a peace march in Washington. But in Viet Nam, the U.S. inexorably intensified its war effort, both in the air and on the ground.
In steadily increasing numbers, the U.S. sent men to South Viet Nam. By last week, with the arrival of 1,400 marines who waded ashore near Danang in drizzling rain, there were 33,200 American military men in South Viet Nam itself. In addition, some 27,000 Navymen were on warships patrolling Vietnamese waters.
Quality, Not Quantity. But the U.S. effort in Viet Nam must be measured in terms of quality, not quantity. The American serviceman in Viet Nam is probably the most proficient the nation has ever produced. For example, Admiral Thomas Moorer, until recently U.S. Commander in Chief Pacific, now Commander in Chief Atlantic, says of the carrier pilots who flew for him in strikes against North Viet Nam: "They are the most professional who have ever flown for the Navy, including those in World War II and Korea. There is no question about it."
Viet Nam is no place for the 90-day wonder or the left-footed recruit. It is a place for the career man, the highly trained specialist. Because of this, the U.S. force in Viet Nam is top-heavy with officers; of 15,200 Army personnel, about 5,000 are commissioned.
To many such men, fighting is a profession, not a training-manual exercise. They are in Viet Nam not because they have to be, but because they want to be —after all, that is where the fighting is. Thousands who could by now be back home are serving voluntary second and third tours of duty in Viet Nam. They have had hard going, but almost to a man they believe that the Vietnamese war can be won—if only their efforts are not undercut on the home front.