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The second danger that the U.S. sees in bombing closer to Hanoi is that some Russians might be killed. That danger became a greater probability last week when U.S. intelligence sources reported that there were five surface-to-air missile sites going up around Hanoi. The SAM sites describe a nearly complete circle around the capital, and may well be manned by Soviet technicians. The birds themselves—perhaps six to a site—are the same that brought down an American U-2 over Cuba in 1962. They can pluck a plane from the sky at an altitude of 80,000 ft. and fully 35 miles away, riding a radar beam en route and destroying the aircraft with a proximity-fused high explosive or even a nuclear blast. Even after the rockets are mounted, U.S. pilots could take them out by sneaking in beneath the line-of-sight alert radars and slamming the concrete revetments that house the missiles with their own standoff air-to-ground birds.
In addition to the SAMs, the Russians have provided a lot of verbal bluster, but total Russian aid to North Viet Nam has been only $365 million (mostly in food-processing plants, electric-power development, mining and chemical equipment). Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin's visit to Hanoi last February was aimed at re-establishing Russian influence in Southeast Asia, but with the intensification of the war, Russia has lost much of its enthusiasm. Peking is still the big spender, having provided $650 million in economic aid. Though Ho at first responded to the Chinese largesse by mimicking Mao with Orwellian hate campaigns, kangaroo courts and rapid, brutal collectivization, he has also tried to remain aloof from the Moscow-Peking ideological quarrel. Essentially, it is in the North Vietnamese interest to work both sides of the street. And basically it is in Washington's interest to keep Ho astraddle, while at the same time doing nothing that might drive Russia and Red China together. Bombing the SAM sites might well shatter that policy.
Claims & Columnists. On the other hand, President Johnson sees no reason to cease the tactical bombings of North Viet Nam. By keeping the pressure on Hanoi's communication and transportation lines, the U.S. will make infiltration of the South progressively more difficult. Already the North Vietnamese have been forced to rebuild their bridges at water level with crossbeams, then under cover of darkness slide boards across to span the rivers. "Sure," says one Air Force officer, "they can slip their supplies through on sampans and rebuild their bridges by night, but for every hole in the road they will need a few more men, a few more trucks to replace those we shoot up. And they don't have unlimited resources."
For all the esprit of Hanoi's Communist cadres, North Vietnamese morale has slipped since the bombings began. Says British Orientalist P. J. Honey: "They are holding constant indoctrination courses to intensify the people's hatred of the 'imperialist' Americans, which they never had to do against the French. The way they keep up spirits is to claim they have shot down hundreds of American planes. But the planes keep coming over in increasing numbers, which must make the North Vietnamese peasant wonder."