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"Polls & Pols." That, in all likelihood, is North Viet Nam's only course of action, and under the dogmatic leadership of such zealots as Defense Minister Vo Nguyen Giap (TIME cover, June 17), the Communists are convinced that their war of liberation will succeed. From all indications, Hanoi has come to the conclusion that its trump card will be the U.S. public's increasing disenchantment with the war. "American polls, as well as many of the pols in Congress," notes one Hanoi-watcher, "give them some rational reason for banking on a lack of U,S. determination." Thus, ironically, the major test of the war may not be in Indo-China but in the U.S. itself.
North Viet Nam's rulers may even realize that the best means of inflaming U.S. public opinion against them would be brutal, wanton retaliation for the bombings against Americans in South Viet Nam. Nonetheless, one possibility, which Hanoi had already hinted at for weeks, is that the regime will stage "war criminal" show trials of American air men. It could also launch air strikes at U.S. bases in South Viet Nam, which would probably prove suicidal, given the U.S.'s advantage in the skies.
Perhaps the most likely form of reprisal is sneak mortar barrages on American installations, particularly in crowded, chaotic Saigon. One U.S. diplomat in the South Vietnamese capital cheerfully forecast that the Viet Cong may attempt another assault on the American embassy, similar to the plastique bombing of the mission last year that claimed four lives. "They have mortars right here in Saigon," said he. "With people hemmed into Hoovervilles and packing-crate alleys, a mortar attack from such a place would be next to impossible to prevent."
The first retaliatory foray came at week's end—and suggested Trafalgar as directed by Charles Chaplin. In broad daylight, the North sent three of its PT boats after American destroyers patrolling the gulf 60 miles southeast of Haiphong. Detected as they closed at high speed, the mosquito boats were swatted by U.S. jets called in from the Constellation. All three were sunk. American swabbies dutifully rescued the 18 North Vietnamese crewmen.
"A Growing Burden." In any event, last week's raids by the U.S. almost certainly portend much more of the same—stepped-up destruction of the North's remaining petroleum installations, roads and railroads, docks and power plants. The oil fires fringing Hanoi and Haiphong still blazed as 200 U.S. jets each day flew back to blast smaller POL targets.
The President, making his first public pronouncement on the raids at week's end at Omaha and Des Moines, delivered a resolute restatement of the U.S. commitment and intent. Once again Johnson pleaded that if North Viet Nam's leaders "will only let me know when and where they would like to ask us directly what can be done to bring peace to South Viet Nam, I will have my closest and most trusted associates there in a matter of hours." Until then, the President grimly emphasized, U.S. air strikes on the North "will continue to impose a growing burden and a high price on those who wage war against the freedom of their neighbors." Vowed Johnson: "We will see this through; we shall persist; we shall succeed."