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I approached Mr. Nixon's
speech last week with high
expectations, and as the saying
goes, I was half satisfied. I will
settle for that.
I. had hoped that, finally,
the President would declare
that henceforward no
American conscript would be
sent to combat duty in
Vietnam, except as a volunteer.
Shortly after the speech I
inquired why the President had
not made such a declaration,
and was advised by a Pentagon
official that "the arithmetic
doesn't check out."
I DID NOT press him, but 1
nevertheless find it inexplicable
that with a regular armed force
in excess of two million men,
to which we might add those
conscripts who believe in the
Vietnam War, we cannot come
up with the 150,000 men
nowadays exposed to combat
duty in Vietnam. We have less
than 300,000 men there, and
the rough estimate is that sixty
per cent of them are exposed
to combat.
Why do we need a national
draft, in a country of two
hundred million people, in
order to come up with 1 50,000
combatants, who in any case
will be reduced by
approximately five per cent per
month during the next period?
The temper of the country has
recently turned against the
Vietnam war.
But there are still those who
profoundly believe in the
American mission there.
Surely, from the loins of these,
the few thousand volunteers
would issue, as necessary (if at
all), to supplement the regular
armed force whose job it is to
engage in routine military
enterprises as prescribed by the
commander-in- chief , in pursuit
of American security?
SURELY SOMEBODY in
the Executive apparatus ought
to explain why "the arithmetic
doesn't check out." Why is the
explanation so abstruse? The
effort is surely worth making,
because the presumption in
America is that non-volunteers
ought not to be used except in
cases of a national emergency.
Why is it a national emergency
to keep 1 50.000 men in
4 LB. $10.95
3 LB. $9.95
FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1971
William F. Buckley, Jr .
Nixon at bat
combat-ready situations in
South Vietnam, with the
casualty rate reduced to
one-fifth of what it was when
Mr. Nixon took office?
It surpasses the
understanding why the
President doesn't consider the
subject worth explaining, and
one wonders whether he is
insufficiently aware of the
meaning it would have to the
morale of the country if he
were to declare that
henceforward no American
would risk injury in Vietnam
who did not go there
voluntarily, or professionally.
But then, the
disappointment apart, the
balance of the speech was
profoundly satisfying. It is
most often said about Mr.
Nixon that he is a political
opportunist. When Lyndon
Johnson affirmed and
reaffirmed the necessity of
following through with our
commitments in Vietnam he
had the satisfaction of
knowing that the
overwhelming majority of the
American people agreed with
him, even if, toward the end,
the Democratic vote was
almost evenly divided.
MR. NIXON, when he
spoke last week, has seen polls
that suggest that two thuds of
the American people desire
ardently a date, preferably
before the end of this calendar
year, when we will be out of
Vietnam altogether. It is in the
teeth of this popular current
that the President spoke,
simply, firmly, declining to
bend under the pressure.
If Mr. Nixon were the
opportunist he is accused of
being, how easy it would have
been to announce the end of
the American presence in
Vietnam, not later than, say,
next Christmas. Oh. how very
many volunteers he'd have
found among his associates
who'd have composed him a
speech logically and morally
irresistible, except perhaps to
those who reason grimly
forward to the strategic
consequences of an unthinking
withdrawal.
Instead, Mr. Nixon simply
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said: we were right to begin
with, we are right now not to
panic, it would be a mistake to
hand over to the enemy a
unilateral commitment which
could only have the effect of
strengthening their resolution.
It is not necessary to parade
yet again the reasons why it
was strategically correct to
help the Vietnamese, in order
to isolate the deed of Richard
Nixon.
THE MINORITY are very
few who would have turned
against him if he had said:
Vietnamization is complete,
and now we are withdrawing.
He'd have pleased the huge
majority, hugely, and he is
cunning enough to devise
sufficient explanations in the
event that the situation in
Vietnam turned sour. One
wonders whether some of Mr.
Nixon's most persistent critics,
whatever they may think about
his decision, will admit,
however grudgingly, to his
having acted bravely,
conscientiously; admirably.
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