ESCALATION IN VIETNAM HOW THE PRESIDENT MADE UP HIS MIND

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R000300350051-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 13, 2000
• Sequence Number: 51
• Publication Date: May 19, 1972
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

: L TIO iitn] U19MIAP .1.9 MAY 1972
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601
STATINTL
by H=LU 1 SLT'EY
n the Oval Office the symbolism of heroic defiance is overwhelming.
The American eagle is there 15 times. From standards behind the Pres-
ident's desk hang more than 200 streamers commemorating triumphant
U.S. military campaigns dating back to the birth of the Republic. George
Washington in his general's stars looks down from over the mantel.
President Nixon seemed in the grip of the legend last week as he ap-
;proached his final conviction that there was-no other answer to-the-in-
vasion of South Vietnam, than to sea] the harbors of the North with
mines and go all-out with bombing. Even as behind-the-scenes activity in-
creased, the White House grew strangely silent. It was a silence of con-
cern, -deeper concern than this administration has yet faced.
Nixon sat one day.ai d m used, almost as much to himself as to the
small band of his aides around him: "I know the risks involved.." His
,,manner was fatalistic, his tone one of total resignation. He was about to
place everything he held important on the line-his careful moves to-
ward a generation of peace, his own 'political future.
Delivering his decision to the congressional leaders just before his tele-
vision address, he said it again in a different way: "I've crossed the Ru-
bicon. The die is cast." The reason came a few minutes later, after he
,had explained what he planned to tell the nation. "They spit in our eye
in Paris. What else can we do?" When he ended that session he said qui-
etly to the assembled leaders, "If you can support me, I'll appreciate if.
If you can't, I'll understand."
Not all could. After Nixon had left the session and Admiral Moorer,
chairman of the Joint. Chiefs of Staff, was explaining with his maps how
.the harbors would be mined and the land targets bombed, Senate Ma-
jority Leader Mike Mansfield spoke up. "This is a major expansion of
the war: It will have grave effects on this world far beyond this time."
Sen. William Fulbright declared, "if it wasn't Nixon's war before, it cer-
tainly is now."
"Have you thought of a Dunkirk-type operation?" asked Washing-
ton's Sen. Warren Magnuson, one of those old hawks who has turned dove. The President had cited the danger to the 60,000 Americans still
in Vietnam as the main reason for this new involvement. Secretary of De-
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601 R000300350051-8