On “Containment” in Asia

A qualified victory in Southeast Asia was recently claimed by C. L. Sulzberger of the New York Times (January 29, 1967). The containment of China—assertedly the basic objective of U.S. policies in Southeast Asia, reaffirmed as such by Secretary of Defense McNamara in his annual statement before the Senate Armed Services Committee—is said to be in the process of succeeding. If the adversary in Vietnam has not as yet been brought to his knees, time has nevertheless been gained, facilitating China’s containment. The struggle in Vietnam, Sulzberger implies, is merely a battle in the Cold War against China—a battle in which victory in the field matters less than time gained to overcome the enemy on other, broader fronts.

And this is indeed being accomplished: Indonesian generals, taking heart from America’s stand in Vietnam and Thailand, have seized power in their country and inflicted a fatal blow to China’s hope for a puppet regime in Djakarta. China hers...