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Show New York "Times" Experts Featured In Vietnam Probe Returning from a recent tour of Vietnam, Baldwin said compared to his visit in 1965, the United States has made "dramatic" progress prog-ress in production and supply. Strife in China "The Chinese are vastly reduced by internal strife," said Frankel on the question of Chinese intervention. inter-vention. And the Russians' supplies to the North are connecting them mort closely to the North Vietnamese Vietnam-ese than the Chinese. But China is "always a serious source of concern at all times." Unlike America's failure to r e a d Chinese signals from Korea, we must watch them closely, he said. In terms of crossing the borders, Laos is the "greatest problem," said Wicker. "We can't descend to the Communist Com-munist philosophy of the ends justifying jus-tifying any means by crossing the borders," added Frankel. The aspect of neo-isolationism is hard to determine, said Wicker. We place ourselves in a position superior su-perior to the rest of the world. We must decide whether or not the "U.S. in the role of the defender of faith extended itself too much." Markel introduced statistics from the Gallup Poll showing 59 per cent of the American public favoring Vietnam. Of this per cent 48 per cent favored an increase in action. "Hogwash!" replied Frankel. "People are basically weary of the war and all that it means." The Vietnam War's complexion makes it difficult to obtain factual information. The emotional aspect often overrules logic concerning the frustrating war, accenting either positive or negative. "News in Perspective, " a New York "Times" National Educa- tion Television sponsored program on KUED Wednesday night, featured fea-tured discussion on the confusing war in Southeast Asia by the Times specialists. The panel included Moderator Mod-erator Lester Marckel, associate editor of the Times; Tom Wicker, Washington, D.C. Times Bureau; Max Frankel, White House correspondent; corres-pondent; and Hanson Baldwin, military mili-tary editor of the Times. Truth Is Confusing "Everything you read about Vietnam Viet-nam is true," said Wicker, "a n d everything is not true." Frankel commented that the United States' big problem in getting get-ting the truth lies with people. People Peo-ple interpret the news for themselves, them-selves, and the protestors are "too passionate" to deal with the situation situa-tion rationally. For that reason, Wicker added, the upcoming presidential election won't have logical debate on the Vietnam issue. No man can be exactly ex-actly pro or con. American politics has never been put in a neat package. pack-age. "A debate on Vietnam would result with more heat than light." War Without Fronts "A war without fixed fronts re-, suits in major shifts readily," said Frankel of the battle areas. In 1967 the main battlegrounds ranged from the Delta bombing in the North to the DMZ skirmishes on the Cambodia border. "You are at the front everywhere every-where in Vietnam," said Baldwin "There is no quick or clear end in sight. But the enemy is hurting, it is a war of attrition." |