policy - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORPORATION
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and governmental systems. At issue were the questions of whether a totalitarian
communist state would be able to outlast the United States by
accepting the military punishment which superior American technology could
^'.flict; or, whether the US will to continue the struggle would be sustained
over the long period that would be required to convince the communist
leaders in Hanoi that they could neither win the war nor succeed in
their efforts to conquer South Vietnam.
As long as they maintained their own will to continue the fight, and
as long as the survival of their regime was not militarily threatened, the
communist leadership had substantial advantages. The control that they had
over the society and economy of North Vietnam allowed them to continue to
press on in the conflict even when they were dealt severe reverses in the
South and even when the people of the North suffered from US air attacks.
The US leadership faced a totally different problem. The will of a democratic
state to continue in a war is dependent on two factors:
• Firm governmental commitment to the policies that are being
pursued.
e Confidence among the general public that the war policies of the
government are both necessary and appropriate to the circumstances
and that those policies will succeed.
When they are -,.:ell synchronized, the combination of official and public
support for a war effort can marshal abundant strength for warfighting, as
was demonstrated in Great Britain and the United States during World
War II.
During the Vietnam War it was apparent to both the US government and
the North Vietnamese leadership that the measure of support the American
people accorded their government's policies would be a key element in the
struggle between the two societies. Both the US government and the North
Vietnamese sought to influence the nature of that support using separate
and distinct techniques, and the question of whether the American public
supported the war policies of the successive administrations became a
dominant feature of American political debate. Hanoi's invitation to
H. Salisbury, the Assistant Managing Editor of The New York Times, to visit
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