TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1968
The American command reported two battles between American riflemen and the Viet Cong in widely separated regions of South Vietnam yesterday. Most other action consisted of Viet Cong shelling of three provincial capitals and several other targets. Military sources, noting that the enemy had not shown offensive spirit for several days, were re-evaluating enemy intentions.
In Hue, more American marines moved into the northern section of the city to help South Vietnamese troops clear the Viet Cong from that part of Hue.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry expressed concern to American officials ever the recent stationing of American B-52 bombers on Okinawa.
Representative Roman C. Pucinski disclosed that the Administration had sent a foreign emissary to Hanoi to explore North Vietnam’s terms for entering peace negotiations and had suspended the bombing around Hanoi to promote the mission. Officials in Washington added privately that the efforts had not produced an acceptable response.
President Johnson, on Lincoln’s birthday, compared his ordeals to Lincoln’s. “Sad but steady—always convinced of his cause—he stuck it out,” the President said. “Sad but steady so will we.” He said the issue in Vietnam was whether Americans would repudiate ‘‘moral isolationism” and stand for something.
An illustration of how rumors can get started in Washington was provided by the discussion of last week over whether or not the United States was considering using tactical nuclear weapons in Vietnam. The rumor began with an anonymous phone call to a Congressional committee, and the committee’s uneasiness over Vietnam policy gave it its initial credence.
Three labor leaders quit the board of Americans for Democratic Action in protest against the board’s endorsement of Senator Eugene J. McCarthy for President. But most of the nine other labor union officials on the board were expected to remain.
The first Negro mayor of Gary, Ind., has made progress in crime prevention and other areas, earning some applause from opponents, but has met with some setbacks in his first six weeks. The antagonism of the Democratic organization in the city has opened the way to a possible Republican sweep of Indiana next fall.
