In the eyes of the New Right, the Vietnamese conflict of the
1960's resembled, in so many ways, the Korean conflict of the early
1950's. Both small, Asian nations contained a Communist Northern half
and a free Southern half divided along a demilitarized line (38th Parallel
in Korea--17th Parallel in Vietnam). Both the North Korean and North
Vietnamese Communist regimes were puppets of the Soviet Union and
Red China while the free governments of South Korea and South
Vietnam owed their continued existence to support furnished by the
United States. And in both cases, the Communist North sought to
conquer the non-Communist South.

Moreover, the United States responded to both Communist
challenges by sending American soldiers into combat while, at the same
time, avoiding a real military victory. First of all, Democratic
President Harry S. Truman had refused to win the Korean War and the
next Democratic Chief Executive, John F. Kennedy also decided to
pursue the same, fruitless, no-win course in Vietnam. As Human Events
predicted in March, 1962, "The United States may find itself in a
quicksand operation in South Vietnam if the Kennedy Administration
doesn't reverse its present policy there." Thus "despite the stepped-up
US operations... the Korean 'stalemate' philosophy still prevails in the
Kennedy Administration..." Human Events concluded that "Kennedy is
choosing to fight another Korean-type war." Likewise, the National
States' Rights Party complained that in Vietnam "Kennedy intends to use
American troops... under the same no-win policy that was used in
Korea." ¹ /

Then too, the New Right maintained that the United States (prior
to 1965) repeated the identical mistake as in Korea by steadfastly
refusing to carry the war to the enemy. Indeed "it is time," in the words
of Professor Anthony Bouscaren, that "we penetrated the Communist
side of the fifty yard line." Barry Goldwater, in the same vein, insisted
that "we must not again--as we did in Korea--tolerate a so-called
'privileged sanctuary' from which Communism feeds its military
aggression in Vietnam." Similarly, Human Events deplored the fact that
Kennedy, "following Truman's cue in the Korean War,... has permitted the
enemy to regroup and supply itself in unharassed 'privileged sanctuaries'
in North Vietnam, Red China, Cambodia and Laos." ² /

The New Right feared yet another useless expenditure of young
American lives, this time in Vietnam. For as Barry Goldwater
announced, "America cannot again afford the tragedy of sending our
boys into a war we will not permit them to win." So unless the United

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