'Times' Editorial Quotes Thomson Vietnam Letter

The New York Times yesterday based a major editorial -- "Untried Options in Vietnam" -- on a letter to the editor of that newspaper from James C. Thomson, assistant professor of History.

Thomson, formerly a member of the National Security Council Staff and advisor to MacGeorge Bundy, yesterday wrote the Times that policy-makers had considered but missed "constructive alternatives" in Vietnam.

"I can attest that they were in fact proposed at the time," he wrote, and that they were rejected at each stage because the short-term price of doing them seemed infinitely higher than the short term price of not doing them and continuing."

In its editorial, the Times cited several major turning points at which the Administration failed to take advantage of opportunities to de-escalate and negotiate. It mentioned the period between Election Day in November, 1964; and February, 1965, when the offer of direct secret talks with Hanoi was rejected, and a second point during February, 1967, when it ignored hints from the Soviets that Hanoi would join in negotiations if the bombing pause was continued.

The Times quoted Thomson's recommendation that the U.S. de-escalate and "be ingenious and relentless in the pursuit of peace as we are in the infliction of pain."

In his letter, Thomson asked: "Can we still learn from the bureaucratic record and, for once, call a halt before we have passed the point of no return? Or will the price of nonescalation -- of desesalation -- be once more calculated as unsupportably high, as we plow on toward calamity?"