Whose Script Are They Shooting By?

To some people the growing escalation of the Vietnam War means a rain of napalm, mangled children, human torment, and the dread prospect of a new world war. To others it means something else. “Military planners” and certain kinds of corrupted social scientists work out a “scenario” calculating move and counter-move, expectation and counter-expectation—what will happen if “our side” gets a bit closer to the brink and how the “other side” is likely to respond. They justify this game by saying that the enemy will have to negotiate if certain pressures are put upon it and thereby the war will be brought to an end.

Suppose, however, the other side isn’t shooting by the same script...