As Nixon headed west, Anthony Lewis of the New York Times was reflecting on the paradoxical nature of his trip.24 There were the “four million pounds of bombs still being dropped daily, the forests destroyed by chemical agents . . . the 100,000 casualties and refugees caused by American bombing every month,” all of which had been justified by the need “to contain China.” But with that objective disappearing, what rationale was there for the continued killing in Indochina?
