The United States had set itself "an impossible task" in Vietnam, said Walter Lippmann in the July 19th issue of Newsweek, He said that despite the U.S. attempt to exercise pressure on North Vietnam by ‘bombing raids, "there is much evidence that their (north Vietnam) will to fight had growm harder,"* Lippmann continued, "at some point, the President and his advisors are going to have to ask themselves why everything ‘goes wrong «< be it under Henry Cabot Lodge or Maxwell :Taylor - why over the years all our hopes have been dashed and one plan after another has failed."
Lippmann said: "It is, I believe, that we have set ourselves a task, which, like squaring the circle or perpetual motion or living 200 years, is impossible to do," He continued, "It is an impossible task for the United States to reach across the Pacific Ocean and to determine what shall be the constitutional foundations of a country in Asia, or by force of American arms to assure a weak country that it will non-communist."