THAILAND: THE WAR THAT IS, THE WAR THAT WILL BE

In late 1966, Louis Lomax, the distinguished American Negro author and television commentator, was on his way to North Vietnam. When he reached Cambodia, Ho Chi Minh's invitation was abruptly revoked, so he went to ""he says, ""is where the action is."" Thailand instead. ""And that, He traveled the country at length, especially the troubled northeast section where Communist activities have been most pronounced. He spoke with all the Thais he could, peasants, officials, and revolutionaries, and with a great many Americans there as well, from Ambassador Graham Martin to Air Force pilots and disillusioned Peace Corpsmen. Everything he heard was cause for alarm: through illegal treaties, the Johnson administration has bound the U.S. to the defense of another repressive, unpopular Southeast Asian government and secretly built up a commitment of young American lives and taxpayers' dollars to the point of no return, exactly as in Vietnam so few swift, tragic years ago. Very soon, Lomax is-convinced, we will find ourselves openly entangled in another heads-they-win, tails-we-lose proposition; once again the State Dept. and the Pentagon will be ""It' telling the bewildered taxpayers, ""It's too late to back down now--our only option is to escalate."" Lomax has no easy answers. His task here is to communicate the questions that we should all be asking our men in Washington--right now, while there is still a chance of a choice.