The bombing of the key North Vietnamese port of Haiphong late last week only makes it clear what has been suspected for almost a year -- that the purpose of the American air raids above the 17th parallel has become punitive and coercive. No longer does the United States pretend that the aim of such bombing is merely to impede the military efforts of the North and boost the morale of the militarist government in Saigon. Rather, America's planners, frustrated by the understandable reluctance of Hanoi to negotiate, have decided to force the North Vietnamese to the conference table under the threat of bombing them, in Curtis LeMay's curious words, "back into the Stone Age."

Sadly, it is the bull-headed, unreasonable policy of the Johnson Administration which makes us the Neanderthals in this battle. It should be apparent by how that North Vietnamese leaders are willing to sustain substantial destruction at home in hopes that America will tire of its self-debilitating efforts.

Secretary of State Rusk, never known for his diplomatic adeptness in dealings with foreign Leftists, insists that Hanoi suspend her infiltration into the South before America stops the bombing. This is folly. It asks Hanoi to abandon her entire military stake in exchange for discontinuing only part of America's military effort.

What is especially frightening, as the bombing escalates beyond what was once plausible, are unattributed comments by "American officials" that the bombing would be reduced, but not halted entirely, even if Hanoi were willing to discuss terms of a settlement. Making the bombing an element of our bargaining posture promises neither capitulation by the communists, nor a compromise peace. It implies only the traumatizing possibility of a truly open-ended war, one that could, unlike the present conflict, actually endanger America's national security.