RIPPLE SALVO… #396… IN THE NEWS…”The F-105 Thunderchief can take out any target at any time…”…but first…

Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED NINETY-SIX of a flashback to an air war fought in the skies of North Vietnam fifty years ago–it was called OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…

5 April 1967… HEAD LINES and LEADS from The New York Times on a cloudy, windy Wednesday in NYC…

Page 1: “Daley of Chicago Wins 4th Term”…”Edge on GOP is Record”… “Mayor Richard J. Daley was reelected overwhelmingly today to a fourth four-year term. The 64-year old Democratic Mayor defeated John L. Warner, Republican industrialist by 512,208 votes (789,163 to 272,955). Comedian Dick Gregory, Negro nightclub comedian got 20,775 votes running as an independent.”… Page 1: “NASA Reviews Operations to Improve Efficiencies”… “With an eye to improving its operations, the National Air and Space Administration has begun a permanent, high level review of its organization and management, the Agency, one of the largest in the Federal government, hopes thereby to head off criticism of its way of doing business and to prepare for even more ambitious space projects involving missions to Venus and Mars and the outer reaches of space.”… Page 2: “Johnson Says Defense Bill Restricts His Flexibility”… “President Johnson complained today that Congress was unduly interfering with his flexibility as Commander-in-Chief to determine the organization of the armed forces…an amendment to the supplemental appropriation bill for fiscal year 1967 prevents the Department of Defense from carrying a plan to deactivate 11 Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve transport groups…”…Page 5: “Peace Projects Bleak”... “A State Department official told Congress today that prospects for moving toward a settlement of the war in Vietnam ‘appear bleak’ in the wake of North Vietnam’s reaction to peace proposals.”…

Page 1: “Dr. King Proposes A Boycott of War and Calls for a Nationwide Drive of Conscientious Objectors”… “The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called yesterday on all Negroes and all ‘white people of good will’ to boycott the Vietnam war by becoming conscientious objectors t military service. The civil rights leader, in making his strongest recommendations so far, his strongest recommendation, so far, said at a news conference that ‘Negroes and poor people generally are bearing the greatest burden of this war. Later in a speech at the Riverside Church, Dr. King said: …”The American Government is the greatest purveyor of violence’ in the world.” (His speech also reiterated his five point plan for peace previously posted in RTRs.)... Page 4: “Negro Deferments Urged” Two college editors from Howard University argued at a Senate hearing today that there should be a special draft deferment for Negroes. ‘All black people deserve special consideration. Those people who benefit most from the society should be those people most willing to lay down their lives for it,’ Tom Myles, age 30, and a Navy veteran, ‘There is something immoral about requiring a black person from a ghetto who has already suffered to go and lay down his life.’ Mr. Myles was a witness at a hearing on the Selective Service System.”…

5 April 1967…The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized 9/2015) SOUTH VIETNAM: Sparring between Ky and Thieu for the presidential candidacy is continuing behind the scenes in Saigon. Senior military officials, anxious to avoid having to side openly with one or the other, have agreed to wait for what they hope will be a personal understanding between the two men. The Armed Forces council would then endorse the candidacy of the one who emerges as the “victor” from the personal agreement. (rest remains redacted after 50 years)...NORTH VIETNAM: Soviet seaborne shipments to North Vietnam have increased considerably so far this year. Deliveries of petroleum during the first three months of 1967 were up some 25-per cent over the 1966 rate. Food deliveries were up dramatically–from 6,000 tons in all of last year to 36,000 tons so far this year. Soviet deliveries of machinery and equipment to maintain the economy and repair bomb damage have also risen notably…. COMMUNIST CHINA: The public humiliation of Liu Shao-chi grows more strident as the stage is set for his formal–and long overdue–dismissal as chief of state. In the [process, all of Mao Tse-tungs miscalculations back to the 1930s are being laid on Liu’s doorstep. as Liu falls, so fall many officials in the party apparatus he built over the past decade.

State Department…Office of the Historian, FRUS, 1964-68, Volume V, Vietnam 1967… On 5 April 1967 President Johnson sent a telegram to Ho Chi Minh ...”I was, of course, disappointed that you did not feel able to respond positively to my letter to you of February 8.” LBJ is giving it one more try for an exchange of views with Ho Chi Minh and reminds him that: “You and I will be judged in history by whether we worked to bring about this result sooner rather than later.”…. For those who served in Vietnam this is of interest… LBJ telegram at:       

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d127

5 April 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (6 Apr reporting 5 Apr ops) Page 7: “American pilots flew 70 multi-plane missions in North Vietnam yesterday by largely due to bad weather which continued through today, they struck mainly along the coast…B-52s flew three strikes in the border area where the Vietcong is building new infiltration routes and roads… ” “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson): One fixed wing aircraft was lost in Southeast Asia on 5 April 1967. (1) An F-105D of the 44th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat experienced a drag chute failure on return from a mission and ran off the end of the runway. The aircraft never flew again… Pilot was OK…

RIPPLE SALVO… #396… COLONEL ROBERT R. SCOTT, USAF, COMMANDING, 355th TFW…

The 500th American aircraft was downed over North Vietnam on 5 April. The official breakdown of the losses: 10 to MIGs; 30 to 40 to SAMs; and the rest (450-460) to anti-aircraft guns… On that day the New York Times carried an article with an April 5 dateline from Saigon under the headline:

“Pilot Discounts Threat of MIGs”… “A United States Air Force wing commander who flew his 100th mission over North Vietnam today has discounted the idea of bombing MIG bases, which is favored by other pilots. ‘We don’t worry too much about the MIG threat,’ Colonel Robert R. Scott of Des Moines, Iowa, said. ‘There is such a threat,’ he added, ‘but more formidable is the threat of anti-aircraft fire and surface-to-air missiles.’

“His comment came at a United States Command news conference in response to the question: ‘Do you think we should bomb the MIG bases?’

“Several of the pilots who have participated in raids on North Vietnam say the enemy aircraft not only pose a threat in themselves, but also force fliers down within range of ground defenses. Senator Stuart Symington, Democrat, Missouri, who advocates strikes on North Vietnamese air bases, has suggested that pilots testify before his  Senate Armed Forces Committee. Colonel Scott noted that ‘surface-to-air missiles also force us into range of the AAA guns.’

“At a news conference in Washington on Monday, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara rejected Congressional demands for bombing the bases, though American casualties would be greater if such attacks were authorized.

“Col Scott, who is commander of the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing based at Takhli, Thailand, said that ‘if political considerations could be put aside he would favor bombing any type of military target and industry that contributes to the North Vietnamese war effort.’

“Col Scott said that the F-105 Thunderchief, which he and his men fly, ‘…has the capability of taking out any target in North Vietnam at any time.’

“A veteran of World War II and the Korean War, Colonel shot shot down his first MIG on March 26 during his 96th mission over North Vietnam.”    oohrah….

CAG’s QUOTEs for 5 April: GEORGE WASHINGTON: “If we desire peace, one of the most powerful institutions of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war.”… PATTON: “The psych0logy of a fighting man is a strange thing”… (HH: just ask my sister.)

Lest we forget…        Bear