RIPPLE SALVO… #443… Q#1. Does bombing harden the will of the North Vietnamese people?… Q#2. What bombing attack pattern will produce results most favorable to US interests?…   but first…

Good Morning: Day FOUR HUNDRED FORTY-THREE of digging deep into the government files circa 2117 to see what is new about the air war over North Vietnam called Rolling Thunder (1965-68)…

22 MAY 1967…HEAD LINES at home from The New York Times on a rainy Monday in NYC…

Page 1: “Cairo Calling Up 100,000 Reserves: Iraq To Send Aid”... “The United Arab Republic ordered a total mobilization of its 100,000 man army reserve yesterday and reported today that the Iraq army and air force units were to be sent here to buttress the military build-up against Israel. The Cairo backed Palestinian Liberation Organization announced that it was going ahead with plans to step up terrorist attacks on Israel soil. Reliable witnesses have reported seeing an Egyptian cruiser, four torpedo boats and two submarines through the Suez Canal in the last few days. The naval movements were considered here to be a key element of he Egyptian build-up against Israel.”… Page 9: “U.S. Takes Leading Part in U.N.Talks to Ease Mideast Crisis”…”…extensive exchanges of views seeking a way to reduce the tensions between Israel and her Arab neighbors.”… Page 4: “Gains Seen For Nasser”... Eric Pace, reporting from Cairo…”A week has passed since President Gamal Abdel Nasser sent troops, trucks and tanks rumbling through Cairo toward the Israeli border as the Arab war of nerves against Israel had progressed since then, the consensus among Western observers is that Mr. Nasser has managed to strengthen his position at home and to assert his leadership of the Arab world. So far the costs of the exercise have been very small–mostly the expenditure of imported fuel for trucks and tanks fanning out through the Sinai Peninsula. If the present sound and flurry does not lead to a full-scale Mideast War, Mr. Nasser’s exercise in bellicosity is expected to turnout–from the UAR’s point of view–to have been eminently worthwhile.”…

Page 1: “Fighting Intense in Buffer Zone Strip: Foe’s Losses High”... “United States Marines and South Vietnamese paratroops supported by artillery and air strikes killed 300 North Vietnamese regulars yesterday in heavy fighting in the demilitarized zone…reports from the battle area said the allies were closing  a trap on about 2,000 men. Other North Vietnamese units bombarded the American headquarters for the DMZ action six miles south of the zone with heavy mortar and artillery fire…The enemy death toll for the operation is now put at 600. U.S. casualties: 76 Killed in Action and 465 wounded.”… Page 11: “Allies To Observe Truce Tomorrow”… “…24-hour cease-fire on Buddha’s birthday… the bombing of the North will be discontinued for the 24-hour period.”… Page 4: “Mansfield Urges U.N. Talks on Civil War”…”…seeks to force a U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss possible peace moves in Vietnam.”…

Page 1: Max Frankel column…”Intellectuals to Johnson: War’s The Rub”… “President Johnson gathered some of the luminous intellectuals on his payroll around a lunch table the other day to find out why he was having trouble communicating with the luminous intellectuals. The answer which Mr. Johnson himself brought into the meeting, was Vietnam. But that was only the beginning of what is said to have been a spirited one hour discussion of what he might do about intellectuals and what they would have him do about the war. The 16 men seated round the President in the White House Fish Room last Thursday were in themselves one of his proudest exhibits–evidence that teachers and scholars and men of letters had found a high place in his administration. He had called them together to see what ailed some of their distinguished colleagues in the intellectual community. … outcome?… his Vietnam war policies… Page 6: “200 At Cornell, Citing War, Will Not Serve”... have signed a pledge they will not serve in the armed forces while the United Sates is involved in the Vietnam war. “We the undersigned, having concluded that our government is waging a war of aggression in Vietnam, declare that we will not serve in the armed forces so long as the United States is engaged in this or any other unjust and immoral war.”…

22 May 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…NYT (23 May reporting 22 May ops)… Page 4: “In Danang an Air Force spokesman reported that LCOL ROBERT TITUS, 39, of Hampton, Virginia and his co-pilot, 1LT MILAN ZIMMER, 29, of Canton, Ohio shot down a MIG-21 yesterday. They were credited with their first just three days go…Delayed reports of missions flown by Navy pilots Monday said they had returned to Kep and the thermal power plant in downtown. Air Force pilots reported attacks on Kep thermal power plant and said they had seen MIGs burning on the ground. The Navy pilots who struck the Hanoi power plant said they had scored direct hit on the generator and main boiler.  (Humble Host notes: The President’s Daily Diary shows that the President was pulled out of a meeting with the DNC in the White House at about 8:30 pm to take a call from SecDef. The President then received a Top Secret folder and spent the evening in the Oval Office. This was the word that the Hanoi TPP had been struck successfully).

NYT, page 3. “Hanoi Claims 6 Planes”... “The Hanoi radio said 6 American planes were shot down in North Vietnam today, two of them in Hanoi.”… However, Danang briefer reported two losses: a Navy Phantom nd a Navy helicopter with all downed personnel rescued and accounted for.”… Page 14: “World War II ace Downs 3rd MIG”... “Colonel Robin Olds, a 44-year old World War ace became the first American pilot to shoot down three MIGs in Vietnam. four other MIGs were downed yesterday. Colonel Olds commands the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing based in Thailand. The wing has accounted for 21 of the 53 MIGs shot down by Air Force pilots.” (bear#84mk82storvinh)

“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Cris Hobson) There were three fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 22 May 1967…

(1) LCOL LESTER EVAN HOLMES was flying an O-1E Bird Dog from the 20th TASS and 504th FASG out of Danang on a reconnaissance mission on the northern edge of the DMZ at 8,000-feet went hit by an SA-2 surface-to-air missile and Killed in Action. LCOL HOLMES remains were recovered in 1999 and identified 25 September 2003. Thank you JTF-FA for your tireless effort to recover and leave no man behind.”… On this day 50 years after an SA-2 vs. an O-1E took the life of a gallant warrior one can only wonder, why?…

(2) CAPTAIN ELTON LAWRENCE PERRINE and 1LT KENNETH FRANK BACKUS were flying an F-4C of the 479th Night Owls and the 8th TFW out of Ubon on a night attack on a railway marshaling yard on the northeast rail lines 15 miles from Kep. His wingman observed the anti-aircraft fire and an explosion on the ground that is presumed to be the crash site of the CAPTAIN PERRINE and 1LT BACKUS Phantom. Killed in Action. None but the brave carry the fight so valiantly and die so resolutely. CAPTAIN PERRINE’s remains were recovered and returned to the United States in 2007 and identified in December 2009. Another attaboy for the Joint recovery folks. Now, how about 1LT BACKUS, who remains where he fell?

(3) MAJOR RICHARD DALE VOGEL and 1LT DAVID L. BALDWIN were also flying an F-4C of the 479th Night Owls on the same night mission one half hour in-trail of CAPTAIN PERRINE’s fatal flight. Anti-aircraft fire hit the MAJOR VOGEL and 1LT BALDWIN F-4C in the Kep area and they turned toward the east and the sea. The aircraft failed with about 10 miles to go north of Cam Pha. MAJOR VOGEL was captured, interned as a POW, and six years later released in March 1973. 1LT BALDWIN was more fortunate–a Navy helicopter crew braved the long reach through intense opposition to rescue 1LT BALDWIN... Who were those Navy guys???   oohrah…

RIPPLE SALVO… #443… On 22 May 1967 CIA Director Richard Helms sent a memo to the President that reported the results of a little brainstorming session he had held with his Vietnam experienced officers…Some highlights of the memo here:

Subject: North Vietnam Bombing…

“This morning I called in my dozen most experienced, knowledgeable officers who work on the Vietnam problem for a general discussion on the bombing of North Vietnam. This discussion focused on two questions: (a) Does bombing harden the will of the North Vietnamese people? and (b) What bombing attack pattern will produce results most favorable to the US interests?…”

To the first question: the consensus response was that the bombing hardened the will of the leaders but the  morale of the people was adversely effected. Further, there is no specific change in the pattern of bombing that will force the North Vietnamese leadership to cave. On the second question: The consensus was that any suspension , or termination of the bombing would be regarded by Hanoi as a victory. A new attack pattern concentrating almost exclusively on targets south of the twentieth parallel would also be construed by Hanoi as a victory. If we concentrate all of our effort in Route Packs 1,2, and 3 we can expect to do about 10% better at cutting off infiltration than if we continue to conduct strikes above Packs 1,2,3. Finally, the optimum attack pattern would involve concentration on infiltration targets in southern North Vietnam with random attacks in the northern part of the country sufficient to prevent major redeployment of assets and re-strikes on particular targets already hit whenever these show evidence of significant repair. The entire memo is at:

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d180

Humble Host recalls many similar brainstorming sessions in the squadron ready room, the intel center, bunk rooms the wardroom and the bars in Cubi, Subic and Olongapo. Most of the time the consensus was: “Let’s pound the P out of them with everything we have including mining of the harbor, and let’s go home!!!” … or…let’s just go home… There was no shortage of Linebacker-like strategists in the ready rooms at Yankee Station in 1967… would have saved the lives of 48,000 United States Marines and U.S. Army ground pounders… I wonder if there was anybody in Helms’ group that suggested the “pound the P out of them” option???…

There was one other State Department Office of the Historian memo (Editorial Note) dated 21 May 1967 you might be interested in scanning… This is a one pager that discusses issues that the President and Premier Kosygin might want to talk about on an upcoming visit by Kosygin to the U.N. (and New Jersey) and spells out to the Soviet leader some specifics that he might use in talks with Ho Chi Minh to get some peace talks going. 

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d179

CAG’s QUOTES for 22 May: MARSHAL FERDINAND FOCH: “The potentialities of aircraft attack on a large-scale are almost incalculable.”… PATTON: “War is the struggle of nations.”…

Lest we forget…     Bear