RIPPLE SALVO… #530… SUMMER 1967: war there, unrest here… SUMMER 2017: ditto…but first…

Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED THIRTY of a review of a chapter of American history with a lesson–THE SUMMER OF 1967–for absorption by concerned Americans in the Summer of 2017…

18 AUGUST 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a day cloudy Friday and rainy Happy Hour…

SUMMER IN AMERICA: “WIDER PRIVATE ROLE ASKED IN U.S. HOUSING PROGRAM–PLAN WOULD PERMIT CONCERNS TO MANAGE PUBLIC DEVELOPMENTS AT A PROFIT–JOHNSON ORDERS PILOT PROJECT”… “President Johnson ordered the Department of Housing and Urban Development today to begin an experimental project aimed at turning management of public housing projects over to profit making private enterprises…Up to now such projects have been run by local public agencies on a non-profit basis.”… Page 1: “House Votes 12 1/2% Pension Rise and Tightens Curbs On Welfare–Bill Passes 415-3–Savings Loss Seen”... “The House passed a 12 1/2% raise for Social Security recipients today and took a new line toward welfare beneficiaries who are trainable and employable it to be–but we do not intend to be inhuman. the new benefits carry a price tag of $3-billion per year with tax increases to match. More than 23 million elderly and disabled persons an the survivors of covered workers would share the higher benefits. The increases would be effective–months after the bill becomes law. Principal changes: Minimum payment increase from $44 to 50 per month. Other payments go up 12 1/2%. average benefit paid to a retired worker and his wife to rise from $140  month (was $125) without losing benefits; the 4.4% on the first $7,600 starting next year instead of $1,680 per year. The 4.4% rate will rise to 4.*% in 1969 and 5.2% in 1971.”... Page 12: “President Johnson’s News Parley Will Be on TV Today”… a first… Networks scrambling to bump soaps NBC, CBS and ABC will cover the 3PM live news conference.”…

Page 17: “Carmichael Asks Revolution In U.S.–Urges Negroes To Overthrow Imperialists and Racists...take up total revolution.” Stokely Carmichael in Cuba: ‘Comrades of the third world of Asia, Africa and Latin America. I want you to know that Afro-North Americans within the United States are fighting for their liberation. It is a struggle of total revolution in which we propose to change the imperialistic capitalist and racist structure which oppresses you outside and us within. We have no alternative but to take up arms and struggle for our total liberation and total revolution in the United States. we were kidnapped and robbed from Africa and therefore we cannot be part of the United States, which violates the African continent.”… Page 17: “Goldwater Asks Treason Trial”...”Barry Goldwater said today that he thought ‘Stokely Carmichael should be put on trial for treason…when he returns to the United States from Havana.'”… Page 18: “Picture of Cassius Clay with fiancee Belinda Boyd, 17, planning a Muslim wedding. Both are Black Muslims. The ceremony will take place this week.”… Page 17: “Guard To Protect Louisiana Negroes–Governor Calls Up Troops To Escort Marchers”... “650 National Guardsmen to protect Negroes who plan to resume march through Klan Country toward Baton Rouge tomorrow.”… sports: AMERICA’S CUP…Intrepid and Columbia still unbeaten in the final trials to pick America’s entry in the America’s Cup…American Eagle and Constellation are dragging… Trials off Newport, Rhode Island.”… Whitey Ford Day at Yankee Stadium…

VIETNAM: Page 1: “KATZENBACH SAYS CONGRESS CLEARED WIDE WAR POWER–TELLS SENATE PANEL TONKIN GULF RESOLUTION OF ’64 IS BASIS OF VIETNAM POLICY NOW–OBJECTIONS ARE SHARP–COMMITTEE MEMBERS ASSERT THEY NEVER MEANT SUCH BROAD AUTHORITY”… “Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, Under Secretary of State, said today that Congress had authorized President Johnson ‘to use the armed forces of the United States in whatever way was necessary’ when it passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in August 1964.

“With that resolution Mr. Katzenbach told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Congress gave the President all the authority he needed to send American troops into battle in South Vietnam and to order the recent bombing of targets near Communist China…The response was sharp... ‘It seems to me, Mr. Secretary, said Senator Al Gore of Tennessee, ‘That you are now in a way of saying that this resolution authorized a war with China.’…Secretary Katzenbach answered, ‘It authorized the United States, as the President determines to take all necessary steps , including the use of armed forces, to assist any member of protocol state of the Southeast Asia treaty Organization collective treaty requesting assistance in defense of its freedom. Now in the course of that authorization, there can be risks taken. Other people could be involved. You could have that situation arise (war with China)’… Mr. Katzenbach said ‘a declaration of war in Vietnam would misrepresent the limited nature of American objectives there. In such situations,’ he said, ‘such a declaration could be outmoded phraseology’…One member said to a reporter after the hearing: ‘This is the wildest testimony I have ever heard. There is no limit to what he says. The president can do–there is only one thing to do–take it to the country.’ “…. Page 1: Large picture from Communist source depicts: “Repair Job: North Vietnamese workers brace against current to rebuild bridge hit by recent bombing.’ “…

Page 1: “B-52s Again Bomb Targets in The North; Buffer Zone Is Hit”... “The United State Command hurled two waves of B-52 Stratofortresses against a wide range of targets in North Vietnam and the demilitarized zone early today. The attacks were the first by the B-52s in nearly a month and the third time since last Sunday that they have hammered targets in the DMZ.”… “The ground fighting today continued light with only one sector reporting significant action… 67 enemy were killed by Marines in four contacts in Operation Cochise 10 miles west of Tamky and 35 miles southeast of Danang. Five marines were killed and 23 wounded and the action is continuing.”…

18 August 1967… The President’s TS Daily CIA Brief: VIETNAM: On Saturday, the International Control Commission is to conduct a helicopter reconnaissance of an area along the Cambodia-South Vietnam border. Th investigation is in response to a formal request from Sihanouk after US reporters had claimed that Vietcong rocket sites were located there... CUBA: Fidel Castro’s blueprint for violent revolution puts major emphasis on a common strategy for guerrilla warfare throughout rural Latin America. Castro hammered away in his closing speech to the Havana Conference of the Latin American Solidarity Organization. It is a clear declaration of ideological independence from orthodox Latin American parties as well as a statement of intent to support armed struggle… today was proclaimed the “Day of Solidarity with the American Negro.” Havana plans appropriate ceremonies and says a prominent “North American Negro” will speak ( Carmichael who goes from Havana to Hanoi on this trip)…

AMONG THE BRAVE…

OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM…COMMANDER BRYAN WHITFIELD COMPTON, JR., UNITED STATES NAVY… the NAVY CROSS… HANOI, NORTH VIETNAM… 21 AUGUST 1967…

“The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the NAVY CROSS to BRYAN WHITFIELD COMPTON, JR., United States Navy for EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM as a pilot and Commanding Officer of Attack Squadron ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-THREE (VA163), embarked in U.S.S. Oriskany (CVA-34), on 21 August 1967. As the strike leader of a major coordinated air attack against the Hanoi Thermal Power Plant, Hanoi, North Vietnam, Commander COMPTON, with precise navigation and timing, led the strike group to the target area through an extremely intense array of sophisticated enemy defenses, including at least twenty-eight surface-to-air missiles and heavy, accurate antiaircraft fire. Despite the continuing heavy enemy opposition in the target area, Commander COMPTON skillfully maneuvered the strike forces and led them in an attack which inflicted battle damage upon the target. During the attack, strike aircraft incurred extensive battle damage from the heavy flak opposition. With complete disregard for his own safety, Commander COMPTON remained in the vicinity of the target until the damaged aircraft exited the area safely. In addition to assisting the egressing strike pilots by calling evasive maneuvers necessary for them to avoid surface-to-air missiles and heavy concentrations of antiaircraft artillery fire, he succeeded in taking seventeen pictures with a hand held camera which provided immediate and invaluable damage assessment of this most significant target. By his superb leadership, outstanding courage and inspiring devotion to duty in the face of extremely heavy enemy opposition, Commander COMPTON contributed greatly to the success of a most hazardous mission and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”

18 August 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…The New York Times (19 Aug reporting 18 Aug ops)… Page 9: “Fighter-bombers yesterday attacked a power plant, railroad sidings, bridges, truck convoys, storage areas and a boat repair yard in the southern panhandle of North Vietnam.”…

“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 18 August 1967…

(1) An F-100D of the 309th TFS and 31st TFW out of Tuy Hoa experienced engine failure and the pilot was required to eject. He was subsequently rescued.

RIPPLE SALVO… #530… Humble Host found the following paragraph in the Randall Bennett Woods biography of Senator J. William Fulbright– Fulbright: A biography. I pose the question for your cogitation. Is there a connection between racial unrest in the United Sates and the conduct of our foreign affairs?… Fulbright did…

Page 459… “J.William Fulbright was a connection between racial unrest in the United States and foreign affairs. Ten day after the Detroit riot the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee flew to Honolulu to address the Hawaiian Bar Association. He opened by quoting a black veteran who had declared, standing in the smoke and rubble of Detroit. ‘I just back from Vietnam a few months ago, but, you know, I think the war is here.’ Pointing out that during a single week in July (1967) 164 Americans had been killed and 1,442 wounded in Vietnam, while 65 Americans had perished and 2,100 were injured in city riots. Fulbright told the lawyers that ‘we are truly fighting a two-front war and doing badly in both.’ There was a subtle, moral connection between the conflict in Vietnam and the urban riots that were sweeping America, he said. It was impossible for the United States to pursue an imperial policy abroad, to carpet bomb North and South Vietnam, and simultaneously attend to the demands of freedom and social justice at home. It was obscene that the administration had allocated $76 billion to the Pentagon for fiscal 1968 and only $15 billion to social programs.”

Senator Fulbright’s Hawaiian speech, entitled “The Price of Empire” is strongly recommended for a perusal…  “…a powerful indictment of the Johnson Administration and America.” Should be required reading for every critter in “The Swamp on the Potomac”… 

RTR QUOTE for 18 August: RABALAIS, Works: “One falls to the ground in trying to sit between two stools.”

Lest we forget….     Bear…