RIPPLE SALVO… #531… Friday evening Happy Hour and Route Pack 6 targeting in the Oval Office… but first…

Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED-THIRTY-ONE of a marathon day-by-day recall of Operation Rolling Thunder, an air war fought 50 Years ago in the skies over North Vietnam…

19 AUGUST 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a cloudy Friday with a rainy night coming…

VIETNAM: “Johnson Observes Congress Can Void It’s Vote on Tonkin –Insists at News Conference That Policies In Vietnam Follow ’64 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution–Air Attacks Defended–President Says: ‘We Believe That Peking Knows U.S.Doesn’t Seek Wider War”… “President Johnson replied  today to Congressional charges that he had exceeded the authority voted him in the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution by challenging Congress to rescind the resolution. ‘We think we’re well within the grounds of our constitutional responsibilities,’ the President said at his news conference. ‘We think we’re well within the rights of what the congress said in this resolution and the remedy is there if we acted unwisely or improperly. The President’s comment was elicited by a criticism of the conflict in Vietnam voiced this week during the Stennis hearings on the extent of the United States commitments abroad. The President brushed aside a suggestion…that the South Vietnamese presidential election be postponed for four weeks, as suggested by Senator Jacob Javits of New York…

“On the bombing issues, President Johnson said today that he ‘would like to make it clear that these air strikes are not intended as any threat to China’…’We believe that Peking knows that the United States does not seek to widen the war in Vietnam… The evidence has been quite clear, we think, that the strikes were made against the major staging areas. And that the lines of communication where the enemy has been concentrating his supplies and troops and the transportation routes and bridges over which those troops have been moved against our men have been hit. We think that these targets are directly related to the enemy’s capacity to move material into South Vietnam to kill American boys.”

Page 1: “G.I. Combat Ratio Expected To Rise–High U.S. Official In Vietnam Says Rear-Area Build-up Has Been Completed”… “Future United States reinforcements to Vietnam will contain a far higher percentage of combat troops than did American troops in the past… three out of four soldiers in units due in Vietnam from the United States will be combat or combat support troops. Combat support is usually interpreted to include division engineers and signal and medical units. During the 1965-67 build-up in Vietnam, the source said, ‘We had to bring in one logistic man for every combat or combat support soldier we brought in.’ The current United States strength is 454,000, including approximately 125,000 men in Marine and army ground combat units–82 infantry battalions, 60 artillery battalions and 14 armored battalions. Most of the remainder are in a variety of relatively safe combat support and logistics roles, including 500 men assigned to the post exchange system. All get combat pay. The official said he believed the American pressure was beginning to tell (on the enemy). Enemy losses he said have averaged 15,000 per month, since January 1, 1967. Total Vietcong and North Vietnamese strength in South Vietnam was put at 274,000 yesterday by the American command…the recent lull in fighting has resulted from the enemy’s evading contact.”…

Page 9: “Big Enemy Base Raided By B-52s”... “area near buffer zone hit for 5th straight day…raided a big enemy build-up on both sides of the demilitarized zone…also hit an enemy build-up in the Ashau Valley with road linked to Laos… Yesterday troops of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airborne) pushed into the Nuimieu Mountains seeking  to flush out North Vietnamese regulars from caves. The U.S. killed 28 enemy troops in scattered clashes. The action is taking place 270-miles northeast of Saigon… In fighting around Saigon G.I.s reported killing 22 Vietcong.”…

SUMMER IN AMERICA 1967: Page 1: “PRESIDENT HINTS AT NEWS CONFERENCE HE WILL PUT OFF NEW URBAN IDEAS–SAYS HE WILL BE FORTUNATE IF CONGRESS PASSES BILLS HE HAS OFFERED SO FAR”... “He expressed confidence that Congress would pass most of the programs he has proposed… He narrowed the list of his priorities to three: model cities; rent supplements; and a ‘good sound poverty measure.’ He noted he had ’15 to 20′ urban bills already pending before Congress. He said: ‘The Congress up to now has not seen fit to pass the ones we have requested. We are going to urge upon them the program we have requested and recommended.’ “… Page 1: “Rap Brown Seized On An Arms Charge By Federal Agents”… “National chairman of Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee arrested on charges of violating the National Firearms Act…was in possession of an ‘enforcer’ semi-automatic carbine on a flight from New York to New Orleans. Mr. Brown is under indictment for inciting to riot, which makes it unlawful for him to transport  firearms interstate.”… Page 1: “Armed Force Protects Negroes In Rights March Through Louisiana”…”Passage through Denham Springs is contentious but controlled by the presence of National Guard.”… Page 8: “New Carmichael Trip”... “Stokely Carmichael will arrive in Hanoi today, according to H. Rap Brown where he will look into ‘savage aggression by the United States.’ Said: ‘The United States is experimenting with weapons there that would be effective in destroying black people in the ghetto without destroying property’…’He will see for himself the atrocities that are being perpetrated against the people in Vietnam.’… He made the remarks at a crowded news conference in the Church center of the United Nations.”…

Page 12: “DR. KING STRESSES PRIDE IN HIS RACE–‘BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL’–THEME PROMINENT AT CONVENTION IN ATLANTA”...”The Southern Christian Leadership Conference fighting to hold its own against the growing black power movement has begun replacing heavy emphasis on black conscienceness and racial pride. This development became clear here this week at the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. conventions of the civil rights organization headed by Dr. King…Large placards said ‘Black is Beautiful, and it is so Beautiful to be Black”…Dr. King recently checked a thesaurus and found more than 60 of 120 synonyms for black to be offensive, while all 124 synonyms for white were favorable…need to change sense of ‘negitude’…”They even tell us that a white lie is better than a black lie.”… Page 12: “Jersey Aides Will Meet With Negroes To Ease Racial Tensions In Atlantic City…”Syracuse Police Chief Meets With Negroes”… Connecticut Asked to Enlarge National Guard by Adding 350 Negroes.”…

19 August 1967… The President’s TS Daily CIA Brief… NORTH VIETNAM: Hanoi seems to be pulling most of its trucks out of the Laotian panhandle, presumably until the current rainy season ends sometime in October. Since early July, our roadwatch team near the MuGia Pass has seen nearly 50 trucks a day going into North Vietnam. None has been reported heading south since 18 July. Farther south, a few trucks have been seen moving both ways, indicating that at least a trickle of supplies continues to pass through Laos….JORDAN: The US Embassy in Amman is cautiously optimistic over King Husayn’s chances of surviving at least to the end of the year... VIETNAM: H. Rap Brown jumped the gun yesterday when he announced that Stokely Carmichael was then arriving in Hanoi…

19 AUGUST 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Sunday Times (20 Aug reporting 19 Aug ops) PAGE 1: “U.S. PLANES STAGE INTENSE ATTACKS IN NORTH VIETNAM–SUPPLY ROUTES ARE POUNDED IN 186 MISSIONS IN ONE DAY–105  BY AIR FORCE–3 MORE JETS ARE LOST”… “United States warplanes battered enemy supply routes in North Vietnam during 186 missions yesterday…this was close to the 197 record flown on 3 august. The Air Force flew 105 missions, a record for that branch of service. … The Navy and Air Force jets concentrated on the southern areas…a main supply route to South Vietnam…American officials disclosed that 647 United States warplanes had been lost in North Vietnam, three more than previously reported. No explanation for the increase was offered…The 186 aircraft missions in the North had included Navy jets hitting the Ben Thuy power plant that furnishes electric power to the city of Vinh. Other pilots bombed truck convoys, antiaircraft gun sites and bridges south of Hanoi.”…

“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 19 August 1967…

(1) MAJOR RICHARD MICHAEL SECANTI and MAJOR MARTIN WEIGNER ANDERSON were flying a B-57 Canberra of the 13th TBS and 405 FW attached to 35th TFW out of Phan Rang on a close air support mission 25 miles north of Saigon when hit by ground fire while orbiting the target. The hit was catastrophic and neither pilot was able to eject before the aircraft crashed. MAJOR SECANTI and MAJOR ANDERSON were Killed in Action fifty years ago on this date and are remembered with admiration for their valiant service…

(2) LCDR FREDERICK HORATIO GATES was flying an A-1H of the VA-25 Fist of the Fleet embarked in USS CORAL SEA on a training flight in the South China Sea, suffered an engine failure and crashed at sea. LCDR GATES was killed in the accident., which occurred as CORAL SEA was preparing to return to Yankee Station and her third combat cruise…

   RIPPLE SALVO… #531… TARGETING BY THE WHITE HOUSE EXPERTS… The “Notes of Meeting” summarizing the hour plus meeting in the White House on Friday evening, 18 August 1967, are all a Rolling Thunder warrior needs to read to accept as absolute fact that LBJ, Secretary McNamara and Secretary Rusk WERE making specific target decisions. This prolonged exchange of views and information provides a unique document for the Rolling Thunder story. Humble Host is linking a second Secretary of State Office of the Historian document that is useful in explaining part of the White House “tea and targets” meeting. Henry Kissinger was working across the world on “Pennsylvania,” a last-ditch effort to get peace conversations with Hanoi started. Humble Host notes that the tempo and movement of targets into then back out of Hanoi and Haiphong to back up the sensitive talks underway in “Pennsylvania.”. The idea in late August was to increase the pressure on NVN up to a specific date, 24 August, then back off in order to give Kissinger and his cadre of contacts an opportunity to show and tell Hanoi that the agents were indeed in touch with President Johnson. That’s the way it looks to me…  (Two JCS targets are mentioned by number. target 59 is Hanoi Army Supply Depot N Tay ho… target 62 is Van Dien Army Supply Depot)

  Read great stuff at…

287. Notes of Meeting:     https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d287

290. Telegram from France:    https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d290

In other words, ROLLING THUNDER was the most useful implement in the State Departments bag of diplomacy…

RTR QUOTE for 19 August: PLATO, The Republic: “The rulers of the State are the only ones who should ever have the privilege of lying, either at home or abroad; they may be allowed to lie for the good of the State.”…

Lest we forget…     Bear