RIPPLE SALVO… #648… CINCPAC and COMUSMACV sum up the effort to “mine North Vietnam waters,” which unfortunately, didn’t include the harbor and road stead at Haiphong… but first…

Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED FORTY-EIGHT of going back and going deeper in the history of Rolling Thunder, 40 months of going “downtown” (on the good days)…

15 DECEMBER 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a cold and windy Friday in New York…

Page 1: “Junta In Greece Firmly in Power after Coup fails–Papadopoulos tells Story of King Constantine’s Abortive Bid to Ouster Military Regime–3 Officers Role A Key–They Were Unable to Help Monarch At Vital Point–King In Rome Villa”... “For a short time there was a possibility of civil war between forces loyal to King and forces loyal to Papadopoulos. But the Colonel crushed the King’s challenge as early as in April, he and the small group of Army officers aligned within overthrow the caretaker constitutional government of Panayotis Canellopoulos.”… Page 1: “U.N. Members Get Plan for Peace Talks From Vietcong–It Calls for Coalition Regime After Military Victory–Reaction is Mixed”… Page 1: “House Rejection of Aid Bill snags Drive To Adjourn–$20-Million More Cut–New Vote Is Due Tuesday–Conferees Set $1.77-Billion For Poverty Program And $9.3-Billion For School Aid”… “…House and Senate negotiators agreed on a new foreign aid package, cutting $20-million more from what was already the lowest money figure in the program’s stormy career… The figure was regarded as so low–when compared with what the President had wanted–that the economy-minded House would accept it. But Republicans and Southern Democrats, insisting on still deeper cuts, joined forces today to send the bill back to conference. The vote was 196 to 185.”… Page 14: “Women Planning Anti-War Protest–Coalition of Groups to Stage January 15 March In Capital”... “A coalition of women’s groups led by Jeannette Rankin, 87, the first woman to serve in Congress (as a Republican from Montana) and the only person to vote against United States entry into both World Wars, said yesterday that it would hold a demonstration protesting the Vietnam war in Washington next month. The new group, known as the ‘Jeannette Rankin Brigade,’ is made up of women from groups that have been active in the antiwar movement as well as individuals who have not before participated in the peace movement.”…

Page 16: “FOE’S PRICE ON HEAD OF MARINE IS $6,500”... “Vietcong guerrillas are offering a reward of 750,000 piasters ($6,300) for a United States Marine they call ‘Sergeant Black Man.’ The clandestine Vietcong radio says that the guerrillas do not have to have the body of Sgt. Marvin Murrell, a 21-year-old Negro from Syracuse. But they want him alive or they want his head. Sergeant Murrell heads a 17-man unit stationed in Tuyloan, about 20-miles southwest of here, which claims to have killed 183 Vietcong in 15-months.”  OOHRAH from Humble Host... Page 65: Sports: “Negro Olympic Boycott Group Demand Brundage Resignation–Gaines Executive Accused of Bias–Leaders Urge Return of Clay’s Title–Ask Voice in Olympics Policies”… “Leaders of a proposed Negro boycott of the 1968 Olympic Games demanded yesterday that Avery Brundage of Chicago resign as president of the International Olympic Committee. Dr. Harry Edwards, the organizer of the proposed boycott, called Brundage ‘a devout anti-Semitic and anti-Negro personality.’ Edwards spoke at a news conference at the Americana Hotel in New York. Other speakers were: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr; Floyd McKissick; and Louis Lomax, all of whom supported the boycott… Edwards listed these demands by the men who demand an Olympic boycott: Resignation or ouster of Brundage; an end to discrimination against Negroes and Jews by the New York Athletic Club; reinstatement of ‘Muhammad Ali, alias Cassius Clay,’ as world heavyweight champion. Boxing bodies declared the title vacant when Clay refused induction into the United States Army: Appointment of a Negro to the United States Olympic Committee: no competition between the United States teams and the ‘lily white’ teams of South Africa and Southern Rhodesia. ‘No one looking at the six demands.’ said Dr. King, ‘can ignore the trth in them. An athlete is on the field only two or three hours,’ said McKissick, ‘then becomes a black man again and is subject to discrimination.’…”

15 December 1967… The President’s TS Daily CIA Brief: NORTH VIETNAM: The Doumer Bridge: The Paul Doumer Bridge is apparently unserviceable to rail and vehicle traffic after air strikes on 14 December. Photographs taken just minutes after the attack showed that the mile-long span bridging the Red River at Hanoi was apparently damaged at several points. However, none of the bridge spans appeared to have dropped. The bridge was last attacked on 25 October and two spans were dropped. Photography of 17 November indicated that the bridge had been reopened to truck using prefabricated concrete spans resting on new piers to close the two-span gap.”…

15 December 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (16 Dec reporting 15 Dec ops)… Page 10: “Hanoi Area Hit 3rd Day in Row–U.S. Pilots Return To Hit Road and Rail Targets”… “American pilots bombed the key rail and highway bridge over the Canal des Rapides today (15th) in the second day of strikes within five miles of the center of Hanoi. They also attacked a bridge in Haiphong and strafed a MIG-17 on the ground at the Hoalac airfield 20 miles west of Hanoi. Air Force pilots reported that the north end of the five span bridge over the canal had been heavily damaged and that they had hit both approaches and the center span. Thailand based F-105 Thunderchiefs yesterday (14th) hit another bridge, the Longbein, on the edge of Hanoi and reported two spans knocked down and a third damaged. The Air Force pilots bombed the bridges connecting the North Vietnam capital with Communist China by taking advantage of an unexpected break in the monsoon weather which has blanketed the area since November 20. Air Force pilots attacked eight missile sites around Hanoi during the latest attacks. They reported that at least two of the sites had been damaged. There were no immediate reports of planes lost in the attacks today. In the Haiphong area, Navy pilots attacked a railroad yard in the northwest suburbs and reported having knocked down the center span of a highway bridge in the northwest corner of the city. Air Force and Navy pilots attacking targets near Hanoi yesterday reported intense antiaircraft fire, surface-to-air missiles and MIG interceptor activity. One MIG was shot down by a United States Navy pilot in a dogfight between Hanoi and Haiphong. One Air Force Thunderchief was reported downed yesterday near Hanoi, the 761st American plane lost in North Vietnam. In aerial duels Untied States pilots have shot down 99 MIGs and lost 33… The United States military headquarters in Saigon disclosed that 1,822 American aircraft have been lost in Vietnam and 1,186 helicopters destroyed. Of the total, 976 planes have been lost in combat, 761 in the North. Additionally, 846 aircraft have been lost for non-combat reasons.”…

NYT, 15 Dec, Page 15: “Flier Thinks MIGs Fight From China–U.S. Colonel Tells of Tactics Used by North Vietnamese”... “An Air Force colonel back from 78 missions over North Vietnam said today that there were indications that North Vietnamese MIG fighters were using bases in Communist China for combat operations. Authoritative Administration sources emphasized, however, that Washington’s best judgement was that there was no proof that bases in China were being used to mount air operations. Discrepancies between the observations of combat pilots or combat commanders in Vietnam and the general intelligence estimates of the government are not uncommon. They arise sometimes from time lag in the flow of new information, but more often from different evaluations of information and the Government’s need for the firmest possible estimates for policy decisions.

“The Air Force officer, Colonel Daniel James Jr. said at a Defense Department news conference that North Vietnamese MIGs had dodged into Chinese airspace to escape from American planes chasing them. He said that on occasion North Vietnamese fighters might also have flown from bases in China to oppose American bombers attacking targets in North Vietnam close to the Chinese border. But he did not say he was sure of that. ‘I have never watched an aircraft come out of Red China as such, said Colonel James, who served for the last year as vice commander of the Eighth Tactical Fighter Wing, based at Ubon Royal Air Force base in Thailand.

“The colonel said that ‘from the calls we’ve gotten (from other planes) on strikes, and from the direction and altitude that (enemy) planes came in and certainly departed. I knew that they were doing some operations out of Red China.’ Questioned by reporters about whether he was sure that North Vietnamese planes came out of China into combat, Colonel James replied, ‘The time that they stayed up there indicated that they did.’ As long ago as late August, there were reports that North Vietnamese planes were seeking sanctuary in Communist Chinese airspace. But today’s was the first on-the-record suggestion by any military officer that North Vietnamese MIGs might be flying out of China into combat.

“For months the bulk of North Vietnam’s air force has been stationed at bases in China. From 10 to 30 planes remain inside North Vietnam remain inside North Vietnam to combat American raider’s bases in China have been used for maintenance, for crew rest and training, and to avoid having planes damaged on the ground by American attacks. Some of the North Vietnamese planes are reported to have been shuttled from China to North Vietnam as needed. Government officials have stressed, however, that hard information on the use of Chinese bases and airspace by North Vietnamese pilots as a sanctuary was still very skimpy and ambiguous. ‘You could count the incidents on two hands,’ one official said.

“So far, Administration sources say, this has not raised the delicate question of American planes giving ‘hot pursuit’ ‘ over mainland China. American pilots are said to be under instructions to break off contact with enemy planes before reaching the Chinese frontier. Colonel James said American pilots had noted an increase in the apparent use of China as a sanctuary in the last two months. Other officials have suggested there was a slight increase in that practice since October 24, when American planes first raided the Phucyen airfield, North Vietnam’s main MIG base, 18 miles north of Hanoi.

“Three Chinese bases frequently mentioned in the past by American officials as possible sanctuaries for the North Vietnamese are at Naning, 105 miles north of the North Vietnam border; at Mentzu, 80 miles north of the border, and at Minkiang, 12 miles north of the border.”

Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft losses in Southeast Asia on 15 December 1967.

RIPPLE SALVO… #648… Rolling Thunder 1967 Review: Mining of North Vietnam Waters… “During 1966 the North Vietnamese made increased use of waterborne logistic craft (WBLC’s) to transport men and supplies southward. On 23 February 1967 the mining of selected areas of North Vietnam was authorized by higher authority. The use of air-delivered bottom-laid mines in selected river areas was determined to be an effective method of assisting in reduction of North Vietnamese coastal traffic. Operations began in March with all miners sown in the mouths of revers. HAIPHONG, HON GAI, and CAM PHA deepwater ports WERE NOT AUTHORIZED. While the extent of the effectiveness of the mining operations has been impossible to document because of lack of concrete intelligence, and our inability to maintain near-constant surveillance, the slowdown in logistic traffic in these areas indicates that the operations had a significant impact on enemy activity.”

RTR Quote for 15 December: GEORGE MACDONALD : “Friends, if we be honest with ourselves, we shall be honest with each other.”…

Lest we forget…        Bear