RIPPLE SALVO… #153… …”a privileged document”…THE PDB… but first…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-THREE of the long look back to 50 Years Ago and Operation Rolling Thunder…
1 AUGUST 1966… PAGE ONE OF THE HOME TOWN NEWS…NYT… A sunny day followed by a mild Monday night…
Page 1: “Machinists Reject Airline Accord”…”Defy Johnson and Union Leaders”…”Machinist union members defied President Johnson and their own leaders today to reject overwhelmingly an agreement to end the 22-day airline strike. The International Association of Machinists announced tonight that final returns from 60 lodges showed that striking machinists and ground workers had voted 17,251 to 6,587–a margin of about 2 1/2 to 1– not to accept a three year contract reached by union leaders last Friday night with five major airlines. There are 35,000 members in the union. The rejection was a sharp blow to President Johnson, who had put his prestige on the line by calling negotiators to the White House to push for an accord and then announce a settlement. It was the first time that his personal intervention had failed to settle a labor dispute. ‘The strike is still on,’ said the Union President.”… Page 1: “Democrats Split On Open Housing”…”Supporters of civil rights legislation are openly nervous as the House moves toward a key vote this week on the controversial open housing vote proposal. Administration ranks are badly split and there is uncertainty over the extent of Republican support, always an essential ingredient in the passage of civil rights legislation. ‘ We’ve got big troubles this time,’ one Administration stalwart said. Even Hale Boggs, Democrat from Louisiana, assistant majority party leader, is expected to vote for open housing as are as many as 75 other Democrats….
Page 1:…”54 Hurt As Whites In Chicago Hurl Bricks at Rights Members”…”Angry crowds of whites chanting ‘white power’ hurled bricks and bottles at 550 Negro and white supporters of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., today during a civil rights march through a white neighborhood. Between 15 and 25 automobiles owned by Negro marchers were overturned and set on fire by white youths. More than 54 persons were injured, including two policemen. At least 14 persons were arrested. One of those hit by a thrown object was Reverend Jesse Jackson, an aide to Dr. King’s anti-slum drive in Chicago.”…
Page 13: “Riots Conspiracy Is Called Untrue”…”Attorney General Nickolas Katzenbach said today that it could be both untrue and ‘a tragic mistake’ to say that recent Negro riots in cities across the nation were part of a national conspiracy. Denying a charge made in Chicago Thursday by Senator Frank Lausche, of Ohio, Mr. Katzenbach said there was no evidence of a national conspiracy involved in the riots in “Chicago, Cleveland, New York and else where.’…’This does not mean that there are people in any situation of this kind who seek to stir up trouble. They do. We know who they are. We keep an eye on them. The causes of these riots are much more complicated and much more difficult than simply to say it is part of a conspiracy, a master plot. I wouldn’t predict further incidents and I wouldn’t predict that they wouldn’t occur. There are a number of cities where the same conditions exist, where there are gangs. Where there may well be hot weather, where all the other conditions that can lead to an explosion exist and where it can happen. Many recent riots arise out of lack of jobs, lack of employment.’ He said he did not believe that repeated calls for ‘black power’ had anything to do with the riots.”…
Page 1: “Ky Rules Out Bid for President”…”Premier Nguyen Cao Ky said today he would not be a candidate for President in elections next year. He predicted ,however, that LGEN Nguyen Van Thieu, chief of state and chairman of the ruling junta would seek the presidency. The jaunty young Premier, who has rapidly consolidated his position over the last six weeks indicated in an interview that he hoped to abandon politics so he could devote himself to running the South Vietnamese Air Force…”
1 AUGUST 1966… THE PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEF… CIA (TS sanitized)…South Vietnam: Ky and his government seem to be handling preparations for the September constitutional assembly elections effectively and honestly. Functionaries in charge of the electoral process have apparently tried hard to avoid irregularities that might foster international criticism. Furthermore, some of the Saigon generals–including Ky himself–have gone out of their way tocorrect those irregularities brought to their attention. Soviet Union: The Soviets are continuing to strengthen their military forces gradually in areas adjacent to the Sinkiang border of China. (redacted) Also there are some indications (redacted)that an advance element of a motorized division may have recently deployed to the area…. The Soviet Union’s parliament, the Supreme Soviet, convenes tomorrow. There are new straws in the wind that the session may bring about some changes in the Soviet Government. the party Central Committee, which would have to puts its stamp on any important change, met today on matters relating to the Supreme Soviet session. rumors have been floating around Moscow for the few days that Kosygin is to resign for reasons of poor health. this could be, although we have seen no evidence that he is sick. His recent grueling work schedule points to no preparations for phasing out….
1 AUGUST 1966… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…NYT (2 Aug reporting 31 July ops)…Page 1: “GIs Find No Foe After Raid By B-52s”…”United States infantrymen swept through a jungle area that was torn up and charred in an attack by B-52s yesterday but they found no enemy bodies…Today a United States spokesman reported that two Air Force F-104 Starfighters were shot down yesterday over North Vietnam and that an RF-101 Voodoo reconnaissance plane had been missing over North Vietnam since Sunday. All three pilots are listed as missing in action…In North Vietnam Sunday, United States planes flew 67 attack missions of several airplanes each to strike fuel depots, warehouses and routes of travel.”… “Vietnam: Air Losses”(Hobson)…Two aircraft lost in southeast Asia on 31 July 1966…. Two US aircraft downed in Southeast Asia on 31 July 1966…
(1) CAPTAIN JOHN CHARLES KWORTNIK was flying an F-104C of the 435th TFS and 8th TFW out of Udorn in an Iron Hand fighter support role on a major strike on targets in the Thai Nguyen complex. CAPTAIN KWORTNIK was flying in a flight of four in an orbit 30 miles northwest of Hanoi. The Iron Hand attacks on active SAM sites in the area resulted in a flurry of enemy SAM firings, one of which struck and broke up CAPTAIN KWORTNIK’s aircraft. A parachute was reportedly seen but intense enemy ground fire precluded a search. CAPTAIN KWORTNIK never arrived at a POW camp and was never seen again subsequent to his 1 August mission, fifty years ago today…He was Killed in Action, died on the battlefield facing the enemy, and is remembered with respect and admiration…
(2) CAPTAIN KENNETH WALTER NORTH was flying an F-105D of the 13thTFS and 388th TFW out of Korat on his 33rd strike mission and was hit by ground fire in the target area. He could not control his burning aircraft and was forced to eject. He was captured and interned as a POW until his release on 4 March 1973. He continued his Air Force career and retired as a Brigadier General.
RIPPLE SALVO… #153… The President’s Daily Briefing… The CIA summarizes the latest intelligence reports and produces “a privileged document” for the President every day. These ‘PDBs” are classified Top Secret and the distribution is “vey few.” Last September the CIA “sanitized” several years of these interesting daily reports and added them to “the CIA public library and reading room.” Last week I spent a couple hours in their reading room pawing through the PDBs for August 1966 to prep for the month’s daily blogs. Unfortunately the sanitized versions of the PDBs is more redaction –blank paper– than reading material, but I enjoy “panning for gold” and always find pleasure in even the bits of dust as I seek nuggets. Today my panning turned up an interesting letter from CIA Director Richard Helms to the Honorable Cyrus Vance, the Deputy Secretary of Defense dated 7 November 1966. A couple of points for your consideration as you read the letter: (1) There is no classification mark on the letter…apparently only five copies of the letter were generated in the Office of the Director… (2) The letter specifies the distribution and handling of the “privileged documents.” (3) The Secretary of State gets ONE of the six copies that leave the CIA Director’s office…
Now think Hillary: bare bones TS stamp on the first and last cover pages with no stamps on pages of information or classification of paragraphs therein and none of the markings we normally associate with “Top Secret/Sensitive Information”… Think arrival of the this TS/SI material by courier from CIA at Secretary of State office every day…But Hillary is at home or wherever… Who and how does this info get to the SecState?…. easy… delete the front and back cover sheets, scan the four to eight pages with the unidentified TS/SI info and put it on the wire (email, read it over phone, or fax it)…OK, but why would anybody want a mountain of this detailed info in their personal files? Because nobody can remember the plethora of details associated with every subject, issue, and country in the world, but if you are planning on a life of $250,000 speeches, $10 Million books, and $25 million movies you need personal sources that separate you from the honest people who dig in libraries and play by the rules… When you live above the rules, and you are privy to the best that CIA can come up with every day for the President, all you have to do to make this happen is to set up your own very private library for future reference by you and your ghost writers (The equally dishonest minions who did the poaching for you… One more thing: What and why was Sandy Berger smuggling stuff out of the National Archives in his socks and underwear????
Here’s the letter (on CIA Director “Office of the Director” stationary )…
MEMORANDUM FOR: The Honorable Cyrus R. Vance, Deputy Secretary of Defense…. 7 November 1966
1. From time to time I feel obliged to take an informal sounding among the subscribers to the President’s Daily
brief. I am concerned that it be read only by those whom the President personally approves.
2. As you know, the PDB is subject to the stiffest controls we can devise — not only because it is a privileged document for the President, but because only under such controls can we include in it material of the highest sensitivity. For both these reasons its subscription list is severely limited. State, for example, receives only one copy, Secretary Rusk’s.
3. We are more generous with DOD. Five copies are delivered to the Pentagon of which one goes to the Secretary, one to yourself, one to John McNaughton, one to General Wheeler, and one to General Carroll.
4. Would you please be good enough to look into the procedures for the PDB’s handling in the DOD to insure that access is confined to the actual addressees. thank you.
Signed: “Dick” over typed “Richard Helms, Director”….
This letter is among the millions of documents available on your computer or iPad to read to learn more about our government, our nation’s history, and to exercise your right to know, I most strongly recommend you add the CIA Reading Room to your “Favorites” line…. unless of course you have access to Hillary’s emails– those won’t include any redaction (except for any marks of classification)…address: https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom Good hunting….
Lest we forget…. Bear ………. –30– ………..