RIPPLE SALVO… #605… In his 1995 memoir “In Retrospect” Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara wrote the following: “My November 1 (1967) memorandum did do one thing: it raised the tension level between two men who loved and respected each other–Lyndon Johnson and me–to the breaking point. Four weeks later, President Johnson announced my selection as president of the World Bank… I do not know to this day whether I quit or was fired.”…. the 1 November draft memorandum is included below in Ripple Salvo…but first…
Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED FIVE of a return to the air war fought 50 years ago. Humble Host will complete this project one year from today on the 50th anniversary of the termination of Operation Rolling Thunder… 1 November 2018…
1 NOVEMBER 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a cold and drizzly Wednesday in the Big City…
Top three… Page 1: “Johnson Presses Congress To Pass 20 Key Bills in 1967–Gets Promise of Democratic Leaders To Do Their Best”… Page 1: “Shells Hit Lawn of Saigon Palace During Reception–2,000 at Inaugural Party, Including Vice President Humphrey, Safe As 3 Rounds Fall Short”… Page 6: “Edward Kennedy Urges Shift In Vietnam Policy” “..shift priority from military action to action that will be of lasting benefit to the people there.”….
Operation Rolling Thunder… New York Times devoid of air war coverage. “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft losses in Southeast Asia on 1 November 1967… Humble Host substitutes a New York Times news story for the 1 November Rolling Thunder ops news…
New York Times, Page 1: “Pressure On U.S. Is Urged By Hanoi–It Asks All Nations to Help Halt Bombings–Reports 200 Civilian Casualties”... “North Vietnam appealed to governments around the world today to ‘stay the hand’ of the United States, which it said had begun ‘continuous bombing of the capital city of Hanoi.’ A Government statement said ‘furious attacks’ on the Hanoi area in the last few days had killed 200 civilians and destroyed or set fire to more than 150 homes. Bombs and missiles have hit the city proper and its suburbs, it said, adding that fragmentation bombs had fallen in populous streets.
“The statement continued: ‘The Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam calls on the governments and peoples of the brother socialist countries, the governments and peoples of the other countries, all organizations and all persons who fight for peace, liberty, and justice to raise high their voices and act firmly to stay the hand of the American imperialist aggressors against Vietnam.’ The Government termed the attacks on Hanoi ‘an extremely grave escalation of the war of destruction against North Vietnam and an American effort ‘to escape from the quagmire and impasse in South Vietnam.’
“The attacks are ‘criminal’ and ‘an insolent affront to the peoples of the world and to international opinion,’ it said. ‘The army and people of both the northern and southern parts of Vietnam are more determined than ever ‘to strike truly hard, truly accurate blows at the enemy in his most sensitive areas, so as to punish the crimes committed against Hanoi,’ the statement said. The North Vietnamese are more determined than ever to ‘fight, win, endure in the long, hard but assuredly victorious struggle for their sacred national rights, their noble international duty vis-a-vis the world’s peoples, and thereby contribute actively to peace, national independence, democracy and social progress,’ the statement added.
“President Johnson’s recent talk of peace negotiations was described as ‘a maneuver to mask American efforts to intensify and expand the war.’ “…
RIPPLE SALVO… #605… THE 1 NOVEMBER 1967 DRAFT MEMORANDUM FROM SECRETARY McNAMARA TO PRESIDENT JOHNSON… Humble Host quotes the following from Edward Crea’s “McNamara, Clifford and the Burdens of Vietnam, 1965-1969” Pages 221-222…
“The ‘dangerously strong feelings’ in the president’s official family that had been building steadily since May spilled over when McNamara, verbally on 31 October and in writing on 1 November, urged the president to abandon the current U.S. course of action in Vietnam. Moving beyond his 19 May proposals, McNamara called for a unilateral bombing halt in hopes of eliciting reciprocal deescalation and/or movement toward negotiations from Hanoi. Although Johnson never officially responded to his defense secretary’s memorandum, in private he questioned McNamara’s optimistic conclusion that the North Vietnamese would respond to a halt in kind by cutting back military activity across the DMZ. He worried that as usual the enemy would use any talks for propaganda purposes rather than serious negotiations.
“Of the nine principal advisors to whom the president later circulated McNamara’s memo for comment, only one, Under Secretary of State Katzenbach, agreed with McNamara’s position on the bombing, but even he wondered if the administration would accept such a policy. Clifford was especially outspoken that any unconditional halt would only convince Hanoi that the United States was tiring of the struggle, which in turn would lift the enemy morale as well as enable the North to reconstitute its forces and economy. If Washington ever had to resume the bombing, a firestorm of national and international protest would erupt. Taylor interpreted a halt as a prelude to an eventual pullout and something that would encourage the enemy, discourage America’s allies, and infuriate ‘the large majority of Americans opposed to bombing.’
“At a briefing held 1 November for the administration’s senior officials and advisors, the invitees, including the Wise Men, McNamara stated that perhaps his and Rusk’s efforts since 1961 had been a failure, but he did not disclose to the assembled group of senior statesmen that earlier in the day he had proposed to the president to stop bombing in the North. Instead the secretary read from a month-old CIA estimate that bombing did not reduce the enemy’s flow of supplies enough to hamper military operations. The Wise Men agreed but noted that the bombing was a negotiating chip to stop enemy cross-the-DMZ operations. The following day at a White House meeting the same advisors unanimously proposed to moderate but not end the bombing. Although he later chastised the Wise Men for their conventional advice at the meeting. McNamara remained silent, neither enlightening the outside advisors about the shut down proposal nor declaring his convictions. So the bombing continued amidst calls from the JCS for escalation before the northeast quadrant was closed for bad weather…”
THE McNAMARA Memorandum is a five pager but worth the few minutes of reading time. Some sections are more interesting to Rolling Thunder folks, but en total the Memo is the equivalent of a “half-time” break with McNamara quarterback for the first half, and Clark Clifford taking over for the second half… Read the memo at:
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d375
RTR Quote for 1 November: WILLIAM CONGREVE: “Invention flags, his brain grows muddy, and black despair succeeds brown study.”
Lest we forget… Bear