RIPPLE SALVO… #214… AUSTRALIAN WILFRED BURCHETT… but first…
Good Morning: Day TWO HUNDRED FOURTEEN of savoring some great history lessons from the Vietnam War…
1 OCTOBER 1966… FROM THE FRONT PAGE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES… A cloudy and rainy Saturday on Long Island…
Page 1: “Buffer Zone Raids Curbed To Foster Neutral Patrols”…”A pause in the bombing part of the demilitarized zone by United States planes has been ordered to encourage renewed international patrolling of the buffer zone. The zone divides North and South Vietnam. For several days American planes have been forbidden to bomb in the southeastern corner of the zone…specifically, bombing is prohibited east of Highway 1 in the South Vietnamese segment of the zone. The aim…is to encourage the International Control Commission to resume patrols, which have been made impossible by increased North Vietnamese infiltration and United States bombing…In Washington a Pentagon spokesman declined to comment when asked where the order for the pause originated. Other informed sources said that the United States Embassy in Saigon began discussions with the Commission in August and Washington had been kept informed of the talks…The United States has declined to stop the strikes elsewhere in the buffer zone. The bulk of North Vietnamese infiltration has taken place through the jungled hilly western end of the zone, and the North Vietnamese have set up numerous supply dumps in the zone. It was felt that without some indication of cooperation from North Vietnam it would be militarily unsound to stop the bombing in the western part of the buffer zone. “…
Page (3) “Enemy Toll Rises Near Buffer”…”Fifty-one North Vietnamese were killed in a strip of torn and charred jungle near the northern boundary of South Vietnam yesterday after an intense pounding by United States marine artillery shells and flaming napalm. The deaths brought to 933 the number of North Vietnamese soldiers killed since August 3 in an operation that some observers and high military officers believe may be developing into one of the most significant campaigns of the Vietnam War. Last night and this morning B-52 bombers attacked infiltration routes and supply depots in the demilitarized zone and 5 miles south of it. The B-52s have bombed 13 times in the zone since July 30.”…
Page (1) “House Votes Halt of Tax Incentives To Curb Inflation”…”The administration’s bill to restrain inflationary pressures by discouraging business spending for buildings and equipment was passed by the House 221 to 118. The bill calls for a 16-month suspension from last September 9 through December 31, 1967 of widely used tax incentives for expansion and modernization of the country’s industrial and commercial facilities. Plans to speed Senate action were underway immediately. Senator Russell B. Long of Louisiana announced that Senate Finance Committee would start hearings Monday.”... Page 1: “Mafia Witnesses Refuses to Talk”…”Seven suave witnesses described by Queens district attorney Nat Hentel as important figures in a national crime syndicate went before a grand jury yesterday but yielded no information beyond their names and addresses. And as if to show disdain for the proceedings, five of them had lunch at La Stella restaurant in Forest Hills where they and eight others were arrested in a police raid September 22. As they lunched with their lawyers…one of them said: ‘Why don’t they arrest us again for eating here.’ The remark was greeted with laughter and Santo Trafficante, former head of gambling operations in Cuba, who now has his headquarters in Florida, raised his wine glass in a toast.”… Page 1: “Goldberg Insists Hanoi Hasn’t Said No To Peace Bid”…”Arthur Goldberg emphasized today that despite a mixed and generally harsh reaction from North Vietnam to recent United States peace proposals he did not consider them rejected. Ambassador Goldberg went on to say that the United States had studied with great interest a recent press report from Hanoi to the effect that North Vietnam might be softening its position on peace negotiations. As to the criticism contained in statements from North Vietnam and from other communist countries, the United States representatives at the United Nations observed: ‘It would have been unrealistic to expect immediately a considered reply to the serious proposal made at the General Assembly. It is highly natural that the earlier replies be largely propagandistic in nature.”…
Page 5: “Eisenhower Backs Vietnam Strength”…”Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower said today that the gradual escalation of the war in Vietnam posed an eventual threat to the freedoms we are defending and he demanded an immediate application of as much force as we need to win. While avoiding a yes or no to a question whether he proposed using nuclear weapons General Eisenhower told a news conference: ‘I’m not sure–I am not on the ground. I’m not familiar with all the political considerations . If they gave me the problem, I’d take any action to win. General Ike said winning the war should take priority over everything, including the war on poverty and going to the moon… Also attending the Chicago Republican $100 a plate fund raiser was Cassius Clay, the world’s heavyweight boxing champion. Mr. Clay, whose black Muslim name is Muhammad Ali, nearly stole the show when asked if he was a Republican. ‘Muslims cannot enter politics. but if I were not a Muslim, I would be a Republican.’ The former President said, ‘Nothing would please me more than to Mr. Muhammad Ali a Republican.” An audience of 2,345 attended the dinner.”
1 October 1966… The President’s Daily Brief… CIA (TS sanitized) South Vietnam: There are more signs that the military leadership is taking measures to assure that it retains a foothold in a future constitutional government.
1 OCTOBER 1966… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NYT (2 Oct reporting 1 Oct ops)…Page 3: “B-52s Hit Foes Lines Near Buffer Zone Again”…” United States B-52 bombers pounded enemy troops in South Vietnam in two raids today in the second day of saturation bombing where American marines are fighting North Vietnamese forces. On raid hit infiltration routes just south of the DMZ. This is the area hit by B-52s yesterday. The latest bombing, at midnight yesterday, struck 20 miles west of Dongha. The other B-52 raid was at noon today…The United States command announced that an Air Force F-4C Phantom jet was shot down in North Vietnam Thursday night. One crewman was rescued the other was not. American squadrons flew 143 missions yesterday against North Vietnamese supply depots, missile sites and transportation facilities, ranging from the south of Hanoi and Haiphong area in the north. Strikes against fuel and ammunition dumps in the six mile wide buffer zone were reported to have triggered 10 secondary explosions and 13 fires. Navy pilots said they had destroyed or damaged 40 of about 60 barges sighted further north. Also listed in bomb damage reports were 16 bridges , 18 trucks, 2 surface-to air missile sites and six emplacements for conventional anti-aircraft guns. For the first time the Air Force published reconnaissance photos of Soviet designed MIG-17 jets parked on an airfield in Hanoi area. One picture showed two of the swept wing fighters and another showed three, both in shielded areas of the Phucyen airfield 20 miles from Hanoi. Such installations have not been targets of United States planes.”
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson)… One fixed wing aircraft downed in Southeast Asia on 1 October 1966…
(1) CAPTAIN COWAN GLENN NIX was flying an F-105D of the 421st TFS and the 388th TFW at Korat was shot down recovering from his first bombing attack on a ferry on the Son Giang River 20 miles northwest of Dong Hoi. CAPTAIN NIX was unable to nurse the hard hit Thunderchief clear of the target area and ejected four miules from the Gulf. He was immediately captured and was a POW until released in March 1973.
RIPPLE SALVO… #214… THE RED WRITER… WILFRED BURCHETT… I take my guidance from Sun Tzu, who advised “know your enemy as you know yourself.” And forever in my memory is the movie “Patton.” Vivid is the scene where Patton scopes the tank battle with Rommel’s tanks in North Africa, and satisfied with the drift of things, the General says to himself… “I read your book.”… An interesting and fertile source for plumbing the depths of guerrilla warfare is the small library of Australian writer Wilfred Burchett, who used his press pass and Red card to create a niche for himself–open doors wherever a Red flag was flying–and over the decades he interviewed a roster of comrades second to none. Most of the enemy voices he listened to didn’t write books so Burchett was a useful messenger from the dark side,. Here is a short article from the New York Times, 25 September 1966 (Page7) headlined:
“Australian Writer Depicts Life Among the Vietcong”… “Jungle units of the Vietcong subjected to daily bombardment by American planes live within jumping distance of underground shelters, a leftist Australian writer reports. The journalist, Wilfred G. Burchett, who recently spent 18 days with Vietcong forces in South Vietnam said that despite the bombings he felt ‘in perfect safety in an atmosphere of Robin Hood and his merry men type of gaiety.’ The report by Mr. Burchett was published in the National Guardian, a leftist journal of opinion that describes itself as ‘the progressives news weekly.’ Mr. Burchett quoted his Vietnam guide, ‘If you hear a sharp, repeated screech jump into the communications trench and make for the shelter. You have between 10 and 20 seconds before the bombs come down. While Mr. Burchett discounts the effects of American bombing, jungle life for the Vietcong comes across in the account as a ceaseless round of spotter planes, fighter-bombers, helicopters, B-52s, especially rigged DC-3 gunships and reconnaissance planes. ‘A glimpse of a bit of jungle track will bring them out for hours,’ Mr. Burchett quoted Le Van Tha, a member of the National Liberation Front central Committee. Mr. Burchett said he came to ‘ignore the noise of the planes and helicopters, which were always prowling around somewhere in the vicinity raking the forest with bombs, rockets, machine gun bullets.’ He said he heard B-52s bombing once or several times a day during all 18 days of my visit. ‘The noise is tremendous like a great rippling of giant explosions.'”
Burchett published a book in 1965 that should have been read by every American going to that war, especially General Westmoreland. Publisher’s note…”The book is an account of his travels in the areas controlled by the NFL–about two-thirds of South Vietnam–during the last three months of 1963 and the first three months of 1964.” The book: “Vietnam: Inside Story of the Guerilla War”
Burchett takes 237 pages to make a case for his conclusion: “Short of using the H-bomb and wiping out all Vietnamese and many of their neighbors, the Americans will never succeed in South Vietnam by trying for a military solution.” He was right. General Westmoreland, et al, should have read the book…
Lest we forget… Bear ……… –30– ……….