ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED 1 SEPTEMBER 1967

RIPPLE SALVO… #544… General Maxwell Taylor to LBJ: “Sir, you are failing to get the message across. It is time for ‘a comprehensive information program’…”…but first…

Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED FORTY-FOUR of daily posts remembering the air war fought fifty years ago…

1 September 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a sunny Friday in New York City…

VIETNAM: Page 1: “Senate Unit Asks Johnson to Widen Bombing In North–Scores McNamara On Policy of Restricted Air War in Light of Military Views–Joint Chiefs Supported–Stennis Panel Report Says Closing of Haiphong Port Is Essential Move”... “The Senate Preparedness Investigating Sub-committee urged President Johnson today to widen the air war against North Vietnam and abandon his policy of ‘carefully controlled’ bombing. It asked him to follow the advice of top-level commanders in the selection of targets, In particular, the subcommittee gave unqualified support to the Joint Chiefs of Staff that an effective waging of the war ‘requires closing the port of Haiphong isolating it from the rest of the country, striking all meaningful targets with a military significance and increasing the interdiction of the lines of communication from Red China. Unless this is done the subcommittee aid is done the subcommittee said in a unanimous report, ‘we cannot in good conscience ask our ground forces to continue to fight in South Vietnam…. Today’s report follows three weeks of hearings on the air war against North Vietnam. In the closed hearings 10 high military officials, including the chairman and members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and most ranking Admirals and Generals in the Pacific and Southeast Asia vigorously recommended an extended and intensified use of air power…

“In Secretary McNamara’s testimony he said there was no reason to believe North Vietnam ‘can be bombed to the negotiating table,’ that wider bombing, including the systematic bombing of Haiphong would not significantly inhibit the movement of supplies into South Vietnam, that it would eventually have to be decided by the fighting in the South, and that the bombing of some recommended targets carried the risk of provoking intervention by Communist china or Russia.”…

Page 1: “Westmoreland Says Hanoi’s Figures Lie”… “…accuses North Vietnam of flagrant lying about the results of enemy operations. ‘Military actions in the Republic of South Vietnam reported by Hanoi recently have been flagrantly out of line with the truth. On August 11th North Vietnamese reported that U.S. forces during the first six months of 1967 suffered 110,000 casualties, North Vietnam and Vietcong losses were not mentioned…. U.S. Losses were 4,88 killed in action, 31,941 wounded in action, and 198 missing for a total of 37,038...The Allies reported 46,706 enemy killed, 3,180 prisoners and 13,335 defectors.”… Page 1: “U.S. Deaths Increase in Fighting”… “…125 Americans were killed in action and 1,078 wounded last week, a slight rise from 108 killed and 883 wounded the previous week… 85% of those wounded return to duty Half return without any hospitalization, of the two-thirds of the hospitalized, half return to duty.”

1 September 1967… The President’s TS Daily CIA Brief… NORTH VIETNAM: Celebrations in Hanoi yesterday of the twenty-second birthday of the North Vietnamese regime were notable chiefly for the first public appearance of Ho Chi Minh since last spring. Premier Pham Van dong made the major speech which was routine…. Hanoi radio continues to broadcast Carmichael’s revolutionary rantings and yesterday claimed he had been received by Premier Pham Van Dong. The man’s actual whereabouts, however, are clouded by what looks very much like a purposeful effort to hide his departure date from Hanoi. He mayor may not still be there… ARAB STATES: Nasir has at least come part of the way to accepting King Husayn’s call for reason. He is now said to have implied to his fellow Arab leaders that the time has come to look for some kind of accommodation with Israel.  As usual, however, he is careful to evade responsibility for pushing this line. He claims that reluctance on the part of some Arabs to press on with the was has foreclosed another military… The Soviet leaders’ message to the Arab chiefs of state contained the usual unspecific expressions of support for their cause, but seemed to appeal for caution and moderation…

1 SEPTEMBER 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (2 Sept reporting 1 Sept ops) Page 1: “3 Jets Lost As U.S. Navy Makes Heavy Strikes in North”… “Three United States A-4 Skyhawks were reported shot down over North Vietnam during a day of heavy strikes raising the total to 669 the number of American aircraft lost in the North. All three pilots are missing. (As posted on this page yesterday: LCDR AL STAFFORD, VA-163, POW; LT DAVID CAREY, VA-163, POW; AND, LCDR DICK PERRY, VQ-164, KIA…)…

“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 1 September 1967…

RIPPLE SALVO… #544… Gallup and Harris public opinion polls had the bottom falling out on support for “LBJ’s handling of the Vietnam war.” General Taylor was back from a visit with our Southeast Asian allies in the war and informed the President that the Administration was “failing to get the message across.” Then there was the three-week Senate hearings on the air war that produced a conclusion in the media, with some reason, that the President and his Secretary of Defense were on different channels and the military bosses and McNamara were still of different minds on how to fight the war. 

It was time for a BOGSAT… a Bunch Of Guys Sitting Around a Table…

On 30 August 1967 the President’s Special Assistant Walt Rostow called a meeting to focus on General Taylor’s conclusion that the message wasn’t getting through to the folks– at home or away. The discussion–brainstorming– led to an agreement that what was needed was a “Comprehensive Information Program.” A powerful message delivered by powerful, well-known, highly respected, articulate believers… Disciples United… “There was discussion of forming three teams, each one to cover one part of the country, who should carry and deliver the message, the strategy and tactics to be employed, and the main themes to be presented far and wide.

Humble Host suggests that President Trump’s Chief of Staff should consider a similar initiative for 2017 pronto… Accordingly I have forwarded the minutes of that 30 August 1967 meeting to President Trump for his information. My message: It is time to get the tub thumpers — the MAGA disciples — out of the swamp and on the road. To influence and inspire as “Plato’s Rings.”…

Read the 31 August 1967 memo at:

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d300 

RTR QUOTE for 1 September: “PLATO’s RINGS”… “This gift which you have…is not an art, but an inspiration: there is divinity moving you, like in the stone which Euripides calls a magnet, but which is commonly known as the stone of Heraclea. For that stone not only attracts from the iron rings, but also imparts to them a similar power of attracting other rings; and sometimes you may see a number of pieces of iron and rings suspended from one another so as to form a long chain: and all of them derive their power of suspension from the original stone. Now this is like the Muse, who first gives to men inspiration herself: and from these inspired persons a chain of other persons is suspended, who take the inspiration from them.”…

Lest we forget…     Bear