RIPPLE SALVO… #283… CHRISTMAS 1965 AT THE ZOO by Rochester and Kiley in “HONOR BOUND”… but first…
Good Morning: Day TWO HUNDRED EIGHTY-THREE of a return to North Vietnam and Operation Rolling Thunder…
10 DECEMBER 1966… HEAD LINES ON THE HOME FRONT from the New York Times on a foggy Saturday in NYC…
Page 1: “Zambia Demands Ban on All Trade With Rhodesia and rejects U.N. and Britain’s plan for selected sanctions. Also urges oil embargo. Africans see a racist plot in U.N. to retain whites in power…” …Page 1: “Soviet Allowing More Emigration. Families separated by war are being reunited. Kosygin: ‘the road is open.’ Total visas to U.S. for 1966 is up to 700 in 1966.”… Page 1: “Temperature of 66-degrees here sets a record. The old record (1953) for December 9 was broken by 5-degrees.” …Page 1: “Tuskegee Students Riot Over Acquittal in Negro’s Slaying” … “Young Negroes smashed windows, looted a liquor store and painted a Confederate statue black today in a protest over the acquittal of a white man accused of fatally shooting one of their fellow students. About 700 students demonstrated for three hours before dawn then marched back to their campus.” … Page 1: “Churchmen Vote for Action by U.N. on Vietnam Issues.” … “The General Assembly of the National Council of Churches overwhelming approved a resolution calling for placing the Vietnam war on the U.N. agenda. The resolution asks the U.N. to ask President Johnson to give serious consideration to a halt in the bombing of North Vietnam.”… Page 2: “Data On Economy Hint A Slowdown Without A Tax Rise. Wholesale prices and retail sales fell in November for 2nd month in a row. Retailers volume is lowest since July and slump in car buying is a concern.”… Page 9: “U.S. Confirms Bid to Foe on POWs” …”Asks Hanoi to reconsider its refusal to join talks. The United States has confirmed that it has offered through international channels to exchange prisoners with North Vietnam and the Vietcong…also to reconsider its rejection of President Johnson’s public proposal July for a joint conference to assure proper treatment of prisoners and possible prisoner exchange.”…
10 December 1966…The President’s Daily Brief… CIA (TS sanitized) SINO-SOVIET DISPUTE: The principal conclusions of the National Intelligence Estimate entitled “the Outlook for Sino-Soviet Relations,”which has just been published, are summarized below.
–We believe that Sino- Soviet relations will continue to deteriorate as long as the Mao Tse-tung — Lin Piao leadership group retains authority
–While we do not foresee a deliberate break in state relations we cannot exclude a sudden explosion of the dispute into a new and more virulent form in the near term. Unplanned incidents could provoke greater hostility and more forceful relations.
–In the long term, the prospects rest mainly on what happens in China afer Mao. A regime even more anti-Soviet than the present could emerge. Even in this case, however, both sides would almost certainly seek to avoid war.
–The emergence of a more flexible leadership in Peking could lead to some easing of tensions. While it is unlikely that any Chinese regime would offer the Soviet’s significant concessions, even a very limited rapprochement would be likely to have an important effect on the world scene as a whole….
10 DECEMBER 1966… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…NYT (11 December reporting 10 Dec ops)… Page 4: “Over North Vietnam United States Air Force fighter-bombers unleashed 500-bombs on a North Vietnamese military barracks 37 miles from Dong hoi…three buildingswere destroyed and a fourth damaged, and several gun positions were put out of action.”… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 10 December 1966…
(1) An F-105D pilot survived the crash of a F-105 of the 357th TFS and 355th TFW out of Takhli. While on a test flight the aircraft suffered compressor stalls leading to an engine fire. The pilot eject and was rescued.
RIPPLE SALVO… #283… The following is quoted from “Honor Bound”(Stuart Rochester and Frederick Kiley), pages 153-156… I title this purloined portion of a great book, “A Prisoner of War Christmas at the Zoo, 1965″… I quote…
The onset of the Christmas holiday, at the same time President Johnson ordered a bombing pause, ostensibly for the purpose of fostering peace negotiations, brought a respite from the terror in late December. In general, the prisoners’ food improved, interrogation sessions were less intense, and punishment abated some. “Full portions of bread and rice returned,” Denton noted the turnabout at the Zoo, “and they were now washing the feces off the cabbage, and serving the soup hot!” The Vietnamese distributed blankets, sweatshirts, and sandals — perhaps in a concession to the Christmas spirit, no doubt partly to insure that their hostages would survive the cold winter ahead while lying on cement bunks and floors. Prison officials called off their goons and engaged in casual conversation with the POWs. On Christmas Day Risner, only recently out of torture, was ushered into Cat’s office at the Hilton for candy and a congenial talk; afterwards, Cat called in Stockdale for tea and a discussion of their mutual responsibility to help “bring this imperialist war to an end;” over at the Zoo, Frenchy chatted pleasantly with Rivers. All the prisoners received a Christmas dinner of turkey, fresh vegetables and salad, cookies or fruit, and depending on the location, a half-bottle of beer, cup of rice wine, or coffee. As an added bonus, inmates at the Zoo were treated to baths, shaves, and haircuts; for Commander Rutledge, who had been transferred from Hoa Lo on Christmas Eve, these were his first since his capture a month earlier.
From the quiet over Hanoi, contact with recent sh00tdowns who knew the plan, or simply observing the sudden absence of new faces entering the system, most of the Americans were aware of the bombing halt. Although they welcomed the breathing spell, few were under any allusions that it signaled a change of heart or a genuine reversal of policy on the art of their captors. There were ample reminders of the enemy’s treachery. Risner momentarily let his guard down during the visit with Cat, then realized the meeting was being staged and photographed for propaganda consumption. Frenchy had Rivers escorted to the camp library after their chat, hoping his cordiality and the holiday favors would make his quarry more receptive to the stacks of Communist reading materials there. On Christmas Eve, Catholics Guarino, Byrne, and Art Cormier were permitted to leave the Zoo and travel to the Hilton to see a priest for confession and Holy Communion–but accompanied by the officious Rabbit, who, upon delivering them, insisted that they confess their “crimes” against the Vietnamese people; only the priest’s intervention separated Rabbit from the ceremony, as the clergyman absolved the three fliers and dispensed communion wafers to them. Although authorities promised mail privileges for good behavior, except in rare instances–the Alvarez case, a letter Guarino received from his wife, and exchange of messages between Stockdale and his wife (granted by Cat in his effort to soft-sell the senior before resorting to torture), and letters were dictated by interrogators–they continued to confiscate incoming and prohibit outgoing correspondence. Perhaps with more mischief than malevolence, Dog broke in the Zoo’s new loudspeaker system with a violin rendition of “Smoke Gets in Your e\Eyes,” broadcast over and over, to remind POWs of their flaming ejections: Denton found Dog’s twitting uncharacteristically “droll” for the Vietnamese, but others doubtlessly did no appreciate the black humor.
When the Johnson administration extended the bombing moratorium through January, the Vietnamese may have concluded that the American government was weakening in its resolve and was on the verge of abandoning the fight. Possibly looking to wind down the war and the impending release of the prisoners, perhaps marking their own Tet holiday with continued indulgences, officials at the Zoo ordered complete physical exams for the men there. When the doctors showed concern over the PW’s loss of weight, the officials doubled the men’s rations and upgraded the food. Further, they ventilated cells to admit some light and air, gave more attention to hygiene and sanitation, and for the most part maintained the lenient treatment. The reprieve, however, lasted barely a month. Before long it became clear that the bombing pause was more an exercise in public relations than a serious peace initiative. Hanoi and Washington remained hopelessly deadlocked, Johnson and Ho Chi Minh making impossible demands of each other, so that the military stalemate was matched by a diplomatic impasse. Finally, on 31 January, after a suspension of 37 days the U.S. air attacks resumed, and with their renewal, the persecution of the American prisoners of war recommenced as well. end quote
With highest respect, admiration and appreciation for our comrades whose service to our country included years and many Christmas’ imprisoned in North Vietnam…
I extend my very best wishes for a happy Christmas to you and yours, who also endured and survived those extraordinary burdens,
Lest we forget… Bear -30-