RIPPLE SALVO… #644… Humble Host’s Ripple Salvo comments coming down the 1967 stretch will focus on summarizing the air campaign through the most active year of Rolling Thunder. A ten-part review is on tap…but first…
Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED FORTY-FOUR of a return to the steely skies of North Vietnam of fifty years ago…
10 December 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a pretty Sunday in NYC…
Page 1: “President Urged to Spur Campaign on Rural Poverty–Panel Critical of Federal Programs, Asks Jobs for Anyone Able to Work–Cost Put at $5-Billion–Commission Says City Riots Were Caused in Part by Those Fleeing Hunger”… “The 25-member group, headed by Governor Edward T. Breathitt of Kentucky, conclusions include sweeping recommendations, as a matter of urgency, that the Federal Government make good on its policy of full employment made official 21 years ago. The report calls for all those willing and able to work and says that to the extent that private enterprise cannot provide it is the obligation of the government to provide it.”... Page 1: “Yelling Match Disrupts Civil Rights Forum”... “A decorous tribute to the Bill-of-Rights turned into a near bedlam in a dispute over who should be allowed to speak and what they should be allowed to speak and what they should be allowed to say…at the annual dinner of the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee of New York.”… Page 1: “Draft Violations Face Stiff Curbs–New U.S. Unit Set-Up to Aid Prosecution–Lawful Protesters Reassured”... “The Johnson Administration made clear today that draft registrants who engage in ‘lawful protest activities’ against the Vietnam war would not be penalized by having their deferments canceled.”... Page 1: “Linda Johnson is Wed in White House–Reminders of War Touch Ceremony in East Room”… “Linda Bird Johnson was married to Charles Spittal Robb today in a ceremony in the White House. The power and majesty of the Presidency, the beauty of the White House and the knowledge that the bridegroom, a Marine captain, would soon go off to war, heightened both the splendor and poignancy of the wedding.”... Page 8: “Romney Explores Plan to End War–Finds Support for a Neutral Southeast Asia”… Page 27. “U.S. Presses Europe for Gold Support”... “The United States is trying to convince Europeans that their interests are deeply involved in preservation of the present world monetary system and that they share a common responsibility with the United States in making it work effectively. The point was made last week in Paris at a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This weekend at a meeting of central bankers in Basel, Switzerland, it is being made again. Only this time the Europeans are being asked for definite support.”...Page 38: “Leftists Ponder Convention Move–May Demonstrate Against Johnson’s Renomination”…
GROUND WAR (“War is a killing business.”)Page 1: “100 Of Foe Killed As G.I.’s Foil Raid North of Saigon–300 Man enemy Unit Routed After it Pierces Line of First Division Troops–Vietcong Reported to Have Lost 390 dead, Pin Down Government Battalion”… “A Vietcong force estimated at 300 men tried to overrun a battalion of the United Sates First Infantry Division early today and was hurled back with heavy losses after breaking through the unit’s defensive perimeter. American officers said there were about 100 enemy dead on the battlefield after a mortar barrage and ground attack. American losses were put at one killed and 27 wounded. In the action, about 30-miles north of Saigon, one Vietcong soldier was reported to have jumped into an American bunker. He was strangled by a sergeant, United States officers said. after the 35-minute mortar barrage, the Vietcong drove toward the night defensive positions of the battalions and an artillery base supporting it. At one point, a United States officer said, the Vietcong broke through the barbed-wire perimeter. The Vietcong were firing rockets and machine guns in as well as small arms.”… “Fighting Goes On in Delta”... “The survivors of a Vietcong force that was said to have lost 365 men killed near the Mekong delta town of Vithanh yesterday has fought furiously today. The fighting, which had ceased overnight, was resumed at about noon when a battalion of South Vietnamese infantry of about 400 men, was pinned by mortar and machine gun fire. A second battalion was rushed to its assistance, in late afternoon the reserve battalion of the South Vietnamese Division was lifted by helicopter in an attempt to break the guerrillas’ resistance and to block his escape. First reports said that 25 more guerrillas had been killed, bringing to 390 the reported total for two days. No report of allied casualties in the latest action was immediately available. The South Vietnamese engaged in the battle yesterday–three Ranger battalions and two infantry battalions, about 2,000-men in all–lost 60 men killed and 102 wounded.”…
10 December 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (11 Dec reporting 10 Dec ops)… Page 1: “In the air war, poor weather again restricted United States air attacks on December 10.”… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 10 December 1967…
(1) MAJOR G.I. NORDIN and 1LT R.R. REDDICK were flying an F-4C of the 389th TFS and 366th TFW out of Danang and were returning to Danang on a ferry flight from Clark AFB in the Philippines and were hit by ground fire a fifteen miles southwest of Danang requiring the pair of aviators eject. They were rescued by an Air Force helicopter.”…
RIPPLE SALVO…#644… A Review of Rolling Thunder Operations- 1967- Part I… Tasks, Concept of Operations and Objectives… Source: Report on the War in Vietnam, Commander-in-Chief Pacific, and Commander U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, June 1968, Pages 31 to 43…
“On 12 January 1967 General Earle Wheeler Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was briefed on the CINCPAC concept for conducting ROLLING THUNDER operations in 1967. The objective was to bring increasing pressure so as to cause North Vietnam to cease supporting, controlling, and directing insurgencies in Southeast Asia. Tasks to accomplish this objective were three: to deny North Vietnam access to the flow of external assistance, to curtail the flow of men and supplies from North Vietnam into Laos and South Vietnam, and to destroy in-depth those resources in North Vietnam that contribute to support of the aggression.
“These tasks were considered interdependent and in abroad sense, represented a three-pronged approach that required an integrated targeting concept. CINCPAC felt that accomplishment of these tasks was dependent on the application of continuous and steadily increasing pressure was denied us in 1966 through operational restrictions and as a result the tasks were not accomplished. CINCPAC also felt that the best way to increase the pressure was to apply continuing steady power, on a long-term targeting basis, against key target systems.
“The CINCPAC concept for a long term targeting program emphasized target systems, rather than individual, and stressed weight of effort on a continuing basis. Since a majority of the targets were in the northern area of North Vietnam, the concept focused primarily on that area. There were six basic target systems: electric power, war supporting industry, transportation support facilities, military complexes, petroleum storage, and air defense.
“On 18 January CINCPAC outlined the targeting and operational concept to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. CINCPAC recommended the following parameter in implementing the program against the six basic target systems–all targets in each of the target systems that required approval by higher authority should be approved by a package. this would allow maximum flexibility in the timing of strikes, taking into consideration intelligence and weather factors. Continuing pressure should be assured by striking about 15 new targets each month. The objective would be to avoid peaks and depressions. If we were to increase the pressure on Hanoi, a steady program of disruption against the basic target systems was necessary. The six target systems should be considered as a single package, with each system interrelated to the other, and elements of each system should be attacked, rather than one system at a time.
“A breakdown by system of the targets proposed for strike under the concept was furnished to the Joint Chiefs of Staff with the comment that the concept had ‘finite limits’ and ‘finite goals’ and therefore could not be considered as ‘open ended.’ Of necessity the program was dynamic. Some targets would probably require periodic restrike, others would not. When major targets were destroyed or disrupted, minor targets which had not originally been considered worth hitting would become of primary significance.”…… Tomorrow: the First Quarter of 1967 …
RTR Quote for 10 December: FREDERICK The Great, Instructions to His Generals, 1747: “It is absolutely necessary to change your methods often and to imagine new decoys. If you always act in the same manner, you soon will be interpreted, for you are surrounded with fifty-thousand curious who want to know everything that you think and how you are going to lead them.”…
Lest we forget… Bear