RIPPLE SALVO… #312… AND SOME END NOTES… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED TWELVE of a return to the skies over North Vietnam and ROLLING THUNDER…
11 January 1967… The New York Times front page coverage of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s 10 January 1967 State of the Union speech and message to Congress… The page 1 eight column 48 pt. headline: “Johnson Asks a 6% Surcharge on Taxes for Vietnam War and Poverty Program”…
President Johnson called on the American people tonight to pay higher taxes and to muster “the staying power” needed to fight the costly war in Vietnam and to carry on with the reform here at home. The President asked Congress to levy a 6-per cent surcharge on personal and corporate income taxes “to last for two years or for so long as the unusual expenditures associated with our efforts in Vietnam continue.” The increase would effect about four out every five individual taxpayers, costing about 6 cents more for each year for every $1 of their regular tax bill. In a generally sober and cautious State of the Union message to a joint session of the Congress, the President vowed his determination to persevere in Vietnam despite the prospect of “more cost, more losses and more agony.”
He said the economy was essentially sound, but unable to do “all that should be done with the Great Society programs.” He expressed special regret over that, adding, “I can assure you that no Administration would more eagerly utilize all the resources these programs require than the Administration that started them.” In outlining his domestic proposals the President stressed the need for consolidation and promised to correct mistakes and eliminate administrative confusion. His main proposals were as follows:
*Increase the Social Security benefits by 20%
*A merger of Labor and Commerce into one Department of Business and Labor
*A program of grants for local law enforcement projects
*New laws to prohibit wiretapping and as many forms of eavesdropping as possible
*Expansion of Head Start and job training programs
*Measures to ensure honest lending practices, the safety of natural gas and electric systems, to fight pollution, and to finance educational television
*Another attempt to pass civil rights measures defeated last year (Fair Housing)
The President took 70 minutes to read his text.
His discussion of the war was somber, appealing to the nation for patience in a period of testing. “How long all this will take, I cannot prophesy,” he said, making plain his determination to sustain the military pressure against the Communists, he continued: “I only know that the will of the American people is being tested. Whether we can fight a war of limited objective over a long period of time, and keep alive the hope of independence and can accept the necessity of choosing a great evil in order to ward off a greater: and whether we can do these without arousing the hatreds and passions ordinarily loosed in a time of war: on these questions so much turns.”…
In discussing Vietnam the President drew some hope from the fact that South Vietnam was beginning to move forward toward civilian government. He said he could not point to the desired progress in the so-called pacification program, however. That program is the heart of the non-Communist strategy to regain both territory and population from the Vietcong.
Mr. Johnson vigorously defended the United States involvement in the war insisting that a limited conflict will avert a larger war.
“Our men in that area–there are nearly 500,000 now–have borne well the burdens and the heat of the day. Their efforts have deprived the Communist enemy of the victory he sought and he expected a year ago. We have steadily frustrated his main forces. General Westmoreland reports that the enemy can no longer succeed on the battlefield.
“So I must say to you that our pressure must be sustained–and will be sustained–until he realizes that the war he started is costing him more than he can ever gain.”
“I think you know that our fighting men there tonight bear the heaviest burden of all. With their lives they serve this nation, and we must give them nothing less than our full support–and we have given them that–nothing less than the determination that Americans have always given our fighting men. Even if is more than $5 a month, it is small compared to their own.”…
“For all the disorders that we must deal with, and all the frustrations that concern us, and all the anxieties that we are called upon to resolve, for all the issues we must face with the agony that attends them, let us remember that ‘those who reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.’ But let us also count not only our burdens but our blessings–for they are many. And let us give thanks to the One who governs us all. Let us draw encouragement from the signs of hope—for they too are many. Let us remember that we have been tested before and America has never been found wanting.
“So with your understanding, I would hope your confidence, and your support, we are going to persist–and we are going to succeed.”
Also Page 1: “Coalition Takes Control in the House”…”The 90th Congress opened today, and a coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats immediately took charge of the House of Representatives…”…Page 1: “U.S. Puts Off Raid on Railroad Yard in the Hanoi Area”…”The Administration has temporarily rescinded permission for a raid on a railroad yard near Hanoi. The action apparently was taken because of the controversy over whether American bombs had fallen on the North Vietnamese capital during previous attacks…Air Force planes struck the Yenvien railroad yard five miles northeast of Hanoi three times–December 4,13 and 14.” … Page 1: Harrison Salisbury: “Hanoi Inviting Westerners to Inspect Bomb Damage”…”The parade to North Vietnam has begun–not just merely newsmen or of Americans–but of Westerners of all kinds. The North Vietnamese Government has reached a momentous decision–to open its doors and invite the world to inspect the results of American bombing.” (As Salisbury was leaving after 10 days in Hanoi, two other correspondents were arriving, Harry Ashmore and William C. Baggs, to tour and interview Ho Chi Minh. Baggs book, “Mission to Hanoi” is a good read for Yankee Air Pirates and River Rats)… Page 1: “Thant Disagrees With U.S. Air War” and disputes the strategic value of Vietnam to the West. Declares the Domino Theory invalid.”…
11 JANUARY 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…NYT devoid of coverage of the air war in the North…”Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft losses in Southeast Asia on 11 January… oohrah…
RIPPLE SALVO… #312… GOTCHA: I have been corrected on my post of 7 January “The Seven Combat Cruises of USS ORISKANY” and CAGs 16 and 19. CAG-16 was embarked for cruises 1-3 and CAG-19 for cruises 4-7. I had it right in one place but not the other… thanks for the corrective guidance…
A Christmas and New Year greeting for sharing… VA-113 Stinger Paul Adams says it for all of us….
“Merry Christmas to my flying buddies…
“Never a Christmas morning, never an old year ends, but somebody somewhere thinks of the old, old times, old friends–and that is us. As the grandkids and great grandkids gather around the Christmas tree at our feet by a warm fire, raucous over their presents, a smile comes across our face–those old days, old times, and old friends return in ready rooms, IOICs, wardrooms, parties, bars, base housing around the world. We are a little bent and stooped, our gait a little slower and our hearing slighty impaired, but our memories are sharp–we can start, taxi,launch, climb, fly, find targets and come back aboard just like the old days–we are young again–what a life! Our memories and friends never leave us. The sky was the limit, we never had the same experience twice… we few, we happy few, we band of brothers…”
“Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your families.” Thanks for sharing Paul…
THE MILITARY CONFLICT INSTITUTE… http://www.military conflict.org/ Just getting started, I gather. Their first two essays have been published by the New York Times… Titles: “Vietnam: The War That Killed Trust” and “1967: The Era of Big Battles in Vietnam.” The series of essays is “VIETNAM ’67″… They state: “The legacy of the war still shapes America, even if most of us are too young to remember it.” Humble Host will keep you posted on any copy that tackles “the air war.”
CAG QUOTES for 10 January: GENERAL STONEWALL JACKSON: “Tell them this affair must hang in suspense no longer: sweep the field with bayonet.”…PATTON: In any war, a commander what his rank, has to send to certain death, nearly every day, by his own orders, a certain number of men.”… 11 January: THOMAS JEFERSON: “If you expect a nation to be ignorant, and free, you expect what never was and never will be.”… PATTON: “Any man with a heart would like to sit down and bawl like a baby, but he can’t. So he sticks out his jaw, and swaggers and swears.”…
Lest we forget… Bear….. -15-