RIPPLE SALVO… #586…GENERAL NGUYEN VO GIAP PROVIDES AN APPRAISAL OF THE WAR AND AMERICAN DISCORD AT HOME…but first…
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED EIGHTY-SIX remembering the actors and action of the air war with North Vietnam fought fifty years ago called Operation Rolling Thunder in classified circles, otherwise, it was called “the air war.”…..
13 OCTOBER 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a sunny and cool Friday in NYC…
Page 1: “CARDS WIN WORLD SERIES BY TAKING SEVENTH GAME, 7-2″… “On the strength of record performances of Bob Gibson and Lou Brock the St. Louis Cardinals emerged today as champions of the baseball cosmos by winning the seventh and deciding game of the 64th World Series, 7-2. Gibson’s pitching and Brock’s hitting and base running proved to be too much for the exuberant Red Sox who carried their unheralded dreams down to the last day of a dramatic season. The Cardinals, who had the National League pennant by a wide margin, were heavily favored to win the series and seemed to have it wrapped up when then they took a 3 to 1 game lead into the fifth game… the Red Sox took games five and six and had the home field for the final showdown that was won by the Cards….Gibson pitched a three-hitter striking out ten for his third complete game victory of the series, thereby adding several lines to the record books. He also hit a home run and won the sports car awarded by Sports Magazine to the outstanding player of the World Series. But Brock was no less important. He stole three more bases today, for a total of seven, breaking a record that had stood for 58 years. His two hits in game 7 gave him a batting average of .411 for the series.”… Page 1: “Rusk Says Stake in Vietnam war Is U.S. Security–China Peril Cited–‘Mortal Danger’ Seen If Nation Reneges On Asian Pacts”… Page 1: “Soviet Broadens Military Draft–High School Boys Will Get Training–U.S. Blamed for Greater Defense Need”… “The new requirement is coupled with one year reduction in compulsory service.”... Page 1: “U.N. May Put Off Mideast Debate–Move Develops to Postpone General Assembly Action as Hopes Rise for Steps in Security Council”… Page 1: “47 Safety Rules For Autos Added–10 New Standards Sought By Government By 1969–Infant Protection Asked”… Page 2: “Rickover is Asked to Stay in Navy–Controversial Admiral Wins a 4th 2-Year Extension”…“with understanding that Admiral will groom a successor.”… Page 3: “Joan Baez and Others Sue for Refunds of War Taxes”... “…sues for refund of $37K of her $61K 1965 taxes.”…
Page 15: “Senator James O. Eastland Calls Peace Rally A Test Of Government Stand... “Senator from Mississippi says the massive anti-war rally on October 21 is designed to test how much the Government will resist such demonstrations…is designed to penetrate the Pentagon and House and Senate office buildings. Senator also says should expect attacks on American Consulates and Embassies around the world.”… Page 2 (14 Oct): “Adm. Sharp Urges Continued Bombing”... “The Commander-in-Chief of American forces in the Pacific called today for continued bombing of strategic targets in North Vietnam, including the port of Haiphong. Admiral U.S. Grant Sharp, visiting the United States Naval Academy here in Annapolis, said a bombing pause would be ‘harmful to our total military effort.’ He did not say whether he thought a pause would bring North Vietnam to the conference table. Admiral Sharp said he did not believe that the recent bombing of previously immune targets indicated an escalation of the war. ‘As time goes on we hit new targets,’ he said.”…
13 OCTOBER 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (14 Oct reporting 13 Oct ops) Page 1: “Clouds Hamper Air Strikes”… “Heavy clouds continued to shield much of the strategically important center of North Vietnam from American bombers. Air Force Thunderchief jets pushed into the heavily defended triangle north of Hanoi, a military spokesman said, to strike the MIG base at Kep and the barracks and storage area at Kepha. For the most part, though the poor weather forced the planes to strike at alternate targets in the Panhandle area to the south. First reports by returning pilots that craters at the Kep base, which is 38 miles northeast of Hanoi. Two antiaircraft sites were said to have been destroyed. The field has been hit at least 20 times since the first raid against it in April and it is believed to be operating little if at all.
“A total of 143 raids were flown against the North yesterday, the spokesman said. The main thrust was directed against five targets around the port city of Haiphong. Two shipyards, which had been hit previously, were reported to have been heavily damaged in attacks by Navy aircraft from the carriers Constellation, Intrepid and Oriskany. The yards, both less than two miles from the center of Haiphong, at the mouth of the Red River, were said to account for a total of 8 per cent of North Vietnam’s repair capacity for barges and small coastal shipping. Pilots reported direct hits on the drydock at the Thuongly yard. They were quoted as saying that a pall of smoke billowed to 6,000 feet from fires set by their bombs. The airfield at Catbi, four miles southwest of the city, and army barracks three miles to the south and the Ubong power plant 15 miles to the northeast were hit in night raids by A-6 Intruders from the Constellation. The United States command made no mention of plane losses over the North, but it did report the earlier downing of two American planes. The number of planes lost over North Vietnam thus rose to 697.
“B-52 bombers continued to pound suspected targets in the demilitarized zone north of the Marine outposts. The heavy bombers also struck at what was described as a possible surface-to-air missile site in the North Vietnamese section of the zone. Marine fighter-bombers supported the northern outposts with 40 air strikes and pilots reported destroying two highway bridges 11 and 22 miles north of Conthien.”…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 13 October 1967…
(1) LCOL EDISON WAINWRIGHT MILLER, USMC, CO VMFA-323, and 1LT JAMES HOWIE WARNER, USMC were flying an F-4B of the VMFA-323 Death Rattlers and MAG-13 out of Chu Lai diverted from an armed recce mission to attack a lucrative target–two tracked vehicles just north of the DMZ. LCOL MILLER’s Phantom was hit by 37mm AAA recovering from his first attack. Unable to make it to the sea before the aircraft was uncontrollable, the two Marine aviators ejected inland over the buffer zone. Both were captured and imprisoned for the duration of the war. LCOL MILLER was released in February 1973 and 1LT WARNER was released in March 1973… The conduct of LCOL MILLER as an American POW is a matter of record not discussed here…
(Webmaster note: A numner of fellow Vietnam POWs consider the behavior of LCOL Miller while interned to have been both treasonous and treacherous. Readers can do their own research and draw their own conclusions. Miller passed away on 9 November 2021)
RIPPLE SALVO… #586… Two items: (1) NYT Editorial “McNamara and the Bombing,” and (2) NYT report by Hedrick Smith, “Pacification Foiled, General Giap Declares.”
Ripple Salvo #585 posted the lengthy article on the testimony of Secretary Defense McNamara. the editorial Board of the NYT took it from there: “McNamara and the Bomb”…
“The predominant impression conveyed by Secretary McNamara in his testimony before the Senate Preparedness Subcommittee, which has just been released, is his dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of the bombing of North Vietnam. This dissatisfaction evidently reached such proportions last spring that the Secretary of Defense called on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and General Westmoreland to consider limitation of the bombing largely to the southern half of North Vietnam.
“The counterattack by the military and the hardliners of the Senate was successful. President Johnson added targets to the bombing list, including some disapproved by his Secretary of Defense, even before the hearings had started. That process has continued since, bringing the bombing of such targets as Haiphong city, the port of Campha, several of the jet airfields and points close to the China border.
“Mr. McNamara told the Stennis subcommittee that the bombing cannot slow down either the flow of Communist military supplies into North Vietnam of North Vietnam’s support of Communist action in the South. Equally important, he expressed doubt that reduction of the bombing, as claimed by some of the generals, would bring a marked increase in American casualties in South Vietnam. Nor does Mr. McNamara believe that any bombing short of extermination of North Vietnam’s population–which none of the Generals or Senators is advocating–would break Hanoi’s will or force it into a negotiated surrender.
“The defense he made of Administration policy hinges entirely on the argument that the bombing makes North Vietnam suffer some pain for continuing the war. The pain is not decisive, Mr. McNamara admits, but he contends that a price should be paid by Hanoi to have it lifted. It is not a very convincing argument at a time when there is good reason to believe that it is the bombing, rather than its curtailment, that may be increasing American casualties–by blocking negotiations that might slow down the fighting and even bring an end to hostilities.
“North Vietnam’s important economic losses under the bombing are being replaced by Russia and China. The diversion of labor to repair of bridges, railways and other damage is no great drain on an Asian agricultural society with vast underemployment.
“All in all, Mr. McNamara’s effort to reconcile the facts about the bombing with the Administration’s theories merely demonstrates that its suspension could advance the peace, and certainly could not hamper the war.”
(2) NYT, 9 Oct 1967, “Pacification Foiled, General Giap Declares,” by Hedrick Smith…
“North Vietnam’s leading military strategist says that the vital allied program for winning control of the South Vietnamese countryside has been foiled because the United States has been forced to scatter its troops’
“In North Vietnam’s newest appraisal of the war, Gen. Nguyen Vo Giap, the Minister of Defense, emphasizes what he describes as American frustration on the battlefield and domestic political discord.
“But American officials also noted that his analysis spoke only of hopes for a Communist victory and said that the quality of the war efforts against United States forces must be improving.
“General Giap, the military mastermind of the 1954 victory over France by the Communist supported Vietnam, presented Hanoi’ evaluation of the last two years of fighting in the armed forces newspaper, Quang Doi Nhan Dan. His 25,000 word article was printed in the issues of September 14-16; translations have just become available here.
“American analysis found his writing sober and cautious compared with North Vietnamese assessments last spring and summer, which had a more strident, confident tone. General Giap said that the United States sought to capitalize on larger numbers of troops and superior firepower and mobility to produce quick results. He asserted that Hanoi’s best strategy was to wear down American morale, patience and determination through a tiring protracted war.
“He suggested that the American position was stalemated on all fronts and President Johnson faced two alternatives: either to expand the ground war into North Vietnam or continue slowly increasing the present pressure with limited reinforcements. General Giap seemed to discount the likelihood of an invasion of North Vietnam. ‘As of now, they have not finished making preparations for a new world war,’ he said. But he warned of the dangers of such a step. ‘If they expand the war to the North, the war would become more complex because attacking the mainland of a member country of the Socialist camp,’ he declared. ‘In this enlarged war, the U.S. would face incalculable and serious consequences.’
“He appeared to be hinting that North Vietnam might call on other Communist countries for military volunteers, a step that North Vietnam’s leaders have so far refrained from taking. American officials said today that so far neither Communist China nor the Soviet Union had clearly and explicitly declared that they would respond militarily to an American ground incursion into North Vietnam.
“Some United States officials fear that such a move would bring Soviet or Chinese intervention unlikely unless allied forces moved into the densely populated heartland of North Vietnam, the Red River valley that includes Hanoi and Haiphong. General Giap said that an invasion would have other drawbacks for the United States. ‘Attacking the North means opening another large battlefield,’ he said. ‘The United States imperialists forces would become more scattered and would be annihilated more easily.’
“He contended that American commanders had been dealt a strategic setback by intensified attacks against the Marine divisions in Quangtri and Thuathien, the northernmost provinces in Vietnam. ‘The Marines are being stretched as taut as a bowstring,’ he declared.
“Because of this he concluded, either American units had to be transferred to this battle zone, drawing them away from the task of gaining control over rural villages (pacification) in other regions. His commentary dealt with both the ground war in the South and the air and sea war in the North Vietnam. It was presumably addressed in both Vietcong and North Vietnamese units though he did not acknowledge directly that North Vietnam’s regulars were fighting in South Vietnam.
“He returned again and again to the theme that the United States was deadlocked and that further reinforcements would not help the allies regain momentum. ‘Even if they increase their troops by another 50,000, 100,000 or more, they cannot extricate themselves from their comprehensive stalemate in the southern part of our country.’
“The presence of more Americans, he added, would hurt the Saigon regime. ‘The more the war is Americanized,’ he said, ‘the more disintegrated the puppet Saigon army and administration become.’ General Giap called opposition to the war in the United States a ‘valuable mark of sympathy.’ He also asserted that the Johnson Administration was ‘disastrously isolated internationally and that the pressure of civil rights militants at home increased its vulnerability. “But the decisive factor, he said, is ‘our efforts to turn the balance of forces more and more in our favor on the Vietnam battlefield.” “…
RTR QUOTE for 13 October: SAMUEL JOHNSON: “We may take Fancy for a companion, but must follow Reason as our guide.”…
Lest we forget…. Bear