RIPPLE SALVO… #556… To the Editor of The New York Times: Dated 10 September 1967: Subject: “The No-Win Policy in Vietnam”… “To commit men to battle while protecting their enemy in ‘privileged sanctuaries’ is not only suicidal folly, but is a treacherous betrayal of America’s gallant soldier sons.”…but first…
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED FIFTY-SIX of a return to the skies of North Vietnam and Operation Rolling Thunder…
13 September 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a fair Wednesday in New York City…
SUMMER IN AMERICA 1967: Page 1: “ROMNEY SEES NEED FOR A MAJOR EFFORT TO PREVENT RIOTING”... “Governor George Romney told a Presidential commission investigating urban riots today that an effort of historic proportions by public and private institutions and be necessary to prevent ‘greater bloodshed and possible destruction of the nation.”… He offered a general prescription based on a new understanding between the races and what he called a restoration of faith in America and the Constitution”… Page 1: “Seven Economists Advise Prompt Increase in Taxes”… “A group of economists, carefully chosen to represent all points of view, advised Congress today to ignore Current soft spots in the economy and approve a tax increase now. Without one there will be an inflationary boom and a renewed credit squeeze in 1968.”… Page 1: Lead Story: “More NYC Pupils Miss School–City Asks Court to Punish 3 Teachers’ Union Leaders–Parley Resumed–Talks Fruitful”... “More than half of New York’s million public school pupils stayed away from classes.”… Page 29: “Nixon Says U.S. Leadership Declines Under Johnson’s Policies”... ” Former Vice President Richard M. Nixon said yesterday in a New York speech that the Johnson Administration had allowed the ‘awesome power of the United States for world leadership to succumb to creeping obsolescence. Seldom has a nation been so mistrusted in its purposes and frustrated in its efforts.” Mr. Nixon was addressing the National Industrial Conference Board.”… Page 5: “Reagan Urges Escalation To Win the War Quickly”... “Governor Ronald Reagan called today for use of the full technological resources of the United State in escalating the war to win as quickly as possible… fighting a pro-longed foot soldier conflict was waging war on the enemy’s terms don’t use nukes–keep the enemy guessing…gradual vice ‘doing it all at once might have brought different results.”… Page 31: “John Lindsay Tells Senators of Peril In Limits on Welfare Assistance”... “…The proposed limits on Federal aid to local welfare and medical programs’ may have the ultimate effect of converting a deeply troubling situation into a thundering crisis. At a time where we have agreed that the problems of the urban community pose the greatest challenge to our domestic policies, we are in danger of striking at the very group most involved.”…
13 September 1967… The President’s TS and Eyes Only Daily CIA Brief… SOUTH VIETNAM: The senior generals are grappling with the Thieu-Ky rivalry. (the rest remains redacted after 50 years)… SOVIET UNION: The latest satellite photography spotted a Galosh missile cannister and prime mover at one of the anti-ballistic missile sites in Moscow, the first time we have seen this. It could mean that the site has a limited operational capability. at the present rate of progress, however, it will probably be at least 1970 before the entire Moscow system becomes fully operational….
Special Daily Report on North Vietnam for the President’s Eyes Only… North Vietnamese Reaction to Leaflet Drops: A North Vietnamese provincial journal early this month contained the admission that US leaflets dropped over the country are getting into the hands of the people. According to the article, however, the people gather up the leaflets and bring them to local police stations. The article praised a group of youngsters in the southernmost area of the country who had been active in picking up leaflets. It reported that the “unfactual” leaflets are “psywar goods” which instantly become “waste paper” and “are despised even by our children who are vigilant against the US psywar measures…. North Vietnamese prisoners and fisherman picked up along the coast, however, have reported that the leaflets as well air-dropped gift packages are sometimes well received, although the police and local security forces take firm measures to keep them from reaching the people. The vast number of leaflets dropped–1.5 million describing the election in South Vietnam alone–makes it virtually impossible for the regime to confiscate them all… Parachuted radios and other items are reaching the people…. The North Vietnamese press regularly reports cases of persons bringing radios to police or militiamen as well as festive bonfires in which toys, drugs and other items which are dropped are destroyed. The regime probably makes special efforts to round-up the radios, since …. redacted…foreign radio broadcasts–including those from Saigon and the Voice of America–are not jammed by the North Vietnamese,,,
(continued) Hanoi’s Leaders Urge Increased Use of “Womanpower” : The North Vietnamese leadership continues to try to get increased mileage out of the country’s underemployed womanpower. The regime has made special efforts to mobilize its entire population in support of war-related economic objectives ever since the bombings, and part of this job is trying to overcome the ingrained Vietnamese attitudes toward women, (large section redacted)… Although the size of North Vietnam’s manpower reserve is believed to be sufficiently large to support present needs, there are frequent press references to manpower difficulties. Such difficulties are believed to be the result of poor management and temporary mis-allocation of manpower rather any significant labor shortage, and the increased emphasis on the use of women is probably intended to relieve seasonal or temporary manpower shortages.
(continued) Repairs to Doumer Bridge coming slowly: Photography of 31 August revealed that repair work on the bridge–bombed on 11 August–had only recently gotten under way. Holes in undropped sections of the bridge have been filled, and a narrow span had been erected in the 250-foot bombed out section….
13 SEPTEMBER 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NYT (14 Sept reporting 13 Sept Ops)… Page 14: “Clouds Curtail Air Raids”... “Heavy clouds and rain prevented American warplanes from attacking the Hanoi-Haiphong area yesterday for the first time since August 18… Only 84 missions were flown against North Vietnam, the smallest number since July 3… One Air Force F-4 Phantom was shot down while on a photographic mission over the southern part of the demilitarized zone. It was the 204th plane shot down over the South. The two crewmen were rescued.
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 13 September 1967…
RIPPLE SALVO… #556… “A LETTER FOR THE AGES”… From the editorial pages of the NYT a letter dated 10 September 1967… Headline: “‘NO WIN’ POLICY IN VIETNAM’ … Elizabeth Lippitt of San Francisco wrote:
To the Editor:
“There are 87,000 wounded and 12,000 Americans dead, but the “Great Society’s” political generals continue their disastrous ‘no win’ policy in Vietnam.
“Deaf to the advice of every military expert, the ‘Great Society’s’ appease-Russia leaders refuse to mine or blockade Haiphong harbor and thus cut off North Vietnam’s supply of Russian rockets and missiles.
“American casualties mount, but three-quarters of enemy petroleum targets, enemy transportation networks, 90-per cent of North Vietnam’s industrial base, all seaports and two-thirds of North Vietnam’s air and Navy installations remain immune from American air attacks.
“To commit men to battle while protecting their enemy in ‘privileged sanctuaries’ is not only suicidal folly, but is a treacherous betrayal of America’s gallant soldier sons.”
Humble Host offers: Mothers are the wisest of all. They have the most to lose–their sons…
RTR QUOTE for 13 September: JEAN INGELOW, Songs of Seven: “To bear, to nurse, to rear, To watch and then to lose, To see my bright ones disappear, Drawn up like morning dews.”
Lest we forget… Bear