RIPPLE SALVO… #923… SPHERES OF INFLUENCE… “IN THE FIELD OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS A SPHERE OF INFLUENCE (SOI) IS A SPECIAL REGION OR CONCEPT DIVISION OVER WHICH A STATE OR ORGANIZATION HAS A LEVEL OF CULTURAL, ECONOMIC, MILITARY, OR POLITICAL EXCLUSIVITY, ACCOMMODATING TO THE INTERESTS OF POWERS OUTSIDE THE BORDERS OF THE STATE THAT CONTROLS.” (Wikipedia)… On 13 September 1968 New York Times columnist James Reston wrote a piece “Spheres of Influence or Spheres of Domination” that makes as much sense now as it did 50 years ago when our tired old world was full of fighting, killing and suffering at the same level of pain as we are now, in 2018… The short Reston essay below… but first…
GOOD MORNING… Day NINE HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE of a 50-year-look-back at the air war that represented the principal offensive action of the American side of the Vietnam war… Very few knew it by it’s name: OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER. As a consequence, the 1965-1968 air campaign is little more than a footnote of history, which is a sad fate for such an heroically fought fight for freedom and to reduce the loss of life among our troops in the ground forces in South Vietnam…
HEAD LINES from The New York Times on Friday, 13 September 1968…
THE WAR: Page 1: “BATTLE RAGES AROUND TAYNINH–PLANES STRIKE FOES ON OUTSKIRTS–Thousands of Civilians Seek Safety at Headquarters of the Cao Dai Sect”… “Enemy troops dodged allied units on the outskirts of this provincial capital yesterday morning, but then struck in ambush of a truck convoy that touched off sharp but sporadic fighting the rest of the day. ‘For a while we thought he had withdrawn,’ Captain Alan Mayberry of El Paso, Texas, an advisor to South Vietnamese troops, said at dusk. ‘But now we’re finding out that he’s sprinkled all around. People are getting shot at all over the place.’ It was the second consecutive day of fighting around this palm-lined city, which has a population of 200,000 and lies 50 miles northwest of Saigon and 10 miles east of Cambodia…. South Vietnamese and American aircraft, meantime, struck back at the enemy on the city’s fringes with rockets, machine guns, and occasionally, bombs and napalm. Several blocks of homes on the west side of the city lay in ruins after the air attacks and enemy assaults. Thousands of civilians were huddles in the headquarters of the Cao Dai religious sect. They fled there carrying children, pigs, chickens and furniture. Late last night and early this morning enemy troops shelled an American artillery base two miles north of Tayninh. A spokesman said that enemy penetrated the northwestern perimeter of the base but was forced to evacuate in about 10 minutes… The decision to use air strikes was a sharp departure for allied military commanders in this area. (Humble Host notes: No bombing the North Vietnamese in their homes, but bombing them in South Vietnamese homes after they invade is ok… Why the worry about civilian death and destruction in the North if it was ongoing in the South? War is hell, why not make it so for both sides?)… Page 3: “FIGHTING NEAR CAMBODIA”… “American infantrymen battled a North Vietnamese force of about 1,500 men for 13 hours yesterday in the jungle eight miles from the Cambodia border….first reports from the battlefield, 75 miles north of Saigon, showed 113 enemy soldiers had been killed…. the Americans reported having lost 14 men dead and 60 wounded… Page 3:”American Losses Drop”… “American battlefield deaths in Vietnam decreased sharply last week–from 408 the previous week to 195. United States headquarters said today the number of Americans wounded in the week fell from 2,513 to 1,400. (Humble Host tally for the war 1961 to date= Killed in Action 27,704 and Wounded in Action 173,209)…
PEACE TALKS: Robert N. Ginsburgh of the National Security Council Staff visited the Peace Talks in Paris and made a one page summary report conveying his ideas on how to get stalled talks moving again. One idea included: “If they are worried about an intensification fo the war, a 7-10 day bombing campaign between 19 and 20 degrees might encourage them to talk faster.”…. oohrah… The 13 September report went to the President’s Special Assistant (Walt Rostow). Read at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d13
Page 1: “U.S. MAKES PUBLIC SECRET ORDERS TO PUEBLO”… “The State Department made public today secret instructions given to the intelligence ship Pueblo last January 5 to stay at least 13 miles off the North Korean coast. at a news conference in North Korea earlier today the North Koreans quoted from a captured ‘general order’ to United States vessels authorizing them to approach as close as three miles to the North Korean coast. The order was cited to support North Korea’s contention that the Pueblo had penetrated into the 12-mile limit claimed by North Korea when the vessel was seized January 23.”... Page 1: “HUMPHREY URGES SENATE ACT NOW ON NUCLEAR PACT–Sees Risk In Nixon Plan To Delay Approval Of Treaty To halt Weapon Spread”… Page 1: “DRUG STUDY FINDS COSTS EXCESSIVE BUREN ON AGED–U.S. Panel Also Criticizes Research, marketing and Prescription Practices”… Page 1: “Nixon Scores U.S. Method of Enforcing Integration of Schools”… Page 1: “BUDGET HEAD SEES RISE OF $7-BILLION–Zwick Implies Extension of Surtax Will Be needed–Calls War Real Question”… Page 8: “PEAK DEFENSE BILL IS VOTED BY HOUSE–$72.2Billion Measure Sent To Senate, 334 to 7″… Page 1: “PRESIDENT JOHNSON’S ROLE IN PRESIDENTIAL RACE DEFINED–Aide Distinguishes Policy Statement From Stand Taken By Humphrey”… Page 9: “Soviet Said To Cut U.S. Missile Lead–Institute In London Assays’s World’s Military Forces“… Page 16: “RHINOS AND ELEPHANTS ARE AMONG THE WAR VICTIMS IN SOUTH VIETNAM”…
13 SEPTEMBER 1968…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (14 Sept reporting 13 Sept ops) Page 3: “An Air Force F-105 on one of the 107 American missions over North Vietnam yesterday crashed north northwest of Dong Hoi, the spokesman said. The cause of the crash was not immediately determined, but the pilot was listed as missing. Returning pilots said that they had hit 36 supply boats, four trucks and two bridges.”… VIETNAM:AIR LOSSES (Chris Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 13 September 1968…
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES (KIA/MIA/POW) FOR THE FOUR 13 SEPTEMBER DATES OF THE FOUR YEARS OF THE OPERATION OVER NORTH VIETNAM…
1966, 1967, 1968… NONE…
1965… LTJG JOE R. MOSSMAN, USN… (KILLED IN ACTION, BODY NOT RECOVERED)… LTJG MOSSMAN was a pilot assigned to Attack Squadron 72 embarked in USS Independence. On 13 September 1965 he launched in an A-4E Skyhawk as the number four plane in a flight of four on an armed reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam. Only one month prior the A-4Es had been the first navy aircraft to be shot down by a Surface-to-Air-Missile (SAM)….The target area was near the city of Dong Hoi in Quang Binh Province, North Vietnam. While the flight was over the target area, LTJG MOSSMAN’s aircraft was hit by small arms fire. No ejection was observed or voice call heard. The aircraft crashed approximately 12 kilometers west of Dong Hoi, near Route 101. The wingman spotted what appeared to be a parachute amid the wreckage or the aircraft and an emergency radio beacon signal was heard. Search and Rescue (SAR) was initiated and the crash site was observed by a combat air patrol and other armed reconnaissance aircraft. However, no signs of survival were spotted. SAR efforts were terminated and LTJG MOSSMAN was reported as Missing in Action… When the POWs were released and almost 600 returned home in 1973, he was not among them and his status was changed to Killed in Ation, Body Not Recovered…
On 14 October 1982 the Vietnamese Government turned over to the U.S. LTJG MOSSMAN’s military ID card and Geneva Convention Card. Clearly the Vietnamese had information it could provide about the fate of LTJG MOSSMAN. During technical meeting in Hanoi with the U.S. Joint Casualty Resolutions Center and the Vietnamese in early December 1982 and again in September 1985, the U.S. gave the Vietnamese a ‘Negotiation Folder’ on LT MOSSMAN. No further information has been developed. His status remains: BB (Killed in Action, Body Not Recovered)…. LEFT BEHIND… The search continues…
Whether LT MOSSMAN died or survived to be taken prisoner that day in September 1965 will not be known for certain until there is proof positive of his death or survival. The U.S. and the Vietnamese have yet to solve the mystery of the MOSSMAN ID and Geneva Convention cards…
There are several remembrances left for Joe Russell Mossman at the VVMF, The Wall of Faces, one of which is from former Marine Brian Harris, who wrote: “I know this man’s son and daughter. When he was shot down we were 5 years old. I grew up, became a US Marine and went on to teach elementary school. Along the way I researched your story. I’ve learned enough to know that the North Vietnamese know what happened. A few years back I made a trip to Washington, DC, part of an annual summer routine. Last year I learned there is a stone above an empty grave at Arlington National Cemetery for Joe Russell Mossman. The stone is located close to the highest point… I placed the flag, rendered a crisp Marine salute then made the solemn promise, I will never surrender hope that we will bring his hero home. I will take full advantage of every opportunity presented to make that happen. When it does I will cut my hair, shave my face and don the appropriate Marine dress uniform rendering full military honors as he’s finally laid to rest beneath that stone.”…
Humble Host salutes Brian Harris, Marine…
RIPPLE SALVO… #923…NYT, 13-SEPT-68, Page 46, Opinion Editorial by James Reston:
“SPHERES OF INFLUENCE OR SPHERES OF DOMINATION”… I quote…
“In the American political dictionary, ceratin words and phrases have acquired a bad name. isolationism, power politics, balance of power, and spheres of influence are all supposed to be slightly villainous and obsolete, bu they keep coming back to the center of world politics.
“The reasons for this are fairly clear. The ‘good phrases,’ denoting noble concepts of human relations–one world, mutual security, brotherly love, etc.– are all in trouble. The efforts to establish Communism everywhere and the counter-efforts to fight Communism everywhere have failed, and the United Nations has not been able to reconcile the difference between the two. So we are talking again, especially since the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, about great powers ‘spheres of influence,’ and it is clear that there is still a lot of confusion and controversy about what the phrase means.
“In the simplest terms it means that a powerful nation demands special rights and influence in areas close to its borders, and that nno other powerful nation may establish a hostile military or political force in those areas. Thus the United States claimed a sphere of influence covering the entire Western Hemisphere under the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, and the Soviet Union demands a sphere of influence of its own in Eastern Europe.
“The invasion of Czechoslovakia, however, indicates a fundamental difference between the Soviet and the U.S. definition of a ‘sphere of influence.’ Both insist on keeping hostile military forces out of areas vital to their security, which is why President Kennedy risked a war with the U.S.S.R. to get the Soviet missiles out of Cuba, but Moscow is insisting not merely on a ‘sphere of influence’ in Czechoslovakia but a ‘sphere of domination.’
“In both cases, the big powers put their interests ahead of the interests or wishes of their smaller neighbors, but the Soviet Union insists on the right to do what it likes with the Prague Government, to dictate not only its form of government but its personnel, and even to limit or destroy its freedom of expression.
THE COMPROMISE…
“Accordingly, the ‘spheres of influence’ doctrine is being condemned all over again as a vicious doctrine, whereas it van be, properly defined, the best diplomatic formula we have in the present state of world affairs for working out bearable compromise between the giant states. for one thing, it is a device for keeping the great powers from getting into critical disputes in areas where one or the other feels it must risk war to defend its vital interests. It is not a fair doctrine for it puts small neighbors at a serious disadvantage with the giants., but it is a practical formula for minimizing the tensions between the nations that have the power to start a world war.
A TRUE ALTERNATIVE…
“‘Recognition of spheres of influence,’ Walter Lippmann wrote several year ago, ‘is a true alternative to globalism. It is the alternative to Communist globalism which proclaims a universal revolution. It is the alternative to anti-Communist globalism which promises to fight anti-Communist wars everywhere. The acceptance of spheres of influence has been the dominant foundation of the detente in Europe between the Soviet Union and the West. Eventually it will provide the formula of coexistence between Red China and the United States.’
“One advantage of the formula is that it helps force the great powers to define where their vital interests actually lie. Moscow thought it could extend its influence into the Caribbean in the Cuban missile experience, and failed. Washington thought it could define Vietnam as vital to its politics interests, and it is in deep trouble there as a result. This, in fact, is what makes the outlook for the American adventure in Vietnam so bleak and the American sacrifices there so dubious. For while China is still so weak that it cannot challenge American military power in Southeast Asia, it is gradually developing atomic weapons, and will certainly insist on its sphere of influence in that part of the world before many years, just as Washington insists on its sphere in this hemisphere and Moscow insists on a Communist sphere in Eastern Europe.
“In short, whether we like it or not, the world is coming back to power politics (what other kind is there?), to the balance of power, and to spheres of influence. It has never really departed from them. President Johnson has been accused of making a ‘deal’ with the Soviets permitting the invasion of Prague, which of course is not true. The trouble is not that Moscow and Washington have defined their spheres of influence, but they have not agreed on what a sphere of influence is and what a sphere of influence is and what it isn’t, of where their respective spheres lie, but this is probably coming in the next phase of U.S.-Soviet relations.”… End quote…
Humble Host concludes: IMHO…history is the teacher…how many times do we have to relearn the lesson that the “good words,” including, “globalism,” are nothing but trouble, and the “bad words,” are the ones that will serve the national interests of the United States most effectively. The paramount purpose of a nation is survival. The globe is a secondary concern. America first. Lippman, as liberal as they came, had it right coming out of WWII, and his guidance is holding steady for the 21st century…
RTR quote for 13 September: MAO TSE-TUNG, Principle of Operation #5: “Fight no battle unprepared, fight no battle you are not sure of winning; make every effort to be well prepared for each battle, make every effort to ensure victory in the given set of conditions as between the enemy and ourselves.”…
Lest we forget… Bear