RIPPLE SALVO… #76 … A PAUSE, SORT OF…. but first...
Good Morning: Day SEVENTY-SIX of a remembrance of Operation Rolling Thunder…
14 MAY 1966 (NYT)… ON THE HOME FRONT…Cloudy and rainy Saturday in New York City…
Page 1: “150 At City College (of New York) Take Over Building In Protest On Draft”… as part of a nationwide protest against participation in the Selective Service process. “The student demonstrators who decided in the evening to spend the night in the building contend that the college should not release students standings to local draft boards as a part of a system of eligibility for the draft.” The protest was a nationwide demonstration with student participation at more than 1200 sites where students in the lower half of their respective class standing were taking the test to determine eligibility for the draft. At the University of Chicago 350 protestors participated during the test day… Page 1: (Doctor Timothy O.)”Leary Sees Crisis In The Use Of LSD”… He provided testimony at a Senate Sub -Committee hearing on juvenile delinquency and estimated that one third of college students were experimenting with LSD and use of hallucinatory drug is out of control. He state that: “LSD has an eerie power to release ancient energies from the human brain. I would say even sacred energies.” Senator Edward Kennedy ask an unanswered question: “What is going to happen to these boys that are using LSD?”… Page 6: “Capital Wary On Peking Charge On Downing MIG”… State Department silent on response to Communist China press release: “The day will come when U.S. imperialism, since it persists in pursuing a policy of aggression and war, will be led to the scaffold by the people of China and whole world.”
Page 4: “March Tomorrow (Sunday) To Ask War’s End”… “Thousands expected to join a march and protest in Washington that will be led by the “National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy” and the “Women’s Strike for Peace.” The march will start and end at the Washington Monument on the Mall and proceed on 17th to the White House. The rally on the Mall will be addressed by: Reverend Daniel Berrigan, Doctor Benjamin Spock, Socialist Norman Thomas, and cartoonist Jules Feiffer, among others.” The purpose is to accelerate the awareness of the issues in the Vietnamese war.
Page 8: “Curbs On Air War Vex U.S. Officers”… “Senior United States Air Force officers here in Saigon have been disheartened by the restrictions placed on their conduct of the air war over Vietnam.” The complaints center on bombing of trails and roads versus attacks on the industrial capacity, major bridges, dams and the airfields at Phuc Yen, Gia Lam, Cat bi, and Kep. The senior pilots also complain about the lingering shortage of bombs. The long report was written by the NYT’s reporter R.W. Apple, who was a long serving observer in southeast Asia. He quoted one senior F-105D pilot: ” I’ve never seen a war where Washington muddled so much. They want us to do the job but they don’t want to give us the latitude to do it. I sometimes feel guilty about sending pilots out there, knowing that I haven’t doneall I could to bring them back alive.”
OPED page: “Testing For the Draft”…The need for a fundamental reappraisal of Selective Service procedures is put in sharp focus as several hundred thousand students across the country take this first draft deferment tests today. As long as the present deferment system remains in force the use of these test is preferable to reliance on college grades and class standing….Nationally sound reform lies in the direction of universal national service, with initial options to serve either in the armed forces, the Peace Corps, the National Teachers Corps or a variety of domestic urban and rural missions.”
Page 8: “U.S. Lost 347 Planes”… Total losses in the air war were put at 347 with 104 lost between January 1961 and January 1965 with 243 lost between February 1965 and 14 May 1966. All losses are due to ground fire, including surface-to-air missiles, with two lost to MIGs. “American authorities decline to say how many fliers have been killed or captured in the North. Rescue craft have saved dozens of down crewmen. Unofficially, through the last seven months of the campaign, 90 aircraft and 64 men have been lost in the air war over the North…”
14 MAY 1966…ROLLING THUNDER OPERATIONS… Air Force and Navy planes flew 82 missions on the 14th compared with 135 on May 14th. Carriers Enterprise and Kitty hawk struck a variety of targets but the usual briefings provided on specifics. One F-4 Phantom was lost on the 12th to ground fire, possibly a SAM, near Dong Hoi… USS Hancock lost an A-1J on a deck launch. The Spad crashed into the sea near the carrier and the pilot was rescued by helicopter.
RIPPLE SALVO… A BOMBING PAUSE, but not a flying pause… On 13 May the President gave a public speech that avoided any reference to bombing pause but did use the opportunity send a message to North Vietnam that reiterated America’s readiness to come to a negotiation table. What he didn’t say was the United States planned and executed a five day effort to “turn the other cheek” and show Ho Chi Minh and the North what a reduction in American offensive action would be like. The strategy was to go full bore on photo and “eyeball” reconnaissance in combination with leaflet drops as close to Hanoi as Nam Dinh, 50 miles south of Hanoi. This comported with a concentrated diplomatic effort, including a message delivered to Hanoi that expressed the hope that this relaxation would lead to a reduction of offensive opertions on both sides. When the Soviets refused to have this message delivered to Hanoi, it was routed to Hanoi via the British Counsel in Hong Kong. The President was trying. Of course, the F-105 senior aviator who was talking to R. W. Apple and all the other operators dedicated to winning the war by killing the enemy (see above) were perplexed and upset by a bombing schedule turned to a picture taking, leaflet dropping few days of good weather. What all the pictures showed was an increase in North Vietnam trucks and WBLCs headed South. North Vietnam delivered their answer by pedal to the medal. Here is what Jacob Van Staaveren wrote of the five day pause in “Gradual Failure’: …”Meanwhile the Air Force and the Navy had launched the special reconnaissance effort, and in the ensuing five days flew about eighty-five photo missions. Unfortunately, much of the photography was wasted as the volume quickly exceeded the capability of personnel to process and interpret the film. Air Force F-105 pilots flew 175 additional visual (“eyeball”) sorties and the Navy about 36. On May 16, (Admiral) Sharp advised the Joint Chiefs that while much of the data was valuable, it was becoming repetitive. He urged a quick resumption of the bombing to prevent Hanoi from gaining further advantage from the halt.”
“Gradual Failure” continued (page 135)…”As the President expected, Hanoi’s reaction to the bombing halt and negotiating initiative was negative. The notes sent to the government were returned unopened. The DRV’s new media characterized the American offer as ‘an old trick of deceit and a threat’ and charged the President with imposing ‘arrogant conditions.’ The Foreign Ministry insisted that its four-point peace program, made public on April 13, 1965, was the only sound basis for a settlement of the Vietnam problem. Peking likewise denounced the offer and alleged that there had been no bombing pause. In Washington, a State Department spokesman decried Hanoi’s lack of proper response to the bombing halt, and President Johnson concluded that he had opened the door to negotiations, only to have Hanoi slam it shut. After five days, the Rolling Thunder strikes were resumed.”
What a great opportunity to launch the equivalent of Linebacker I and II, including the mining of the harbors of North Vietnam, no notice, was missed at this point: May 1966. Fortune favors the bold. Oh, you say,”… but that would have drawn China into the war.”… Here is a short paragraph from the President’s Daily Briefing on 20 May 1966 : (TS sanitized) “Communist China. Signs are growing that a behind the scenes power struggle among Chinese leaders is under way.” Old Chinese saying…”Out of chaos comes opportunity.”
Lest we forget…. Bear …. –30– ….