RIPPLE SALVO… #435… The price of “miscalculation,” a timeless bit of wisdom that was as true in 1967 as it is in 2017…but first…
Good Morning: Day FOUR HUNDRED FORTY-FIVE of a re-telling of the Rolling Thunder story…
14 May 1967…HEAD LINES and notes from The New York Times on a cloudy Sunday with rain likely in NYC…
Page 1: “70,000 Turnout To Back U.S. Men In Vietnam War; Crowds on 5th Avenue Three Deep”… “In a forest of American flags more than 70,000 men, women and children stirred by martial music and their desire to support the nation’s soldiers in Vietnam, stepped briskly down Fifth Avenue in a parade that lasted more than eight and a half hours yesterday… (Big picture on page 1) oohrah!!!
Page 1: “U.S. Says Incident With Soviet Ships Is a Closed Session”… the Soviet Union and the United States exchanged notes of protest.”… Page 2: “GOP Leaders Oppose A Wider Role In Vietnam’s Other War”… “Republicans who have generally supported President Johnson’s military policy in Vietnam are adopting positions that could be the basis for strong dissent in the 1968 elections if American involvement continues to intensify. The GOP concerns include the Americanization of South Vietnam’s war and the intensification of the bombing of the North.”… Page 1: “Church of Greece Names New Head; Katsonis, Chaplain To King and Choice of Junta, is selected as Primate…The choice of Katsonis is likely to be well received”… Page 2: “Pentagon Restricts Notification of Combat Wounds to Families of Minor Wounded”… “The Defense Department has established an across-the-board policy that provide that a minor wound will not be notified unless the serviceman asks for such notification. The notification of next of kin in deaths and serious wounds remains mandatory.”… Page 5: “News Executives Deplore Bombing”... “Executives of seven leading newspapers in five countries attending a conference in Japan this week criticized the bombing of North Vietnam. They did so in individual statements. Considerable sympathy for the United States position in Vietnam also appeared in the individual expressions in the sessions. The conference did not include any kind of joint expression or conclusion.”… Page 9: “Ky Warns of Fight If Red Wins The Vote”… “Premier Nguyen Cao Ky, who has announced that he is running for the Presidency of South Vietnam said today that he might respond ‘militarily’ if a civilian whose policies he disagrees with won the post…’If he is a Communist or even a neutralist, I am going to fight him militarily.”… “Civilian Casualty Study”… Investigation into civilian casualties in South Vietnam published a report with the following figures and words included… In 1965 there were an average 1,566 war related casualties hospitalized out of 37,600 total patients. In January 1967 these numbers were 2,500 out of 33,500, February 3,920 out of 34,050 and March 4,200 out of 44,000. A member of the civilian study group said: “Somehow the American public doesn’t want to realize that civilians are getting killed here. As if there was ever a war in recent times when the innocent didn’t pay.”
Random Headlines: “Maoists Concede Reliance on Army”…”Israel To Mark 17th Birthday In a Mood of Sober Optimism”… “Record Harvest of Wheat is Seen For U.S.”…
Editorial Page: “A House Divided Cannot Stand”… “Lyndon Johnson peered out through the smokey haze of the ballroom of the Washington Hilton at 2,800 of the party faithful and hopeful, who paid $250 a plate to have dinner with last week…and said: “I’m glad to see so many unarmed Democrats in one room,’ the President said, and laughter began to ripple through the huge oval ballroom. ‘We Democrats like to be together and we like to fight. We start out by fighting each other. That gets us ready–it says here–to take on the other party–together.”
14 MAY 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (15 May reporting 14 May ops)… Page 1: “3 MIG Defenders Shot Down By U.S. Over Hanoi area–Total Count in Two Days is 10– Air Force Hits Missile Base Near Buffer Zone–Large Fires Reported; Suspected Site Nearby is Also Attacked to Thwart Peril to B-52s”…
“American pilots reported shooting down three MIGs in dogfights near Hanoi today (14th) for a total of 10 in the last two days. Phantom jets from Danang Air Bse in South Vietnam downed three Soviet-built jet fighters while protecting Thunderchief fighter-bombers making attacks against the Hadong army barrcks four miles southwest of Hanoi.
“One Air Force Thunderchief was shot down. The pilot was rescued (Major G.R. Wilson, rescued, see Hobson below).
“Pilots reported seeing the MIGs rising from a nearby airfield (Phucyen?). The clashes occurred at 4 to 5,000-feet 49 miles southwest of the North Vietnamese capital. Yesterday (13th) Air Force pilots flying from bases in Thailand reported downing seven MIG-17s and damaging two. Today’s action raised to 59 the count on MIGs down over North Vietnam. (Picture Page 1: Saigon Airport: Major William F Kirk, pilot of F-4c and 1LT Stephen A. Wayne, radar operator and LCOL Philip Gast, pilot of F-105 Thunderchief. MIG killers)
“Further south Air Force bombers knocked out a surface-to-air missile site 16 miles north of the demilitarized zone. The site is a few miles from a similar installation destroyed two weeks ago…pilots bombed in waves today, touching off several large explosions, apparently from fuel. One missile launcher, several missile transporter trucks and equipment vans were destroyed in the attack.
“The aggressiveness of the MIG fighters in recent days would indicate that attack against three of the six MIG bases in North Vietnam have not seriously hampered Hanoi’ air defenses. The Phucyen base 14 miles north of Hanoi is one of those that has not been bombed. It is considered particularly important because most of North Vietnam’s MIG-21s are based there. Lieutenant Philip C. Gast, Commander of the 354th Tactical Fighter Squadron, and a 13 May MIG killer, said he has flown over Phucyen often. “I know the flight pattern better than I do my own base.’ “…
“A Marine Skyhawk was shot down by antiaircraft fire supporting ground operations five miles north of Dong Ha, 15 miles south of the buffer zone. (Captain G.R. Romano, USMC, VMA-121, Rescued) see RTR for 13 May…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There were four fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 14 May 1967…
(1) LCDR CHARLES EVERETT SOUTHWICK and LT DAVID JOHN ROLLINS were flying an F-4B of the VF-114 Aardvarks embarked in USS Kitty Hawk as flak suppressors for a strike on the Thanh Hoa bridge. They attacked a firing AAA site with Zuni rockets that apparently flames their Phantom out as they were fired. Unable to get a restart both aviators ejected, were captured immediately and interned as POWs for the duration of the war. The F-4B crashed in a flat attitude on a mud and sandbar in very good condition and became a story unto itself. The hulk remains on display in Hanoi… LCDR SOUTHWICK and LT ROLLINS returned home in March 1973…
(2) MAJOR G.R. WILSON was flying an F-105D of the 13th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat on a major strike on the barracks at Hadong. As MAJOR WILSON began his attack from 12,000-feet he was hit in the port wing by shrapnel from an exploding SA-2. He was able to fly the damaged Thunderchief 70 miles toward home before having to eject over Laos. He was rescued to fly and fight again…
(3) CAPTAIN S.R. WINBORN was flying an F-100D of the 3rd TFW out of Bien Hoa on a strike on Vietcong position on the bans of the Mekong River at Ap An Diem. On his ninth strafing pass he was hit by small arms fire and headed for home– the aircraft became uncontrollable seven miles short, he ejected and was rescued to fly and fight again…
(4) An F-104C of the 435th TFS and 8th TFW out of Udorn suffered an engine failure on an armed reconnaissance mission and crashed in Thailand. The pilot ejected and was rescued to transition to F-4 Phantoms…this was the ninth and last F-104 lost in the war after recording 2,239 combat sorties…
RIPPLE SALVO… #435… New York Times lead editorial on 14 May 1967 follows. It is one for the ages, including 14 May 2017… “TOWARD THE BRINK”… I quote:
“President Kennedy used to say that all recent wars, and especially World Wars I and II seemed to him to have resulted from grevious miscalculations by one or more of the beligerents. Thus the greater the crisis, he felt, the greater the need for communication among the antagonists, the need for each to be absolutely certain of the mood and vital interests of the other.
“Korea was his favorite example because he was convinced that North Korea invaded South Korea in the mistaken belief that the United States would not respond, and that later in the war the armies of the United Nations marched into North Korea equally mistaken in their calculation that Communist China would not respond.
“The lessons of Korea have plainly not been forgotten by any of the nations waging and watching the war in Vietnam. But many men have wondered whether the lessons have really been learned. Last week, Secretary General Thant of the United Nations wondered aloud, and in ominous tones,
‘In my view if the present trend continues,’ he said, ‘I am afraid direct confrontation first of all between Washington and Peking is inevitable. I hope I am wrong. I am afraid we are witnessing today the initial phase of World War III.’
“Miscalculation, by definition, is beyond rational prediction and the ‘inevitability’ of anything in history is beyond both rational proof and challenge. Mr. Thant seemed to be expressing more of a fear than a prophecy, and his fear seemed to be that the United States would continue to heighten the pressure against North Vietnam, that Communist China would intervene before that pressure became unbearable, that the United state would then wage war against Communist China, and that the Soviet Union would then feel compelled to honor its frayed but still legally valid mutual defense pact with Peking. Ergo, World War III….
“Miscalculation, therefore remains an obvious danger–one that President Johnson himself has often recognized. Last week in fact, he was disclosed to have told his daughter Luci one night last summer, as the first raids on Hanoi and Haiphong were on the wing, that if a Soviet ship were accidentally bombed it could well lead to World War III. The question tossed back to Mr. Thant by Washington officials, nevertheless was whether he can best help avert miscalculation by not making his kind of historical and prophetic exaggerations.”
Americans are destined to be forever moving toward the brink of war because “only the dead have seen the end of war.” Therefore, in time of peace, while moving toward, or living on, the brink, our nation must be prepared for war and respect the catastrophe that awaits a miscalculation. The JFK answer to minimizing the odds of a miscalculation was communication and “to be absolutely certain of the mood and vital interests” of our potential and real enemies… I hope our flailing leadership understands the price to be paid for “a grevious miscalculation” in our present circumstances…
Lest we forget… Bear