RIPPLE SALVO… #618… ST. MARK 3:24/25… “And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand”… “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”….but first…
Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED EIGHTEEN of a daily look back of 50-years to the days and nights of Rolling Thunder–the air war with North Vietnam…
14 NOVEMBER 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a cold and cloudy Tuesday in New York city…
Page 1: “Japanese Pacifists Report 4 Deserted A U.S. Carrier in War Protest (Four column pix of the four)”… “…deserters from carrier Intrepid produced a statement distributed by Japan Peace For Vietnam Committee…deserted as a protest against the war in Vietnam. The four read their individual statements…seek political asylum in any country not engaged in war. Intrepid sailed from Yokosuka on October 24 and the search is on in Japan for the four deserters.”… Page 1: “House Rules Out $600-Million Cut In Poverty Bill–Defeats by 10-Votes Plan By Goodell For Authorization of $1.4-Billion For Year–Floor Fight Is Begun–Other G.O.P. Moves Beaten As Southerners Abstain”… “…defeated an amendment that would have cut President Johnson’s anti-poverty program.”... Page 1: “Israel Suggests Basis For A Role For Envoy of U.N.–Eban Tells U.N. Security Council A Special Aide Can Help But He Must Not Hinder Direct Talks–Jordan Issues A Warning–Hints Renewal of War If Israelis Bar Pullout of Occupied Territory and World Body Fails to Act”... “Israel withdrawal from occupied land remains the central Arab position.”… Page 1: “Bunker Sees the President–Predicts Saigon Gain in 1968″… Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker predicted today that the Saigon government would sharply increase its control of the South Vietnamese countryside next year…meeting this week with President will also include General Westmoreland.”… Page 2: “Joint Chiefs Said to Oppose Any Bombing Pause–Wheeler Reported To Have Presented Arguments of Leaders To President”… “…unanimously opposed to any bombing pause, even 24-hours, if it could be avoided… suspension of bombing will prolong the war…General Westmoreland on pause: ‘not too enthusiastic…”… Page 3: “Ho Chi Minh Postpones Accepting Lenin Medal”... “…’until Vietnam is liberated…my mind would not be at rest if I accepted the medal at a time when our armed forces and people are shedding their blood to fight off U.S. aggression and save the country.” …The Order of Lenin is the highest Soviet award.”…
Page 4: “G.I.’s Repulse North Vietnamese After a Sharp Clash Near Dakto in the Central Highlands”...”Nine paratroopers were killed and twenty-one wounded in the one night fight… The Fourth Infantry Division fighting east of Pleiku for the last eleven days reported losses of 88 Americans killed and 545 wounded…Marines fighting south of Quang Tri since October 20 report that 10 Marines have been killed and 70 wounded.”… Page 4: “G.I., Asia War Foe, Guilty of Balking–Refused to Go Vietnam“…. “Sentenced to 2 1/2 years of hard labor and a dishonorable discharge…violent confrontations between civilian spectators and military policemen marked day one of the trial… Page 5: “War Protest Leads to 580 Convictions”… “…as a result of antiwar last month (October 21-22) at the Pentagon, 683 were arrested and 51 are now serving 35-day jail term.”… Page 5: “Americans Killed In Vietnam Identified By Pentagon”...”97 killed in action …”… Page 20: “Republicans Offer Plan To End Draft”... “propose series of steps to end draft calls and make possible an all-volunteer armed forces within 2 to 5 years.”… “the proposal is contained in a new book by the House members which, they told news conference, is ‘the first effort to define systematically a specific program of action which can lead to an all-volunteer service and the elimination of draft calls.’ The book is entitled: ‘How to END the Draft.’ ”…
14 November 1967… The President’s Daily Brief…SOVIET UNION: Ambassador Thompson notes that during the Soviet anniversary celebration Brezhnev emerged more than ever as the “first among equals” in the leadership… As for Kosygin, he appeared tired and ill. The Moscow rumor mill says he has offered to retire…. SOUTH VIETNAM: A halt in bombing North Vietnam would not lead to talks with the National Liberation front, a Front spokesman said last week. Interviewed by a Japanese reporter in Moscow, Dang Cham-thi took the same line both Hanoi and the Front have taken in trying to draw a sharp distinction between the air war in the North and the guerrilla war in the South. To talk with the Front, Dang said, the US would have to accept the Front’s conditions.… NORTH VIETNAMESE Reflections of US Political Attitudes On The War... Hanoi broadcasts another recorded message from Stokely Carmichael to American Negro troops in South Vietnam. The statement was broadcast by Hanoi in English on 12 November, and is the third message from Carmichael to be presented by Hanoi since late October. Carmichael asserts that “black people” are fighting for “liberation” in the US and that Negroes should not fight in Vietnam…
14 NOVEMBER 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times: Devoid of air war coverage… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 14 November 1967…
(1) A U-10A Courier of the 5th ACS and 14th ACW out of Nha Trang hit a truck on takeoff from Cu Chi destroying the aircraft. Two in the Courier crew survived… no word on the truck driver.
RIPPLE SALVO… #618… Fifty years ago the citizens of our country were forced to take sides on the issue of the Vietnam war. Hawks and Doves. Escalate or Withdraw. Increase the reach and intensity of Rolling Thunder or knock it off or cut it back. More war, or, peace at any price. Guns or butter. Foreign war-fighting or Great Society. World policeman or America First. Serve or dodge.
At the same time the nation was immersed in the Civil Rights issues that erupted in the 1960s after burning below the surface for nearly 100-years. In 1967 the issues combined to divide the country into the camps and tribes with special interests that now define our not-so-great-society of 2017. For the last fifty years what divided us then has taken deep roots and grown great limbs reaching in all directions. Values, customs and mores have been altered to accommodate multiculturalism and political correctness. The consequence is rampant discord. Through it all, every American believes him or herself to be a patriot–“one who loves his or her country.” Well, almost everybody.
As President Johnson desperately tried to keep America unified in support of the Vietnam war, the forces aligned against the war and his policies and leadership grew and became a source of strength for our enemies in North Vietnam. America chose to fight a long, limited war. Unfortunately, the will of the American people –resolve– fell short in support of that strategy.
At the President’s request the CIA began to include in his daily briefs reports of American dissent that was being used by our enemies in Vietnam to buoy up morale over there. He added pleas for “unity” starting in October of 1967. His administration took up the cause. On 14 November 1967 Vice President Humphrey was on the stump for “unity.” NYT, Page 6. “Humphrey Appeals For War Support”…”…said Hanoi’s only hope to win the war is ‘division, despair and defeatism on the American home front.’ “… On 15 November the NYT ran the following editorial…
“THE PATRIOTISM OF DISSENT”…
“In the face of rising costs and diminishing returns in Vietnam, a rational debate over United States policy is, as Ambassador Arthur Goldberg recently observed, ‘inevitable, desirable and indeed essential.’
“Unfortunately, the Administration does not seem to view so calmly the role of dissent and discussion in formulating policy in a democratic society. Instead of listening to its critics, the administration often chooses to attack or at least to belittle them. Instead of seeking a dialogue, Washington officials have frequently intimated that those who oppose their Vietnam policy are not quite patriotic, or not quite bright.
“President Johnson appeared to pursue this line of thought over the weekend during a tour of military bases where he derided those who make Vietnam ‘a topic of cocktail parties, office arguments or debate from the comfort of some distant sidelines.’ He called on the nation to unite behind his ‘only course’ as ‘a family of patriots.’
“Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker picked up the theme with the familiar charge that domestic dissent ‘encourages the North Vietnamese to hold on.’ On the same day, Vice President Humphrey belabored dissenters and declared, ‘We can win the war in Vietnam with a clear signal from the American people in their action and their words.’
“The Administration by such statements insinuates that its critics are to blame for its own failures and that dissent borders on treason. This, as that wise old sometime-dissenter, Senator George Aiken of Vermont, has observed, as ‘hitting below the belt.’
“Does no one in the Administration realize that a citizen who honestly believes his country is headed on a disastrous course would be acting in a cowardly as well as unpatriotic manner if he did not try by all legal means to set his country right?”…
Unity. Oneness. For a nation to succeed, to survive, unity is paramount.
RTR Quote for 14 November: LONGFELLOW: Hiawatha: “All your strength is in your union, all your danger is in discord.”
Lest we forget…. Bear