RIPPLE SALVO… #953… 14 OCTOBER 1968 GENERATED MORE HISTORICAL DOCUMENTATION CONCERNING OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER THAN ANY OTHER TO DATE. Humble Host will limit this post to the six State Department, Office of the Historian, Historical Documents, Foreign Affairs, Vietnam, 1964-68, Volume 7 documents dated 14 October 1968. A total of 18 pages of notes are introduced and summarized for your perusal in lieu of the usual RTR format. But, make no mistake, this post is 100% Operation Rolling Thunder. The following documents record the several exchanges of views and the final meeting of many minds to persuade the President a reasonable deal has been negotiated to compensate for the cessation of the bombing of North Vietnam. This series of documents is a lesson in political science and the conduct of international affairs…
The six State Department documents are in sequence and access to the first, Document 65, provides immediate and easy access to the other five. Just mouse the small forward chevron in the far right margin of one document to move on.
Document 65. Telegram From the Department of State (Rusk) to the Embassy in France (Harriman and Vance eyes only). The State Department has wordsmithed a specific message for Harriman to deliver to the NVN delegation, and supplemental instructions that spell out the conditions the NVN must meet in order for the U.S. to proceed with meaningful negotiations. In essence, the US gives up bombing the North if the North (DRV) agrees to seating of the South Vietnamese and NLF: backing off use and penetration of the DMZ; and stops shelling across the DMZ and the cities of South Vietnam. Read at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d65
Document 66. Telegram From the State Department (Rusk) to the Embassy in France Harriman)… Rusk asks Harriman/Vance to comment on an exchange of telegrams between Walt Rostow for the President and ambassador Bunker and General Abrams. Rostow to Bunkier and Abrams: “You should know that one of the main concerns of the President at the moment is tht we examine with utmost care the loop holes and contigencies in the deal we are considering to make sure it is as copper-plated as we an make it.” Rostow then lists the President’s concerns. Telegram from Bunker and Abrams to Rostow: “We have examined the latest moves of Hanoi and the Russians from every conceivable point of view. We have taken another look as you requested, including the four concerns of the President.” Very detailed input of three pages follows. All very interesting stuff…. Read at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d66
Document 67. Draft Notes of Meeting dated 14 Oct that was held in the Cabinet Room in the White House at 9:40a.m. These notes cover the first 20 minutes of a series of three sets of notes covering the day long meetings. President, Rusk, Clifford, Wheeler, Helms, Gen. Taylor, Rostow… President picks brains of his Wise Men…Example: “Suppose they do accept the GVN ( Thieu) at the Paris meeting, and nothing happens in a month or for several weeks? What if we have a stalemate in the talks? What do we do then?”… Read at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d67
Document 68. Notes for same meeting covering 10:00 a.m. to 12:07 p.m. Very easy reading: Conversation between the President, asking questions and his men responding with the answers. Good stuff… Read at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d68
Document 69. Notes for continuation of meeting, post lunch, from 1:38 p.m. to 3:40 p.m. More conversations, more participants (Senator Russell, General Westmoreland), questions and answers… Read at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d69
Document 70. Notes of a later meeting on this day 50 years ago, 14 October 1968 in the Cabinet Room that started at 7:15 p.m. and lasted until 8 p.m. Present: President Johnson, Rusk, Clifford, Wheeler, Rostow and Tom Johnson(Scribe)… Big subject: the earlier meetings were shaking up the politicians. The Republicans were convinced that LBJ was in the process of flipping the Presidential race to Humphrey. Clifford: “I can understand how Mr. Nixon feels. He doesn’t want anything that could possibly rock the boat. He likes the shape that it is in now and any little development might rock the boat, so he would be opposed to it (An agreement to stop the bombing). But what’s the matter with rocking the boat? Remember what Mark Twain once said that occasionally is relevant. He said, ‘When in doubt, do right.’ “… Then the little meeeting comes to the point: “The President: Are we all in agreement that we should stop the bombing if the GVN are there?…we resume the bombing if the they hit the cities or attack across the DMZ?”… Read at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus19643-68v07/d70
14 OCTOBER 1968…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times: No coverage of air operations north of the DMZ. VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES (Chris Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 14 October 1968…
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES (KIA/MIA/POW) FOR THE FOUR 14 OCTOBER DATES OF THE FOUR YEARS OF THE OPERATION OVER NORTH VIETNAM…
1966, 1968… NONE…
1967… LCDR ROBERT REDDINGTON VAUGHN, USN… (KIA)…Lost at Sea…
1965… CAPTAIN THOMAS WILLIAM SIMA, USAF… (POW)… and… CAPTAIN ROBERT HARRY SCHULER, USAF… (MIA…
RTR quote for 14 October: SPIRO AGNEW, Republican Vice Presidential Nominee: “We live in a representative society, elect our public officials who in turn appoint our jurists and they construe our laws. The individual cannot say which laws he can or cannot obey, but the courts will decide.”…
Lest we forget… Bear