RIPPLE SALVO… #137… versus THE AUDACIOUS ATTACK… but first…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-SEVEN of a return to the 1965-68 “air war” over North Vietnam…
15 JULY 1966… PAGE ONE OF THE HOME FRONT NEWS… NYT…A fair and pleasant Friday 85 down from yesterday’s 95…
Page 1: “Armed Negroes Fight the Police In Chicago Riots”…”Roving gangs and snipers in the predominantly Negro West Side exchanged gun fire last night and early this morning with heavily reinforced police patrols. Dozens of persons were injured, including a police captain who was shot in the back. More than 1,000 policemen tried to contain 5,000 Negroes in the streets but could not do it despite the help of Dr. Martin Luther King and other clergymen. A total of 157 marauders were arrested by 1AM on the third successive night of violence. Gangs of Negroes moved from street to street and doorway to doorway along Roosevelt Road smashing windows in stores, looting, tossing firebombs and retreating to side streets when police rushed in. Rifle bullet from a rooftop nailed the Captain and six others wounded by gunfire…. Page 1: “Air Talks Reach Serious Impasse”…”The negotiations to end the week long airline strike have reached “a serious impasse on a number of issues.” the mediator Assistance Secretary of Labor James Reynolds said that ‘some progress has been made since yesterday. ‘But I don’t want to give an impression that we are out of the woods, not by a long shot.’ Others said: ‘We are as far apart as when we began.’ The walkout of 35,000 mechanics and ground workers began against Eastern, Northwest, TWA, United and National. The strike has snarled the nation’s transportation system.”… Page 1: “8 Student Nurses Slain In Chicago Dormitory”… “Eight student nurses were killed here early this morning in one of the most savage multiple murders in the history of crime. Another nurse, 23-year old Corazon Amurav escaped death by rolling under a bed in the row house that served as a dormitory for the South Chicago Community Hospital.”
Page1: “Kosygin Rebuffs Peace Overture”…”Aleksie Kosygin charged tonight that the United States is guilty of vandalism and barbarism on an international scale in Vietnam. The Soviet leader abandoning his usual dry tone to speak with emotional force reiterated the readiness of the Soviet Union and its allies in the Warsaw Pact to allow ‘volunteers’ to fight in Vietnam if the communist regime in Hanoi called for their help. He also emphasized moves to increase the supply of military to Hanoi. ‘The United States wants to achieve the impossible–to break the resistance of the Vietnamese people. And for the sake of the unobtainable aim, to go to any lengths. It dooms the United States to international isolation…President Johnson has plunged the United States into an abyss of disgrace and dishonesty.’ Indira Gandhi added: ‘It seems to be almost universally agreed that the best, perhaps the only constructive course would be to get all parties concerned–I repeat–all parties concerned, around the negotiating table within the framework of the Geneva agreement.'”… Page 1: “700 Seek election to South Vietnamese Assembly”…”Preliminary reports from provincial authorities today confirmed that 700 candidates, an extremely large and unexpectedly large number, have filed for the election this Fall for the Constituent Assembly, which is to draft a south Vietnamese Constitution.”
15 JULY 1966…The President’s Daily Brief….CIA (TS sanitized)…South Vietnam: The ten civilians recently appointed to the governing directorate by Prime Minister Ky are apparently being kept away from business of any consequence…(rest redacted)…North Vietnam: Indian officials say that Mrs. Gandhi, who leaves Moscow on Saturday planned to press her Vietnam proposal there despite the cold Soviet public reaction. New Delhi, it is said, is somewhat encouraged by the fact that Hanoi has not rejected the Indian proposal. This is interpreted by the Indians as meaning that Hanoi has not been influenced by the negative line of the Chinese…(redacted) then countered with …On the contrary, in the past several days, Hanoi has been publicly restating its determination to press on with the war in some of the bluntest language used in recent months…
15 JULY 1966… ROLLING THUNDER OPS… New York Times (16 July reporting 15 Ops)…Page 3: “Jets Strike Anew At North Vietnam“…”United States jet squadrons struck anew at North Vietnam today in an intensifi9ed campaign that an official suggested had now drawn a full commitment of the enemy’s defenses. The United States command reported the loss of one aircraft to ground fire. ‘They are throwing everything they’ve got into it to stop the attacks.’ a high ranking Air Force officer said. The new raids followed Thursday’s record high of 114 missions of several planes each, flown against a variety of targets in North Vietnam yesterday. Radar sites, bridges, and cargo barges were among the earlier targets. A Skyhawk attack bomber from the carrier Ranger was shot down today by ground fire 35 to 40 miles south of Hanoi while on a mission to destroy a missile site, The pilot is missing. this was the 291st plane acknowledged lost in the 17-month old war north of the border. The North Vietnamese press agency declared in a broadcast that North Vietnamese gunners had downed six U.S. jets–3 over Hanoi and 3 south of the capital–and several pilots had been captured. United States B-52s hammered for the third day an area suspected of holding 4500=5000 North Vietnamese troops ten miles south of the border…”…
“VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES” (Chris Hobson)…Page 66… Three aircraft lost…
(1) LT JAMES JOSEPH CONNELL was flying an A-4E of the VA-55 Warhorses embarked in USS Ranger on a four plane Iron Hand mission in support of an air wing strike on a target near Hanoi. the Iron Hand flight engaged an active SAM site 12 miles south of Hanoi. Four SAMs were fired at the flight, all misses as they pressed their attack on the SAM site. LIEUTENANT CONNELL was apparently downed by ground fire in the attack, and as the flight came off target he reported he was on the ground and OK. the flight lead observed the parachute on the ground in an unlikely area for a rescue attempt. LT CONNELL was interned as a POW but died in captivity on 14 January 1971, five and a half years after his capture…LIEUTENANT CONNELL was Killed in Action in a courageous head to head fight with the enemy on the ground in North Vietnam… Where his remains rest today is unknown to me…
(2) CAPTAIN C.L. HAMBY was flying an F-105D if the 388th TFW out of Korat on a strike mission north of Hanoi but was hit by 85/100mm ground fire in the area over Can Pha at the coast-in point. He was able to keep the aircraft flying for about 90 miles out to sea before ejecting and was rescued by a Navy helicopter…another tale for Happy Hour in the log book…
(3) MAJOR B.O. FRITSCH and 1LT C.D. SMITH were flying an F-4B of the VFMA-323rd squadron and MAG-11 out of Danang on a mission in support of the Operation Hastings search and destroy campaign near the DMZ. MAJOR FRITSCH and 1LT SMITH were downed by ground fire while making a second napalm run on NVA at the “rockpile” 15 miles northwest of Dong Ha. The crew of two ejected at extremely low altitude and were rescued within 30 minutes by an Air Force helicopter. This was the only Marine fixed wing loss in the 1,677 sorties flown in support of Operation Hastings.
RIPPLE SALVO… #137… On one side, “the circumspect defense,” and on the other, “the audacious attack.” Circumspect: “careful consideration of all circumstances and consequences; prudent,” Audacious, George Patton’s favorite word: “daring, bold.” So it was in the Rolling thunder campaign. On our side was the “spirit of attack borne in brave hearts.” Audacious warriors taking the fight to the enemy in his homeland in an effort to force him to agree to negotiate the end of a limited war. Our air power was the instrument used to punish and so overpower the enemy that he, Ho Chi Minh, would see the hopelessness of continuing the fight and seek a negotiated settlement. But Ho chose to fight and accepted the contest on terms favorable to him, the circumspect defense. John T. Smith reports in a book he entitled: “Rolling Thunder, the Strategic Bombing Campaign vs. North Vietnam, 1965-1968,” the status of this contest between the circumspect defense and the audacious attack. The state of affairs in July 1966, fifty years ago…
“During 1966 the North Vietnamese continued to increase their air defence (Smith is a Brit) network. At the start of the year they had approximately two thousand anti-aircraft guns placed around four hundred sites. Fifty-six missile sites had also been located and photographed by reconnaissance aircraft, but some were inactive. By the end of 1966 the Vietnamese had increased these totals to around 4,400 guns plus twenty to twenty five active missile battalions distributed around 150 missile sites. Admiral sharp, the American commander in the Pacific described the Vietnamese defences in 1966 by saying:
‘Throughout 1966 the proliferation of SAM sites continued and continuous SAM coverage extended from Yen Bai in the North to qaboutHa Tinh in the South…Observed expenditures in 1966 totaled almost nine times the number of SAMs expended in 1965 and the effectiveness statistically of the SAM defenses dropped an average of about 33 missiles required per aircraft shot down…The total number of radar sites at the end of 1966 numbered over 100, consisted of a well balanced inventory of early warning, GCI, AAA fire control and SAM associated equipment.’
“American pilots who had flown over Germany in the Second World War compared the defences around Hanoi with those of the Ruhr in Germany. Although German defences were spread over a considerably larger area, the North Vietnamese anti-aircraft defences, concentrated in a relatievely small area around Hanoi, have been called the heaviest ever encountered by pilots anywhere. (and the rules were a little different: dive ’em in there ao as to not kill civilians as opposed to WWII high level “precision bombing” that accepted civilians as worker bees eligible for extermination).
“The North Vietnamese Air Force also continued to expand. During the second half the year, under pressure from American raids, North Vietnamese MIGs were attacking American strike aircraft an average of twelve times a month. By the end of the year eleven American aircraft had been shot down by MIG pilots. The North Vietnam ground controllers had now become experienced in the understanding of American tactics, types of aircraft, routes into and out of North Vietnam and the types of targets attacked. The MIG-17s were normally kept at low level, where their lack of speed was less marked and the American radar coverage was poor. They were then directed onto American strike aircraft from astern and below. The MIG-17s were more maneuverable than the F-105s and the Phantoms and used this advantage to good effect… By the end of 1966 the North Vietnamese Air Force was estimated to number 70 aircraft, 15 MIG-21s and 55 MIG-15/17s, and they were expanding their airfields.”
In short, Ho Chi Minh was a master at the art of defense. And what was our response? Gradual escalation, very gradual expansion of the target list while imposing ever greater rules of engagement that put the lives of enemy civilians ahead of our warriors lives. Rules that allowed sanctuaries for the defensive forces to strike from. Restrictions on bombing targets that were easy (a freighter unloading twenty road graders in the port of Haiphong) thereby requiring finding and killing many hard targets (for example, a camouflaged road grader working a section of Highway 15 in Happy Valley). And, oh by the way, “here is where we are going to bomb next.” Application of the Principles of War… 4.0 for Ho Chi Minh… The Tuesday Lunch Team: a 1.5 mercy grade… Objective? Offense? Mass? Maneuver? Security? Surprise? Unity of command? Simplicity?
The difference? Ho Chi Minh and Giap were Lions who were warrior leaders. The Tuesday Lunch group were Sheep… And the sad truth is that the Tuesday Lunch Bunch were more qualified to map out our national strategies than the current flock of lambs advising the President on matters of national security. The principles of political correctness rule. They need to read and heed a little Clausewitz…from book 1: “War is therefore an act of violence to compel our opponent to fulfill our will.”…. and… “Kind hearted people might of course think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat the enemy without much bloodshed, and might imagine this is the true goal of the art of war. Pleasant as it sounds, it is a fallacy that must be exposed: war is such a dangerous business that mistakes that come from kindness are the very worst.”
Lest we forget…. Bear ………. –30– ……….