RIPPLE SALVO… #801… HUMBLE HOST CALLS IT FORTUITOUS THAT THIS REVIEW OF THE PEACE TALKS WHILE FIGHTING OF MAY 1968 NOW COINCIDES WITH THE HISTORIC TALKS BETWEEN NORTH KOREA AND THE UNITED STATES THAT ARE UNFOLDING OVER THE NEXT FEW MONTHS. Peace talks–conversations–are waged like a high stakes, no time limit chess match. Every move is deliberate and nobody is in a hurry. The Vietnam conversations began in May 1968 and got nowhere until October 1968 when the President finally made a move to put some movement in the conversations–he terminated Rolling Thunder and halted the bombing of North Vietnam. And got nothing for it. “Negotiating while fighting” continued with little change in the fighting and dying. American Mothers would lose 35,000 more sons while waiting for the fighting to stop.
The initiation of talks with North Korea in June will be at least as complex as the 1968 Vietnam peace talks, and the 2018 participants are even more cemented in positions hardened over decades of name calling, threats, incidents that included shooting and killing, and other serious sword rattling. The conversations with North Korea will be exceedingly difficult. The daily posts of RTR and Ripple Salvo will report the 1968 “conversations while fighting,” including public releases published in The New York Times and the now declassified CIA source President’s Daily Briefs and the Historical Documents that make the most sensitive conversations of 1968 available to the public fifty years after the fact. It is postulated that the lessons of 1968 will provide insight and understanding of the 2018 talks with North Korea. Or not… Humble Host will enjoy the digging… Ripple Salvo below provides a NYT opinion piece that provides an opener to the RTR coverage… but first…
GOOD MORNING… Day EIGHT HUNDRED AND ONE of a return to the air war with North Vietnam that was fought with uncommon courage by America’s military aviators fifty years ago…
HEAD LINES from The New York Times on 15 May 1968, a cloudy Wednesday in New York City fifty years ago…
THE WAR: Page 1: “MORTAR ATTACK KILLS 5 IN SAIGON–27 ALSO HURT AS 50 ROUNDS STRIKE CHOLON DISTRICT”… “The attack began shortly after midnight and lasted about half an hour… The attack in Cholon was one of several at various points. Bienhoa air base 15 miles northeast of Saigon was struck by several 122-mm rockets last night. Casualties and damage were described as light… The military command disclosed that an American-led militia camp at Nuihaden, 55 miles northwest of Saigon was attacked on Monday by an enemy force. After a heavy exchange of small-arms and automatic weapon fire, enemy troops took over part of the camp. The enemy destroyed several buildings before withdrawing. The command said that 25 of the enemy were killed. United States losses were 19 killed and 24 wounded….PLANE WITH 156 DOWNED… Saigon: An American military official reported today that North Vietnamese troops, overrunning an antiguerrilla camp at Kham Duc on Sunday shot down nine aircraft including a C-130 transport with 6 Americans and possibly 150 South Vietnamese aboard. The official said that so far as was known there were no survivors.”…. Page 1: “4 MEN AWARDED MEDALS OF HONOR–President Honors Soldier, Sailor, Marine and Airman–Voices Hope For Peace”… “He spoke at a rare ceremony at the Pentagon–the first in which the century-old Medal of Honor was given at one time to four men, one from each of the military services…. After conferring the nation’s highest military award on the four heroes he dedicated the Pentagon’s new “hall of Heroes.” The names of 3,210 Medal of Honor awardees are displayed in the new addition to the historic Pentagon.”…
PEACE TALKS: Page 1: “HANOI DELEGATES RULE OUT ‘RANSOM’ FOR HALT IN RAIDS”… “The North Vietnamese and American delegates sparred at a distance today, through the medium of the press, as they took a day off from their ‘official conversations’ on the war. At the Hotel Lutetia, on the Left Bank, where the Vietnamese are staying, a spokesman said: ‘No ransom will be paid to the American aggressor.’ He was restating Hanoi’s objection to the United States’ call for ‘restraint’ in return for ending the now-curtailed bombing of North Vietnam. A mile away, across the Seine, W. Averell Harriman talked informally with reporters outside the United States Embassy, off the Champs Elysees. The chief American delegate said ‘the North Vietnamese have been the aggressor, and they seemed determined to hang on.’ SOUTH VIETNAMESE STATEMENT… As the two principals exchanged views by way of reporters, the South Vietnamese, anxious not to be overlooked, issued a statement asserting that the United States should not halt the bombing until Hanoi had actually curtailed infiltration of the South, subject to effective control. The stand was stiffer than that adopted by the United States.”…The United States position holds that ‘normal amounts’ of infiltration would be tolerated ‘so long as Hanoi did not take advantage of a bombing suspension.’ On another key point, the South Vietnamese statement welcomed American initiatives in starting preliminary talks with Hanoi.”… Page 10: “JOHNSON MEETS CABINET TO REVIEW PARIS TALKS”…”…and to discuss nation’s economic problems. White House press secretary George Christian announced the meeting and said the Cabinet had engaged in a ‘general roundtable discussion of the fiscal situation.”…
Page 1: “NEBRASKA GIVES 53% TO KENNEDY–NIXON FAR AHEAD–Reagan Runs Well–McCarthy Calls Foes Victory Significant But Won’t Join Him”… Page 31: “Humphrey Leads Rivals In Survey By Gallup“… Page 32: “West Virginia Voting Is Close–John Rockefeller 4th Is Victor”… Page 32: “Kennedy Solicits McCarthy As An Ally–Proposes A Joint Primary Effort Against Humphrey–McCarthy Says He’ll Fight On”… Page 32: “STANDING OF CANDIDATES IN VOTES AT CONVENTIONS”… “Before the primaries today, the standing of the Democratic and Republican Presidential contenders in states that have selected national convention delegates, the votes committed or ‘leaning,’ was as follows: DEMOCRAT: Humphrey, 177; McCarthy, 169 1/2; Kennedy, 91 1/2; Uninstructed votes 173 1/2… The Democratic nomination requires 1,312 delegate votes. REPUBLICAN: Nixon, 237; Rockefeller, 59: Reagan, 16; Uninstructed, 21; favorite Sons, 235. The Republican nomination requires 667 delegate votes…”…
15 MAY 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New york Times… No coverage of air operations north of the DMZ…”Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 15 May 1968…
(1) A C-130E of the 779th TAS and 464th TAW out of Pope AFB was crash landed at Song Be in South Vietnam due to engine failure and was declared destroyed (beyond economical repair)… Seven crew members are still telling the story…
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES (KIA/MIA/POW) ON 15 MAY FOR THE FOUR YEARS FO THE OPERATION…
1965… CAPTAIN ROBERT GRESKOWIAK, USAF… (KIA)…
1966… CAPTAIN RALPH CAROL BALCOM, USAF… (KIA)…
1967… CAPTAIN DONALD LESTER HEILIGER, USAF… (POW)… and… MAJOR BEN M. POLLARD, USAF… (POW)
1968… NONE…
Humble Host flew #163 led section of A4-Fs with two AGM12Cs (Big Bullpups) each for an armed recce south of Vinh… Route segment 1A… We were looking for anything that moved with two small bridges on 1A as secondary. Nothing moving (Hiding in Ha Tinh). Four Bullpups on the two bridges, both downed. No opposition noted. 45-minutes over the beach cruising and shooting… My 24th and 25th Bullpups dating back to 1962 in VA-12…
RIPPLE SALVO… #801… New York Times, 15 May 1968, Page 46… Opinion Editorial…
VANISHING VIETNAMESE…
“The central issue posed by the opening round of the Paris peace conference is whether Hanoi means what it says when it says it favors an ‘independent South Vietnam’ pending ultimate reunification. Neither a settlement nor even the initiation of a meaningful negotiations is possible without accord on this point, which assumes that North Vietnamese as well as American troops will be withdrawn from the South.
“So far, Hanoi insists upon American withdrawn but refuses to acknowledge that there are any North Vietnamese troops fighting in the South. At the same time, North Vietnam proclaims that it has the right to aid the Vietcong’s fight against the Saigon government and the ‘American aggressors.’ Hanoi insists that ‘Vietnam is one, the Vietnamese nation is one,’ in denying charges of aggression by the North against the South.
“What does this signify? Hanoi refused to acknowledge the presence of North Vietnamese troops in Laos during the 1961-62 negotiations to neutralize that country. The United States finally agreed to a formula for the evacuation of ‘foreign’ troops, which clearly included the North Vietnamese. But while American troops departed, the North Vietnamese remained. They avoid violation of the 1962 agreement simply by denying that they are–or ever have been–there.
“This vanishing–or non-vanishing–act becomes even more disingenuous in Hanoi’s proposal for withdrawal of ‘foreign’ troops from South Vietnam, since Hanoi denies that North Vietnamese in the South could be considered foreigners. That Hanoi’s persistence in this posture would thwart a settlement is evident. Even more important, it could impede the opening of serious negotiations for many weeks.
“Hanoi says it will not negotiate until all the bombing of North Vietnam stops. The United States insists on ‘a sign’ that American de-escalation has been ‘matched by restraint on the other side,’ particularly in the area of the Demilitarized Zone.
“For the United States, Hanoi’s admission of responsibility for its military operations in the South is at least as important as restraint in those operations. Otherwise, there can be no discussion of a cease-fire or the ‘pulling apart’ of contending forces in the DMZ, as suggested by Ambassador Harriman, a step that later might be applied elsewhere in the country. Neither the withdrawal of North Vietnamese divisions nor control measures to prevent their return can be negotiated while Hanoi denies it has any divisions in the South.
“What the United States must face, however is that it is proposing asymmetrical restraint. Leaving its own hands free in the South, the United States is demanding–for a cessation of bombing in the North–limitations on Hanoi’s operations in the South that the bombing never could impact.
“A procedural proposal to discuss a freeze of all external forces in South Vietnam at present levels after bombing of North Vietnam is halted would be the best way to test Hanoi’s willingness to admit its presence in South Vietnam.”…… End quote…
RTR quote for 14 May: PRESIDENT JOHNSON at the Medal of honor ceremony in the Pentagon: “The world prays that the way to peace will be found at that distant table–the peace with honor for which these men, and their comrades, have fought so long and so nobly.”
Lest we forget… Bear