RIPPLE SALVO… #954… AT THE FOREIGN POLICY GROUP MEETING WHITE HOUSE, 15 OCTOBER 1968…PRESIDENT JOHNSON SAID: “LET’S DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO MAKE SURE THAT THIS THING IS HELD TIGHTLY. I HOPE ALL OF YOU WILL CLOSE UP THE STATE DEPARTMENT AND LOCK THE DOORS.”… What are the odds?… And the New York Times OpEd on the McGeorge Bundy speech (See RTR 13-Oct-68), titled “Agonizing Reappraisal”… See below…But first…
GOOD MORNING… Day NINE HUNDRED FIFTY-FOUR of a review of the great air war of the Vietnam war fought 50 YEARS AGO, by America’s bravest, in the skies of North Vietnam for forty-four months, concluding on 1 November 1968…
HEAD LINES from The New York Times for Tuesday, 15 October 1968…
THE WAR; “age 7: “FOE SHELLS QUANGNGAI CAPITAL KILLING 4 CIVILIANS–ARMY BASE NEAR CITY STRUCK BY ROCKETS IN ATTACK–Church And Pagoda Burned By Vietcong Infiltrators”… “Enemy rocket and mortar crews shelled a provincial capital and a South Vietnamese regimental headquarters today in what military officials described as another in a series of sporadic harassment attacks on Government-controlled towns. The barrage struck Quangngai, 330 miles northeast of Saigon at 8 a.m. It killed four civilians, wounded eight and damaged three houses…Five hours before the shells struck the city, a small band of Vietcong infiltrated the Binhson refugee camp near Quangngai and burned a church and a pagoda. Allied forces for their part continued small search-and-destroy operational throughout the country. A similar operation concluded in the Quangngai area over the weekend with 13 Americans killed and 66 wounded while 14 enemy troops were killed in the six day operation.”… Page 1: “24,000 MEN FACE SECOND VIETNAM TOUR”… “The Army and Marine Corps are now sending thousands of men back for involuntary second tours of duty in Vietnam. The Army plans to return about 18,000 this year; and Marines plan to return about 8,000. Until this year the number of nonvolunteers ordered to return to Vietnam was small. This has changed because of the length of the war, the high turnover of personnel stemming from the one-year tour in Vietnam, and the tight supply of seasoned officers and noncommissioned officers. Many career servicemen are also becoming eligible for involuntary second tours in Vietnam because they have been away from the war zone for at least two years. No draftees will be required to return to Vietnam.”…
PEACE TALKS: Page 1: “HIGH AIDE AT PARLEY RECALLED TO HANOI FOR CONSULTATION”… “Le Duc Tho, a senior member of the leadership in Hanoi and special political counselor to the North Vietnamese negotiators here, left for home unexpectedly today. His departure was kept secret until he was gone. … home via Moscow for ‘routine consultations.’They said they thought he would return but did not know when.'”.... Page 8: “HANOI SCORES AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES”… Page 8: “GENERAL MINH OF SOUTH VIETNAM SEES WAY TO HALT BOMBING”… “General Minh suggested today that the bombing of North Vietnam could end if other ways were found to stem infiltration. it was the first time a South Vietnamese of his standing had said a bombing halt was possible without concessions from Hanoi. President Thieu has said there must be de-escalation by Hanoi first.”…
HEAD LINES: Page 1: “CONGRESS CLOSES AS LIBERALS DROP TV DEBATE FIGHT-WILL NOT RETURN UNTIL JANUARY 3 UNLESS CALLED BACK FOR A SESSION AFTER ELECTION–Ford Scores Humphrey–Says He and Muskie Fought Bill For Confrontation Of The Candidates in 1964″… Page 1: “HUMPHREY INSISTS HE STILL CAN WIN–He Starts Busy Week With Bitter Jibes At Nixon And A Show of Optimism”… Page 1: “NIXON URGES HELP FOR LATIN NATIONS–Asks Re-evaluation Of Alliance For Progress”… Page 1: “SENATOR McCARTHY JOINS BID TO GET HIS NAME OFF BALLOT IN MINNESOTA”… Page 1: “Eisenhower Salutes Serenaders At Hospital On His 78th Birthday”… Page 1: “ORBITING APOLLO CRAFT TRANSMITS TV SHOW–U.S. Audience Gets A View Of Astronauts A Work In Space”… Page 6: “U.S.S. BENNINGTON FIGHTING BOREDOM INSTEAD OF SUBMARINES IN TONKIN GULF”… Page 34: “LeMAY BLAMES TRAITORS IN U.S. FOR CHINA’S ENTRANCE INTO KOREAN WAR–He Explains Goal of Warzone Trip–Wants to “Blow Whistle” On “No-Win” Vietnam Policy”… Page 58: “U.S. COURT LIFTS BAN ON GOLFERS GROUP CLEARING WAY FOR TWO PRO TOURS– P.G.A. To Appeal Delaware Ruling—Palmer-Nicklaus American Golf Professional Association Is Permitted To Sign Accords With Sponsors–Plan Full Scale Tour.”…
15 OCTOBER 1968…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times. Page 8: “In the air war American fighter-bombers sped through broken cloud layers to carry out 135 MULTI-AIRCRAFT missions over the North Vietnam panhandle. The pilots reported damaging or destroying a minimum of 28 supply craft, 14 trucks, 4 bridges and 3 warehouses.” … VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES (Chris Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 15 October 1968…
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES (KIA/MIA/POW) ON THE FOUR 15 OCTOBER DATES OF THE FOUR YEARS OF THE OPERATION OVER NORTH VIETNAM…
1965, 1966, 1967, and 1968… NONE… oohrah…
RIPPLE SALVO… #954… On Tuesday, 15 October 1968 the President hosted the famous Tuesday Lunch Group meeting of his “Rolling Thunder Targeting Experts.” They were all done talking targets, but they did talk “Rolling Thunder.” The White House day started with a 7:45 a.m. phone call for Walt Rostow, the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs, from Paris with an update and a few glitches in the peace and cessation of bombing plan from Cyrus Vance. Rostow converted the phoncon into a memo for the President. Read at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d71
The Tuesday Lunch Group (President, Clifford, Rusk, Helms, Wheeler, Rostow and George Christian and Tom Johnson from LBJ’s office) met at 1:12 p.m. for a little over an hour. The conversation centers on how to avoid a leak that the cessation of the bombing is imminent. You will find it interesting… Read at…
https://hisory.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d72
Later, at 7:30 p.m. the Foreign Policy Group that had met the previous day came by the White House to update the President, calm him down, and assure him that they were keeping the secret. More meeting of The Minds… President: “Why don’t we say that we will stop the bombing 24 hours after the GVN and the NLF are at the table?… Rusk: “We do not know if we really have this thing buttoned up.”…President: “We will not stop the bombing if I do not know that serious talks will start with the GVN at the table.”… Read at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d73
Meanwhile, the whole world was speculating on what was brewing in the White House, Hanoi, Paris, Saigon and Moscow. The New York Times took the opportunity to publish an OpEd on 15 October, page 46, that kept the issue front and center. They focused on the revelation that McGeorge Bundy, one of the architects of the Vietnam Policy back in the John F. Kennedy era, had new thoughts about that policy.
AGONIZING REAPPRAISAL…
“McGeorge Bundy’s call for a halt to the bombing of North Viewtnam, for a negotiated settlement, if possible, and for systematic reduction of the American military effort in south Vietnam, represents a candid recognition by Mr. Bundy, at long last, of the compelling logic of events, and a challenge t those who still cling to the futile policies of the past. As Special Assistant for National Security to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson for more tha five years, the former Harvard dean was a principal architect and hard defender of American policy in Southeast Asia. He promoted the bombing of North Vietnam and the introduction of American combat forces into the South.
“Mr. Bundy does not apologize for that role evn now.’The basic decision of 1965, to stand and fight, was right,’ he asserts.
“But after two and one-half years out of government, during which time he has become deeply involved in attempts to solve some of the nation’s most pressing domestic problems as president of the Ford Foundation, Mr. Bundy has concluded: ‘Until the present burden of Vietnam is at least partly lifted from our society, it will not be easy–it may not even be possible–to move forward effectively with other great national tasks… it seems to me wholly clear now that at its current level of effort and cost the war cannot be allowed to continue for long. Its penalties upon us all are much too great.’
“Mr. Bundy, who cannot be accused of being naive or ill-informed, argues that ‘there is no prospect of military victory… by any level of United States military force which is acceptable or desirable; that any lingering advantages of the bombing of North Vietnam ‘are far outweighed by its political costs and that ‘risks to our own troops (from a bombing halt) can be minimized by alternative means of defense….‘ He believes that regardless of the outcome of negotiations the United States ‘must decide that it will steadily, systematically and substantially reduce the number of casualties, the number of Americans in Vietnam and the dollar cost of the war.’
“Mr. Bundy’s reappraisal of doctrines he once championed may commend itself to others who so far have refused to reconcile past policies with present realities.”
Humble Host wonders if President George H.W. Bush’s Assistant for National Security Affairs Condoleezza Rice lives with regret for her advice to take our country to war in Afghanistan more than 17 years ago?… We await her “agonizing re-appraisal” to perhaps “reconcile past policies with present realities.”…
RTR Quotes for 15 October: CONDOLEEZZA RICE, American Statesman: “There’s no doubt that it’s still a dangerous place, Afghanistan. The fortunate thing is that the United States was helping to provide security for Chairman Karzai. And it shows that the United States is committed to that regime.”… and… “Now, al Qaeda’s on the run. Afghanistan is no longer a base of operations. The Afghan government is a friendly government that is trying to bring democracy to its people.”… and…”We are spending American blood and treasure to liberate the people of Afghanistan from one of the most brutal regimes on the face of the earth. That we would not use that moment to press for women’s rights seems to me unthinkable.”…
Lest we forget… Bear…