RIPPLE SALVO… #528… AHEAD OF THE SOUTH VIETNAM PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ON SEPTEMBER 3… LBJ: “Our Strategy, as I see it, is that we destroy all we can without involving China or Russia between now and September 1.”…but first…
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED TWENTY-EIGHT of remembering 1,000-days of glory in the air over North Vietnam at the “tip of the spear.”…
16 AUGUST 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a nice Wednesday on Fire Island…
SUMMER IN AMERICA 1967: “DR. KING PLANNING PROTESTS TO ‘DISLOCATE’ LARGE CITIES–MASSIVE NON-VIOLENT CAMPAIGN IS SOUGHT BEFORE CONGRESS ADJOURNS,TO GET FEDERAL AID FOR NEGROES”…”…speaks to annual convention of Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta… non-violent campaign as an alternative to rioting…’To dislocate the functioning of a city without destroying it can be more effective than a riot because it can be more longer lasting, costly to the society but not wantonly destructive. Moreover it is more difficult for the Government to quell it by superior force…Massive civil disobedience can use rage as a constructive and creative force…” Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 8/67…
Page 1: “Medicaid Abuses Laid to Doctors–Disclosures Of State Senator Seymour Thaler Are Acknowledged By New York City–Fee Listing Tightening”… Page 1: “Few In House Favor A Surtax-–Members Report–Democrats and Republicans Warn Johnson Aides Of Skepticism of Plan–High Spending Assailed”… “…have not made the case for a 10-per cent surcharge on individuals and corporations.”… Page 1: “GOP In California Wins State Senate”... “Republican takes San Francisco with 51.4-per cent share…”… Page 1: “Thousands Trapped in Fairbanks Flood”… “Governor Walter Hickel: “It’s terrible! It’s terrible! People are trapped on the roofs of their houses. The city is inundated and several fires rage out of control.”… Page 1: “Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger and President Johnson Meet–They Agree to Consult With Allies Before Cutting or Shifting NATO Troops”...”they left the door open for future troop reductions and agree that ‘the strength of the alliance must not be impaired.’ “…
VIETNAM: Page 1: “ADMIRAL SHARP ASSERTS RAIDS HURT THE NORTH SEVERELY”...”Admiral U.S. Grant Sharp, United States Commander in the Pacific, says the war pressures have hurt North Vietnam, especially in the last two or three months. ‘Now when the enemy is hurting,’ he says. ‘we should increase our pressure.’ In a statement in secret testimony last week before the Senate Preparedness Committee of the Senate Armed Services Committee made public today admiral Sharp maintained that North Vietnam faced ‘mounting logistic, management and morale problems’ because of the rising tempo of American air operations. Admiral Sharp’s estimate came as Administration officials were assessing a rare public acknowledgement from Hanoi that it was feeling the strain of manpower shortages. A long article in the leading North Vietnamese communist ideological journal Hoc Tap said: ‘The war is creating great manpower demands we must extol the labor duty of each citizen to the fatherland and mobilize everybody to participate in production and combat and serving in the fight.'”… Page 3: “Eight Marines Lost”… “…in a booby trap explosion in Quangnam Province. Ten others were wounded.”… Page 3: “Navy Said To Bar Units From Taking Part In War Rallies”… “…forbidden to take part in rallies and parades demonstrating support for United States policy in Vietnam.”…
Page 4: “EX-NAVY PILOT TELLS OF ‘USELESS’ VIETNAM SORTIES”… Dateline Midland, Michigan…“The Bay City Times (Michigan) quoted a former Navy pilot today as having said that he and his squadron mates had dropped bombs in the sea off North Vietnam on ‘useless missions’ pressed by commanders trying to amass combat records. ‘About one third of our ordnance was dumped in the water, and that’s a conservative estimate.’ Alex Waier, 32 years old, an assistant analyst at the Dow Chemical Company, said in an interview yesterday, the paper reported. The article was written by David Miller and Howard Kohn, two staff writers. Mr. Waier was identified as a former A-1 Skyraider pilot till his discharge in February. He flew with the 52nd Attack Squadron from the deck of the carrier Ticonderoga. He served nine years in the Navy. According to the article, Mr. Waier said pilots were told to beat the other carriers’ records in number of sorties. It was common knowledge ll the time I was aboard,’ he said. ‘One time our squadron commander actually got us in the wardroom and told us point-blank, ‘We are out to beat the record of the Enterprise.’…. “… and on and on for another 1,000-words…
Here is what Rear Admiral D.C. Richardson contributed to the article… “…’word had been passed down by top Navy officers that any ‘sortie races’ between ships would not be tolerated’…Admiral Richardson also said some bombs were dropped in the ocean as a safety procedure to prevent accidental explosions on deck. Generally, the procedure is used by pilots returning to their carriers fully loaded, having been unable to get to their targets because of bad weather, he said. He estimated the number of bombs jettisoned in the ocean amounted to about one-twentieth of total bombs dropped. This would be about 13,000 to 15,000 tons a month for all operating carriers operating off Vietnam. Admiral Richardson formerly commanded Task Force 77 off Vietnam.”…
16 AUGUST 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…The New York Times (17 Aug reporting 16 Aug ops) Page 6: “In the air war over North Vietnam 161 missions were flown by the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps pilots, but thunderstorms and low clouds kept them away from targets in the Hanoi-Haiphong area and along the northeastern rail lines… Instead the raiders struck at the power plants two miles south of Vinh at Ben Thuy, at truck convoys in the Mugia Pass and other targets in the narrow southern strip along the Gulf of Tonkin.”…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 16 August 1967…
RIPPLE SALVO… #528… The President hosted a meeting at the White House on 16 August 1967 that lasted two hours (2:00 to 4:00) at which he discussed several issues related to Vietnam and especially the upcoming Presidential election in South Vietnam. A segment of that meeting concerned the “strategy to be followed with respect to ROLLING THUNDER in the two weeks leading up to the September 3 election”… the Meeting Notes covering the air war…
Secretary Rusk: “We need to clarify our strategy on bombing policy.”
The President: “Our strategy, as I see it, is that we destroy all we can without involving China and Russia between now and September 1. I do not believe China and Russia will come in. The people will not stay with us if we do not get destroyed all we can. The targets we have authorized (Rolling Thunder 57 of 20 July) are in the Hanoi, Haiphong, and the buffer zone areas. It’s better to hit those targets authorized now rather than waiting six months.”
Secretary Rusk: In the buffer zone there is a question as to whether these are specifically authorized strikes or repeaters. The larger the number of sorties in there, the higher the chances for mistakes.
Secretary McNamara. “I must point out that we could invade Chinese air space” (Secretary McNamara said he proposed nothing new until next Tuesday) “I would like to have a week go by to check the accuracy of what we are doing.”
Secretary Rusk: “There appears to be no ascertainable connection between some of these targets and winning the war. We are trying to wage the war without enlarging it and without causing the Soviets or Chinese to give us problems in Berlin or Korea. I have no reservations except on these targets.”
The President: “Let us find the least dangerous and the most productive targets. I would like to be able to say we have hit six out of every seven targets requested. We have some weather now that is my type of weather. I think we should hit every target as quickly as we can. There are three areas that we are not going to hit. We are not gong to hit Haiphong Harbor because we are not going to hit any ships. We are not going to bomb Hanoi because we are not going to hit civilians. And we must be careful about the buffer zone because of the danger of going over the border. But we have got to put more pressure on.” It was then agreed that the targets more than eight or ten miles away from the buffer zone could be hit without danger.
Secretary McNamara: “We took out more rolling stock in one day after the Hanoi bridge was bombed than in any other day in the war.” He (McNamara) said he could get the President 20 more targets.
Secretary Rusk: “It’s a question of what do you ask a man to die for. Some of these targets aren’t worth the men lost.” (HUMBLE HOST: READ THAT AGAIN…) No kidding!!!
Secretary McNamara: “The losses would be the heaviest in the MIG airfield (at Phucyen).” …
Secretary Rusk asked Secretary McNamara if he could space the air strikes so that it would not appear as a “Roman Holiday.” Secretary Rusk said that several strikes on the same day result in charges of escalation and acceleration which may not be in our best interest…
The discussion continued, but was unrelated to the air war….
RTR QUOTE for 16 August: HOMER, Iliad: “Our business is in the field of fight. Is not to question, but to prove our might.”…
Lest we forget…. Bear