RIPPLE SALVO… #408… GOOD QUESTION!!!…THEN and NOW… but first…
Good Morning: Day FOUR HUNDRED EIGHT of a 1000 day trip back in time to Rolling Thunder in the Red River Valley of North Vietnam…
17 April 1967… HOMETOWN HEADLINES and LEADS from The New York Times on a cloudy Monday in NYC…
Page 1: “U.S. Bomb Error, Second in 2 Days”…”Kills 14 Civilians”… “A military spokesman announced yesterday that for the second straight day American planes had mistakenly bombed an allied target. The new attack at 5:30 AM killed 14 civilians and wounded 25, all residents of a village for Vietcong defectors and their families in Trucgiang southwest of Saigon. The bombing carried out by a Supersabre jet is being investigated by Seventh Air Force. Two Supersabers struck a south Vietnamese Army battalion Saturday in Binhdinh Province 285 miles northwest of Saigon inflicting a death toll that has been put at 41 by a South Vietnamese spokesman and at 25 by the Air Force. At least 50 were seriously wounded.”… Page 1: “Ivy League Shifts Admission Goals”… “The Ivy League colleges are moving swiftly from geographical distribution as a standard in admitting students with something that they call ‘student diversity’ as the new criterion. The eight Ivy League colleges are enrolling more Jews, rejecting more preparatory school students, and tending to ignore the postmark on the application. Yesterday when the eight schools sent out their 12,354 letters of acceptance,one, undoubtedly, went to the archetypal Episcopalian from Greenwich and another to a farmer’s son from Montana, for balance. But increasingly letters are also going to the promising Negro from Newark and to public high school students from the Bronx and other areas relatively close to the Ivy league schools.”… Page 10: “Che Guevara Quoted As Urging Support for Vietnamese”... Major Ernesto Che Guevara, the Cuban leader who dropped out of sight two years ago, was quoted today as appealing for World rebel groups to create many Vietnams… A statement was distributed at a news conference by the executive secretary of the Organization of Solidarity of Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The message spoke favorably of guerrilla activity in Brazil and Bolivia.”… Page 10: “Hanoi Says it Picks Up Mines U.S. Puts in Rivers”… “North Vietnam is systematically gathering up mines the United States aircraft deliver into North Vietnam estuaries and rivers. River watchers observe the drops and then drag for the mines so as to locate, move and store the mines.”…
Page 9: “Rusk Links Reds to Anti-War Call”… “Secretary of State Dean Rusk said today that the ‘Communist apparatus’ was working hard in support of antiwar demonstrations in the United States and elsewhere. He appeared on the NBC ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday. Asked if the peace demonstrations were ‘Communist inspired,’ he replied: ‘I have no doubt at all that the Communist apparatus is very busy indeed in these operations all over the world and in our own country. But I do not mean to say by that all those who have objections to the war in Vietnam are Communists. But the world-wide Communist movement is working very hard at this’… He said the net effect of these demonstrations will be to prolong the war and not shorten it.”… Page 1: “King Warns Cities of Summer Riots”... “The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. warned yesterday that at least ten cities across the country, including New York, could ‘explode in racial violence’ this summer. describing the cities as ‘powder kegs,’ he said, ‘The nation has not done anything to improve the conditions in these areas.’ He said, ‘I’ll still preach non-violence with all my might but I am afraid it will fall on deaf ears.” Dr. King, speaking at an impromptu news conference, included in the cities Cleveland, Chicago, Los Angeles, Oakland, Washington, Newark and New York. He said there were other cities which he did not name in the South. The civil rights leader who led a massive anti-war demonstration here (NYC) on Saturday said any outbreaks in New York could occur in either the Harlem or Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.”
17 April 1967… The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized 8/2015) SOUTH VIETNAM: Yesterday was the third and final Sunday of voting for village and hamlet officials. Early reports suggest Viet Cong harassment was somewhat greater this time. Three lightly defended villages northeast of Saigon were attacked just before the polls were to open and several Revolutionary Development workers were executed...GHANA: Early this morning a group of young officers moved against the generals who threw out Nkrumah in February 1966… INDIA: New Delhi is most unhappy with our decision to resume sale of spare parts for lethal items of military hardware. The Indians are afraid Pakistan will come out ahead on this deal. … GUATEMALA: Communist terrorists are threatening to assassinate US Embassy personnel in retaliation for recent government successes against guerrillas... SOUTH KOREA: South Korean jets sank a North Korean ship in the Yellow Sea this morning. South Korea has announced that North Korea was engaged in espionage operations…EAST GERMANY: Not much of real substance is expected from the Communist Party congress opening today in East Berlin….
17 APRIL 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER …New York Times (18 Apr reporting 17 Apr ops) Page 2: “While Air Force B-52s made four raids on South Vietnamese territory, other American pilots flew 96 multiple plane missions over North Vietnam.”… (Bear#60mk81STmilkyUNK)
“Vietnam: Air Losses”(Hobson): One fixed wing aircraft was lost in Southeast Asia on 17 April 1967…
(1) MAJOR JAMES MAURICE McGARVEY and CAPTAIN JAMES EDWARD CARLSON were flying an A-6A Intruder of the VMA(AW)-242 Batmen and MAG-11 out of Danang on a night strike on a transshipment point in the area of Vinh. The aircraft was observed nearing the target when hit by ground fire and seen to be on fire and impact the ground from several miles away. No beeper of communications were heard. An extensive SAR operation was attempted with no sign of crash site or crew. MAJOR McGARVEY and CAPTAIN CARLSON perished 50 years ago, Killed in Action, and rest in peace where they fell while on the attack on the enemy in his homeland…
RIPPLE SALVO… #408… Ripple Salvo #407 posted the “eleven lessons learned” from the Vietnam war from the perspective of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. When General Colin Powell was on the staff of SecDef Caspar Wineberger and later as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff he “outlined his vision for efficient and decisive military action.” Here is what has become known as the “Powell Doctrine” (or Wineberger Doctrine). The following is quoted from:
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/active_learning/explorations/vietnam/vietnam_lessons.cfm
“He (General Powell) said that SIX questions must be answered before U.S. forces could be committed to combat abroad.
- Is A Vital U.S. Interest at stake? Before the United States goes to war, there must be a clear risk to national security.
- Will We Commit Sufficient Resources to win? Force, when used, should be overwhelming and disproportionate to the force used by the enemy.
- Are Our Objectives Clearly Defined? In Powell’s words: ‘We owe it to the men and women who go in harm’s way to make sure that this is always the case and that their lives are not squandered for unclear purposes.’ In addition, there must be a clear exit strategy from the conflict in which the military is engaged.
- Will We Sustain Our Commitment? Is the government prepared to sustain the effort if things go wrong.
- Is There A Reasonable Expectation that the Public and Congress Will Support the Operation? There must be strong support for the campaign by the general public.
- Have We Exhausted Our Other Options? Military action should be used only as a last resort.
Humble Host suggests that every Member of Congress and the Executive Branch, Senior Executive Service employee on Capitol Hill and in the E-Ring of the Pentagon, and every military officer O-5 and above be examined on the Powell Doctrine annually in order to draw a dime of taxpayer money in pay for that year. Throw in an examination of Sun Tzu’s “Art of War.” Passing grade: 100% and failure is grounds for termination of employment.
Why is this important and urgent? Because it is apparent that not even the new cadre of generals and National Security advisors or even Members of Congress who have been hiding on the Hill for decades have any idea of what the Powell Doctrine is and entails. Witness the cacophony of voices calling: “What’s the strategy? What’s the strategy?” as the President attacks Syria with 59 Tomahawks. That is just a start. The Powell Doctrine is a holistic requirement and no citizen of the United States should be satisfied with anything less than a prime time address by the President that takes the six elements of the Powell Doctrine, from the top, and provides answers for our consideration. Why?
Because the Powell Doctrine is being ignored! It represents lessons learned and paid for with the blood and guts of American warriors who responded to the order to advance even when the cause was unnecessary, unjust or unjustified! That is why. The sacrifice of 58,000 lives in the Vietnam war is why! The endless war in Afghanistan is why! The endless war in Iraq is why! The vulnerability of our country to other belligerent nations and nuclear armed rogues is why! Our bank account is overdrawn. Our Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines have been drained and strained–and our enemies know it, even if our President doesn’t (A Navy battle group in the Sea of Japan is not “an Armada”– it is a pawn). That is why!
Humble Host suggests old warriors pose these questions to their congressional representatives. If old warriors don’t, who will?
Lest we forget… Bear