RIPPLE SALVO… #438… THE COST: BLOOD, TREASURE and UNITY … but first…
Good Morning: Day FOUR HUNDRED THIRTY-NINE of a recall of the events and heroes of Operation Rolling Thunder…
17 MAY 1967… HEADLINES and leads from The New York Times on a sunny Wednesday in NYC… and a rainy evening for the President’s Military Appreciation Dinner at the White House honoring four Medal of Honor awardees CAPTAIN HARVEY BARNUM, SP6 LAWRENCE JOEL, LT WALTER MARM, and CAPTAIN CHARLES WILLIAMS…
Page 1: “Enemy Threatens Marine Outpost Near Buffer Zone”… “Reinforcements sent to bar foe’s drive at Conthien while jets hit enemy artillery. A fresh battalion of United States Marines joined 5,000 of their embattled comrades today in a massive push to root out the thousands of North Vietnamese regulars threatening the Conthien outpost 1,500 yards from the demilitarized zone. ‘They want Conthien for Ho Chi Minh’s birthday, but we’re not going to give it to them,’ said Major General Bruno Hochmuth commander of the Third Marine Division. Ho Chi Minh’s birthday is May 19…”… Page 1: “U.S. Is Expected to Limit Build-Up But Generals Say At Least 4 More Divisions Will Be Needed In Vietnam”…Some 60,000 men are needed in Vietnam one division immediately…442,000 troops now in-country.”... Page 3: “Poll Finds More Back Escalation–45% Favor Total Military Victory in Vietnam War”…Rising public support for escalation of the American war effort in Vietnam was reported in the Louis Harris poll published in the New York Post yesterday…41% thought that both sides should withdraw. It was the first time escalation to a military victory over supervised withdrawal.”…
Page 4: “Court Rejects Plea to Delay Clay Trial”...”Clay’s petition for postponement ruled no different than one filed previously. A 3 June trial is set for Houston.”… Page 1: “De Gaulle Gives Britain a Rebuff on Market entry-Says She Must Overcome ‘Formidable Obstacles’ To Join Trade Group–-London Badly Shaken–French Leader Lists Close U.S. Ties and ‘Insularity’ As Major Barriers”... “President De Gaulle in effect said ‘No’ today to Britain’s entry into the Common Market for the forseeable future.”… Page 1: “Johnson Cautions on Tariff Accord—Much Hard Work Remains–he says– Agreement on Major Issues Greeted”… “President Johnson greeted the successful conclusions of the Kennedy Round of trade negotiations in cautious terms today, pending final settlement of all the legal technicalities.”
Page 5: “13 Chopters Downed”... “Thirteen U.S. Army helicopters were hit by ground fire. Six were downed in the Central Highlands and seven made it to safety.”…Page 23: “Panel Hears Aged Face Choice Between Buying Food or Buying Drugs–Senators Are Told Prices of Medicines Are a ‘Gigantic’ Problem” …at a Senate hearing on drug prices that are rising every year…increase of 20 to 50% over ten-year period 1954-64.”… Page 30: “Wirz Says Riots Are Encouraged–Assails Senators Who Aver U.S. Does Nothing…unwittingly encouraging violence in American cities this summed by spreading misleading notion that Johnson Administration is doing nothing.”…Page 30: “Hoover Links Carmichael to Negro Leftist Group”…”J. Edgar Hoover linked Stokely Carmichael a leading advocate of black power, with leftists seeking to overthrow the U.S. Government…connections with the Revolutionary Action Movement… ‘a highly secret All-Negro, Marxist-Lenist, Chinese-Communist oriented organization which advocates guerrilla warfare to obtain its goals.”… Page 32: “Negro Militants Warn Milwaukee–Threatened To Take Over Unless Police Harassment Ends”...” ‘Black Revengers’ declare ‘We will give you one month to do something about-being constantly followed–were taking over Milwaukee.”… Page 28: “NAACP To Put Pressure on Republicans to Pass Civil Rights Bill”...”Roy Wilkins: ‘It could be that the Republicans, who freed the slaves 104 years ago, are seeking to rebuild the party in 1967 by handicapping the Negro that at the swift pace of today’s civilization, he might as well be back in servitude. Mr. Wilkins was speaking at a news conference at the Freedom House in New York City.”
17 May 1967… The President’s Daily Brief… CIA (TS sanitized) ARAB STATES-ISRAEL: Embassy Cairo reports it is now quite clear that the troop movements through Cairo on Monday were purely defensive. In essence Nasir was putting on a show to demonstrate his solidarity with Syria in the event of a new Israeli attack. No Israelis were hurt in the latest terrorist explosion on the night of 15-16 May near the Israeli-Jordanian border….
17 MAY 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER... New York Times Page 1: “A Phantom jet was downed by ground fire on a bombing mission in support of the Marines just below the demilitarized zone. The two crewmen were rescued. Since April 29 the Air Force fighter-bombers have flown more than 150 missions in the belt north of the buffer zone, attacking suspected missile sites and storage areas. Attacks have set-off more than 80 explosions on the ground and destroyed several missile launchers and transporters.”… (bear#80Mk82sRRBridgeVinh)…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft downed in Southeast Asia on 17 May 1967… This is the unusual and tragic story of LT RONALD WAYNE DODGE, USN…
LT RON DODGE was flying an F-8E of the VF-51 Screaming Eagles embarked in USS Hancock and with his wingman were providing flak suppression for a strike on a road bridge about 20 miles northwest of Vinh. LT DODGE was at 12,000-feet covering the strike group when hit by a round of 85-mm with requiring he eject immediately, deep in hostile country. He was in touch with his wingman on the ground and let it be known he was surrounded by North Vietnamese troops and about to be captured.
Chris Hobson: “Over the next few years Ronald Dodge was seen in several photographs and an East German film on the subject of POWs in North Vietnam. He was obviously alive and in captivity but he did not return home during Operation Home Coming. No more information surfaced about LT DODGE until his mortal remains were handed over by the Vietnamese on 8 July 1981. Fellow POWs were of the opinion that he had been tortured to death by his guards.” Of interest: authors Stuart Rochester and Frederick Kiley in “Honor Bound” included this footnote on LT DODGE on page 305: “A fourth Navy aviator…was seen in a photo after capture but Hanoi never acknowledged holding him.” This was the sole RON DODGE entry in a 700-page report on our POWs.
On this 50th anniversary of his final flight he is remembered with admiration and respect for his life of service for our country, and for the agonizing final days of his short life, alone and lost in captivity in the ruthless hands of a heartless enemy. Alone.
RIPPLE SALVO… #437… THE PRICE OF FREEDOM and THE COST OF WAR…
NYT, 17 May Editorial by James Reston… “Washington: On Losing Control of the War, Hawks and Doves, Escalate or Withdraw”… “…it is not the pressure of debate that is now a factor in slowing down the escalation, but the pressure of the budget. Secretary of the Treasury Henry H. Fowler estimated this week that the deficit in the current fiscal year ending June 30 would be $11-billion and the outlook for June 30, 1968, just before the Presidential nominating conventions, is for the larges deficit in the history of the country. For a President who plans to run on prosperity if not on peace, this is one more problem of escalation…this is not only the Administrations critics but the Administration itself that feels trapped these days. All are praying for a break, but in this unbelieving city even the efficacy of prayer has its limitations.”...
NYT, 26 MAY Graph on page 3… The Vietnam War passed through the 10,000 American fighting men Killed in Action on 20 April 1967… and here how it was done…
Year Troops Killed Wounded
1961 3,164 11 0
1962 9,865 31 81
1963 16,500 78 411
1964 23,000 147 1,039
1965 181,000 1,369 6,114
1966 389,ooo 5,008 30,093
1967 (5mos) 453,000 3,609 23,687
6-yrs- 10,253 61,452
And many more years to go. There will be 58,000 names on The Wall…
NYT, May 26, Page 29: “Dr. King Declares He Plans ‘Trouble’ In The Form of Protests”…”Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said today that he intended to stir up trouble in some of the major cities this summer. ‘I do plan to stir up trouble in some of the big cities this summer,‘ he said in answer to a question at a luncheon in Chicago. But he said any demonstrations would be in behalf of ‘righteous’ causes and as ‘peaceful protests’ would prove an alternative to violence that would serve as a moderating influence in a long hot summer that might develop.”
Humble Host posts three indexes of the cost of war: (1) the blood of a nation’s youth, (2) the resources expended on battlefields in lieu of investments in peace, prosperity and its people, and finally, (3) the divisive nature of fighting a prolonged war of attrition that exhausts the a nation’s resolve– its fighting spirit– and destroys unity. A case could be made that the Vietnam war had some value if the expensive lesson of a dozen years of that war had been considered before the decision was made to repeat the same harsh lesson in Southern Asia… What fools we were, and are…
CAG’s QUOTES for May 17: NAPOLEON: “The best means of defense is to attack.”… PATTON: “You can turn away from the enemy, but you better be in a prone position–on a hospital litter.”….
Lest we forget…. Bear