RIPPLE SALVO… #897… A READER’S LETTER ON PEACE TALKS, A COLUMNIST GETS AN OPINION FROM A GENERAL and A TELEPHONE CONVERSATION BETWEEN THE PRESIDENT AND HIS VICE….but first…
Good Morning… Day EIGHT HUNDRED NINETY-SEVEN of an old TAILHOOKER’s blog, and a return to 1968, “the year the dream died.”…
HEAD LINES from The New York Times on Sunday, 18 August 1968…
THE WAR: Page 1: “GROUND FIGHTING IS INTENSIFYING IN SOUTH VIETNAM–50 OF ENEMY KILLED IN CLASH JUST BELOW BUFFER ZONE AND 19 MORE KILLED NEAR HUE–Foe Penetrates Base–18 G.I.’s Slain And 56 Hurt in Raid on Artillery Post–Hour battle at Hoian”… “Combat throughout South Vietnam appears to be slowly intensifying after two months of sporadic fighting. The heaviest action in the last few days has occurred in the northern provinces–Quang-tri, Thuathien and Quangnam, just south of the demilitarized zone. Yesterday at noon, some 50 enemy soldiers were reported killed in a fight four miles northeast of Anhoa in Quang-nam Province. Allied casualties wre put at 11 Marines wounded…farther north, some 12 miles northwest opf Hue, Unite States air cavalry troops joined with a South Vietnamese militia unit…to kill 19 North Vietnamese regulars in a clash that continued into tthe early evening. At lest seven prisoners were taken… Last night, the American military command said that 37 enemy soldiers had been killed during a one-hour battle 50 miles south of Hoian, not far from the seacoast. The enemy was taken by surprise and the American infantrymen were supported by helicopter gunships. There were no American fatalities–one infantryman was reported wounded.”… ARTILLERY BASE ATTACKED…”In other action a United States artillery support base 120 miles south of the northernmost province was struck by more than 150 rounds of 82-mm mortar fire. The mortar barrage was followed by a ground attack. at lest 15 enemy soldiers were reported to have penetrated the defense perimeter of the base during the attack. They managed to set off several explosive charges… The enemy was beaten off about an hour after the mortar barrage began…18 Americans were killed and 56 wounded… 17 enemy were killed and two captured in the engagement.”… Page 4: RIOTERS AT MARINE BRIG SET FIRE TO CELL BLOCK”… Page 3: “People Sniffer Follows Scent Of Enemy From Copters in Vietnam”… Page 4: “F-111 CRASHES ARE LAID TO BIT OF METAL”… “A broken weld in a six-inch bit of metal…almost certainly caused the loss of four F-111A fighter bombers…. According to Air Force officials, a rod end (in the control system) was forged from a single piece of high grade steel for the first 18 F-111A’s delivered. then in early 1965, they say, Bendix switched from a single-piece unit to two pieces. One piece screwed into the other and the two were locked in place by an electron-berm weld. It is the weld that now appears to have given way under intense vibration, allowing the two parts to unscrew.”…
Page 1: “McCARTHY AND HUMPHREY GIVE VIEWS ON SAIGON RULE–SENATOR PROPOSES PLANK URGING 4-WAY TALKS TO FORM NEW REGIME–VICE PRESIDENT REJECTS AN IMPOSED CONDITION, AS ROBERT KENNEDY DID”… Page 1: “Humphrey suggests Using Surtax Funds To Aid Cities”… page 1: “Dissenters focusing On Chicago”… Page 1: “EISENHOWER STAYS IN CRITICAL STATE–Consciousness Lost Twice As Heart Beats Irregularly–Some Stability Regained”… Page 1: “PRAGUE TERMS FULL TIES WITH WEST GERMANY STILL FAR AWAY”… Page 46: “Sixth Week Opens For Huey P. Newton Trial–Murder Defendant To testify In Black Panther Case”… Page 51: “GALLOP POLL FINDS BIG GOVERNMENT IS FEARED–Big Labor Second, Big Business Third”… Page 53: “Aspen Hippies Sue–demand Police Halt Harassment”… Page 58: “NIXON MEETING WITH NEGROES STIRS A DISPUTE–Some Distressed Because He Left Early But Are Eager To Talk With Him Again”… Page 66: “McCARTHY HAILED IN CHICAGO GHETTO–Negroes Applaud As Senator Endorses Black Power”…
18 AUGUST 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER … New York Times Page 4: “Above the demilitarized zone, United States warplanes, flying through scattered clouds and moderate ground fire, carried out 96 missions against suspected enemy targets. There were no planes reported down.”… VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 18 August 1968…
(1) CAPTAIN A.R. THOMAS and 1LT G.M. GREEN were flying an F-4D of the 480th TFS and 366th TFW out of Danang on a close air support mission in the DMZ and were downed by .50 calibre gunfire. CAPTAIN THOMAS was able to maneuver the Phantom south of the DMZ before the crew ejected. They were retrieved by an Army helicopter to fly and fight again…
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES(KIA/MIA/POW) ON THE FOUR 18 AUGUST DATES OF THE FOUR YEARS OF THE OPERATION OVER NORTH VIETNAM…
1956, 1966, 1967 and 1968… NONE… oohrah…
RIPPLE SALVO… #897… Humble Host offers a couple of points-of-view from the days of Autumn 1968 when the Vietnam war, and Rolling Thunder, began “marking time” awaiting a magic moment–either diplomatic or military–that would alter the tempo of an attrition war that was costing the United States 200 troopers lives every week and more than 1,000 enemy lives on the other side. First, a Letter-to-the-Editor of the NYT (10 -Aug-68). Then, a Joseph H. Treaster column: “A Military Case for Bombing.”…
10 August Letter to the Editor: “Obstacles to Peace Talks”… To the Editor:
“Many politicians are solving Vietnam for us by promising a negotiated conclusion, and that soon. They must be very naive, or think their public is, for they conveniently overlook several jagged obstructions. Vietnam cannot be pulled out of context from United States world relationships. Not even Senator McCarthy, if given the authority, could do that. What we do or leave undone in Vietnam vitally affects us in many ways around the globe, let alone Southeast Asia. Opponents of our Vietnam policy readily admit that the two sides have nothing to talk about in Paris at the present time.
“Most individual, social, and international problems may be negotiated. Evidently there are a few which do not fall into this category. For instance, try to negotiate between those who believe that the end justifies the means, and others who as firmly contend that means are more significant than ends. Again, try to reconcile the passionate insistence that life without liberty is death, (demonstrated by attempted escapes from iron-curtain countries at the risk of death), and the opponents–life is a sacred trust, and must be preserved at any sacrifice of principle or honor. These are massive underlying rocks to impede smooth sailing in our quest for peace.
“Negotiations there may be. But if so, they will be of the kind Lee and Grant dealt with at Appomattox Court House, the kind brought about because one side cannot or will not continue the struggle. The issues are too fundamental to be resolved peacefully at this stage. Furthermore, when one side believes it is winning, and the other side is just as confident such victory can be thwarted, what can one expect of negotiations at this point?
“Henry Cabot Lodge may have prophesied correctly when he observed that this war may have no formal ending, but rather, it may eventually burn itself out, as have numerous wars in the past. The Arab-Israel war is a most recent example.”…Harold P. Burgess, Cortland, New York, Aug. 2, 1968…
New York Times, 18-Aug-68, page E-3:
“THE MILITARY CASE FOR BOMBING” by Joseph H. Treaster…
“Saigon– The Air Force general leaned forward in his brown leather chair last week and spoke earnestly about bombing the enemy in North Vietnam. ‘We’ve already given him one good hard concession,’ the general said, referring to the partial curtailment that President Johnson ordered last April. ‘If you keep giving and he gives nothing in return, he’s just going to keep grinding away.’ Like most of his colleagues, the general is firmly opposed to a total halt in the bombing as long as the North Vietnamese continue to move men and supplies southward an harass Americans near the demilitarized zone with artillery. There have been pressures on Washington to stop the bombing as a possible means of breaking the deadlock in the Paris peace talks. ‘The United States Military Command contends that ‘large numbers’ of American lives would be imperiled if the bombing were farther reduced.’
HURTING FOR SUPPLIES
“‘We feel that each day we stop tons of vitally needed supplies and that if they went unimpeded they could be used to launch offensives against Saigon and other populated areas in South Vietnam,’ said a veteran naval air officer. Alluding to the recent battlefield lull, the Navy pilot asked,’Can there be any doubt that the enemy in South Vietnam is hurting for supplies?’
“At least nine American installations along the demilitarized zone regularly shell the enemy guns. But the generals contend that without concentrated bombing raids, the North Vietnam artillery would become an ‘intolerable’ menace. ‘I am convinced that our counter battery artillery fire and the guns from the [Seventh] fleet aren’t enough to handle the situation,’ one general said. ‘You need bombing, too.’ There is growing concern among the military here that, despite their advice to the contrary, the President will respond to public pressures and order a unilateral bombing halt.
“But some officers were heartened last week when Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford said in a Washington press conference that the bombing would not be further reduced until Hanoi provided some assurance that it would reciprocated by stopping the artillery fire near the demilitarized zone. According to ome senior officers, when President Johnson limited the bombing in North Vietnam and made two thirds of the country a sanctuary, the enemy ‘effectively shifted his whole logistics base to the 20th Parallel.’ Since the curtailment order on April 1, 1968, there have been no reports of American air raids above the 19th Parallel.
“If the bombing were stopped entirely, the generals argue, the enemy would be free to mass supplies and men just north of the buffer zone. Large numbers of troops in this area, the generals maintain, would greatly endanger the northernmost allied posts. ‘Anytime that a man can bring his supplies right up to your door and surround your house with them,’ the Air Force general said, ‘I think he can get in.’
“Critics have argued that despite more than four years of aerial bombardment, the North Vietnamese have managed to increase the rate of infiltration into South Vietnam and support larger and larger offensive drives. The military concedes that the bombing stops only about 15 to 2o per cent of the supplies spotted and that while troops moving southward are harassed, probably few of them are killed. With these facts in mind, some civilians argue that the political impact of a total bombing halt would far exceed the military value of continuing the air war. They believe that stopping the bombing might break the stalemate in Paris and open the way to meaningful peace talks. If the North Vietnamese reacted only by stepping up their war effort, then the bombing could be resumed, the civilians suggest.
WORTH A GAMBLE
“‘At any rate, isn’t worth the gamble,’ asked one American civilian who has been watching the war from Saigon for more than a year. The generals do not want to gamble. Almost to a man, the senior officers here would approve a bombing halt if the could be convinced that the North Vietnamese would not take advantage of the move. But they believe that the enemy has used every previous bombing pause to improve his military posture and they strongly suspect that he will do the same if given another chance.
“The concern was underscored yesterday when allied troops entered the six-mile-wide demilitarized zone for the first time in several months. South Vietnamese forces pursued Vietnamese forces pursued North Vietnamese regulars into the buffer zone in one of the biggest clashes of recent weeks. Government troops killed more than 150 of the enemy, a military spokesman said.
“Two ambushes–one 43 miles northwest of Saigon and the other near Pleiku–marked other breaks in the recent lull in the ground fighting.”… End quotes…
Humble Host encourages a reading of the State Department’s Historical Document from “Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Volume VI, Vietnam, January-August 1968, 330. Telephone Conversation Between President Johnson and Vice President Humphrey at 5:23 p.m., 18 August 1968… President: “What they’re asking (us) to do is to stop the bombing of men and supplies who are going southward aggressively over the DMZ to kill my boys, your boys, our boys.”… read at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d330
RTR quote for 18 August: GENERAL DOUGLAS MacARTHUR: “History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.”…
Lest we forget… Bear