RIPPLE SALVO… #652… Part X of a review of Rolling Thunder 1967 concludes with the anatomy and autopsy of the last stand-downs and cease-fires before the North Vietnamese campaign history records as “The Tet Offensive.”…a look at the downside of a stand-down… call it “dropping your guard.”…but first…
Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED FIFTY-TWO of a return to the turbulent ’60s and the air war over North Vietnam called Rolling Thunder… 50-years ago this day, this was the news…
19 December 1967…HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a clear and cold Tuesday in New York…
(1) High Court Eases Curbs on Bugging; Adds Safeguards–Insists Police Must Obtain Warrant to Act–Doesn’t forbid Eavesdropping–Supreme Court Puts Guarding President Above Private Right”... “The Supreme Court made it clear today that the Constitution does not forbid an electronic bugging by law enforcement officers if they first obtain warrants authorizing the eavesdropping. At the same time the Court extended the reach of the Fourth Amendment by holding that the warrant procedure must be followed by police officers, even when they plan to eavesdrop on persons in semi-public places such as phone booths.”… Page 1: “President Will Fly to Service For Prime Minister Harold Holt–Deputy Prime Minister John McEwen Sworn In”... “…President leaves tomorrow and will be back in Washington by Christmas…Announcement left open possibility President might visit American troops in Vietnam.”… Page 4: “Israel Hopes to Buy 50 F-4 Phantom Jets from U.S. –She is Worried By Curbs of Arms Sales By France and Soviet Aid to Arabs”... “French threaten to cut-off sale of 50 Mystere V jet fighter-bombers which Israeli purchased two years ago.”… Page 5: “Israel Considers Mining Border To Halt Terrorists”... Page 8: “207 Critics of War Are Seized At Peaceful Protest in Oakland”… “Chanting anti-war slogans at induction center…750 demonstrators blocked the entrance to the center singing Christmas carols in the pouring rain. ‘Those arrests in the non-violent demonstrators included 21 juveniles, an Army deserter, a student in a wheel chair, and five men who did not have their draft cards in their possession.’ Demonstrators tried to stop seven buses carrying inductees and employers to the center.’…”…
Page 38: “GOVERNOR GEORGE ROMNEY DISCUSSES WAR IN MOSCOW–G.O.P. Candidate for Presidential Nomination Sees Scientists, Writers, leaders of Industry–Scheduled to See Premier Alexei Kosygin”… (COLLUSION, COLLUSION???) …Visit follows Richard Nixon visit earlier this year… Democrats charge meddling…”…
Page 12: “General Shoup Calls Johnson View On War Poppycock”… “General David M. Shoup retired Marine Corps Commandant said today that President Johnson’s contention that the Vietnam war was vital to United States interests was pure unadulterated poppycock. He said that it was really a civil war among the Vietnamese. The 63-year old Medal of honor winner said that Communists in Southeast Asia were no threat to the United States and that the Vietnam war amounted to civil strife between ‘those crooks in Saigon and Vietnamese nationalists seeking a better life. General Shoup’s criticism of the Administration’s policy clashed sharply with the views of his former Pentagon colleagues who say that Asians would export Communism eastward across the Pacific Ocean unless stopped short of United States shores… “…they just keep trying to keep people worried about the Communists crawling up the banks of Pearl Harbor, crawling up the Palisades or crawling up the beaches of Los Angeles, which of course, is a bunch of pure unadulterated poppycock. It’s about 8,000-miles over the water, and as I said before, I don’t think we have a record of but two people walking on water.’..”… General Shoup also proposed that Mr. Johnson promise in advance to cease all offensive actions when peace talks began and that he should call on North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh to set the time and place for negotiations.”
19 December 1967… President’s Daily Brief…SOUTH VIETNAM: A captured enemy document suggests that the North Vietnamese will undertake a major military effort this winter in heavily populated coastal areas of I and II Corps. The document also points to diversionary attacks around Con Thien. The main thrust however will close farther south in the enemy’s Military Region 5…The intent here would be to bring the war closer to South Vietnam’s population centers and to create yet another battle sector in which to pin down allied forces and disrupt pacification efforts… NORTH VIETNAM: Reaction to Bombing. The French news agency correspondent in Hanoi reports that recent bombings around the capital have “failed to affect the city’s morale,” He says the city appears calm and disciplined and attributes this to people becoming accustomed to the bombings as well as to the evacuation of large numbers of women, children and the elderly. The correspondent also claims that people are resigned to a continuation of the bombings and that they anticipate greater destruction in and around Hanoi itself. Hanoi officialdom, he says, believes that recent discussions in the US about the need to attack antiaircraft defenses, even in cities, is the prelude to attacks on cities using the antiaircraft targets as a pretense. NORTH VIETNAMESE REFLECTIONS OF US POLITICAL ATTITUDE ON THE WAR. US Using the mentally deficient in Vietnam. Hanoi in a 16 December English language broadcast has claimed that the US is sending men who are suffering from mental or physical deficiencies as “cannon fodder” for the war in Vietnam. The broadcast claimed that this policy was adopted to alleviate the “heavy casualties” the US is facing in Vietnam and the manpower shortage at home. Quoting US News and World Report the broadcast reported that the US plans to draft 100,000 men once deemed unfit for military service and claimed this group included the mentally and physically deficient….NORTH VIETNAM: Messages from Captured Pilots: North Vietnam has announced that starting on 18 December, Hanoi will broadcast in English to US servicemen on a daily basis messages from captured US pilots to their families. three such messages were broadcast on the 18th.
State Department, Office of the Historian: three historical documents for inclusion in RTR…
(1) 441. Memorandum for the files by the President dated 18 December 1967. This is straight from the President and covers a lot of ground. Should be read. “I have concluded that, under present circumstances, a unilateral and unrequited bombing stand-down would be read in both Hanoi and the United States as a sign of weakening will. It would encourage the extreme doves; increase the pressure for withdrawal from those who argue ‘bomb or get out’; decrease support from our most steady friends; and pick up support from only a small groups of moderate doves.”…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d441
(2) 442. Editorial Note that summarizes the President’s trip to Australia and the troops. Includes a superb paragraph that summarizes the President’s assessment of “the enemy’s plans for the immediate future.”…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d442
(3) 443. Editorial Note. A must read. General Westmoreland alerted his forces that a major enemy offensive was at hand and divulged where and what he expected the enemy to do… this is a good primer for the Tet Offensive…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d443
19 December 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (20 Dec reporting 19 Dec ops) Page 3: “United States Air Force pilots shot down two MIGs and probably downed two more yesterday during the sixth day of strikes in the Hanoi area. Poor weather, which was reported setting in cleared sufficiently to permit wide-ranging attacks, including the third strike in a week at the Longbien bridge on the edge of Hanoi. A United States command spokesman said no American planes were reported lost during the day. Eight of the 19 spans of the bridge were knocked down and three more heavily damaged yesterday, United States pilots reported. The mile-long bridge over the Red River is the only road and rail link between Hanoi and China… The Dailoi railroad bridge, 19 mile northwest of Hanoi, was damaged by F-105 Thunderchief pilots. The spokesman said MIGs fought several times with American pilots in the Hanoi area during the day. Two MIG-17s were reported shot down by Thunderchief fighter-bombers, while two other MIGs were listed as probably downed by Phantom fighters. The confirmed downing of two MIGs brought to 101 the number of North Vietnamese planes reported destroyed in aerial combat. Six United States planes were shot down earlier this week, three of them by North Vietnamese MIG fighters north of Hanoi. This brings the total of United States planes shot down in North Vietnam to 766, 36 of which were shot down in air battles.”….
Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 19 December 1967…
From Howie Plunkett’s compilation: “34TFS/F-105 History“… 19-Dec-67
“In the morning missions from Korat for the second day in a row four F-105DDs in ‘Crossbow’ flight from the 469th TFS, 388th TFW struck the Hanoi Railroad Classification Yard …flight composition: 31 Major Stanley Horne; #2 Major Frank Byrne; #3 LCOl William Reed; #4 Capt Dennis Jarvi… Each pilot dropped six 750-pound bombs on the south end of the yard. Capt Jarvi and Major Byrne were awarded DFCs for this flight….Captain Earl Henderson also from the 469th was in another flight that attacked the rail yard. It was his 51st combat mission into North Vietnam. His plane carried six 750-pound bombs… Captain Henderson: “Short water route to downtown. SAMs started at 3 minutes out. One SAM detonated 50-feet from me. Heard and felt explosion. Total of 30 SAMs fired. Heavy 85s started as we crossed Hanoi. Steep dive. Good bombs. Intense 37/57 right after pull off. More 85s two minutes later. Worst yet!”… (Captain Henderson was awarded his fourth DFC for this mission)… “…
“The 34th TFS also participated in today’s morning strike. the four pilots in “Skimmer” flight took off at 0600 and flew 3 hours and 20 minutes on the mission. Flight line-up was: #1 Major William Blakeslee; #2 Captain Douglas Beyer; #3 Colonel James Stewart the 388th Assistant DO; #4 Major Sam Armstrong…. This was Major Armstrong’s 39th combat mission. Major Armstrong: “The first airplane I started up this morning was bad so I had to go to another one and got off about 20 minutes late. I went out to the tankers in the Gulf (350 miles) by myself, but got there in time to make the mission. Our target was a railroad yard (JCS 21) between the Doumer Bridge and the Hanoi railroad bridge. There were three trains stopped there as we had knocked down the bridges on either side. As we approached up the delta, they fired about 16 SAMs at the force. One came as close as 500-feet to me but most were no threat. The flak, mostly 85mm, was the heaviest and most accurate I have seen. It was bursting all around me for a full minute prior to roll-in. We rolled in and I had a real good bomb run. We really tore up the yard and i could see cars already burning as I dove down. We got in and out with nobody lost, although four guys got minor hits. No MIGs seen.”…
RIPPLE SALVO… #652… Stand-downs and bombing pauses provide our enemy opportunities to move forward at will and bring his war materials to the battlefield–and the AAA sites– without risk. In a war of attrition, the idea is to run the other guy into the ground, not let him up to breathe every once in a while…the following is indicative of what happens when you back off–stand-down… This is from the CINCPAC/COMUSMACV report on the war in Vietnam (July 1968)… “Holiday Stand-Downs”…
“No official United States position had been announced concerning a Christmas or New year stand-down by 18 November 1967 when a Hanoi radio broadcast stated that the National Liberation Front was ordering a suspension of military attacks from 23 to 26 December 1967 for Christmas, from 29 December 1967 to 1 January 1968 for the New Year, and from 29 January to 2 February for Tet.
“On 9 December the Joint Chiefs of Staff noted that the United States would be prepared to institute stand-downs of military activity for 24-hours at Christmas and New Years and 48 hours at Tet. They recommended to the Secretary of Defense a modification of the rules of engagement promulgated in 1966 to provide authority to counter any major resupply and infiltration activities detected during the stand-down period. on 15 December 1967 the South Vietnamese government announced a 245-hour Christmas stand-down for the Allied forces, which went into effect as announced. On 30 December the South Vietnamese government announced that a New Year cease-fire would be in effect from 31 December 1967 to 2 January 1968. The cease-fire period included a 12-hour extension which the South Vietnamese government had added in response to the appeal made by Pope Paul VI to make 1 January 1`968 a ‘day of peace’…the same instructions governing military cease-fire activities at Christmas were observed during the New Year cease-fire.
“Prior to the 24-hour Christmas and 36-hour New year stand-downs there were many indications the enemy planned to take full advantage of these periods. Later events proved that he conducted a massive and well-organized resupply of his forces. Pilot sightings and photographs recorded over 3,000 trucks moving in the Panhandle area of North Vietnam during the two stand-downs, the great majority heading south. Almost 1,300 trucks were noted during the slightly longer New Year Stand-down. This compared with a daily average of about 170 for the other days between 22 December 1967 and 4 January 1968. A minimum of about 5,000 tons was moved by the enemy toward forces in the Demilitarized Zone and Laos. It should be noted that almost all of these sightings were during daylight. Poor weather undoubtedly precluded numerous additional sightings. The trucks sighted were almost ten times those sighted during the same holidays in 1966-67 when two 48-hour truces were observed. If these activities had been only for internal defense, there would have been little cause for concern. However, they were undertaken chiefly to support the external aggressive operations of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops against South Vietnam. The intent was purely hostile and aggressive.”
RTR Quote for 19 December: Baron Henri de JOMINI, 1838: “Military history, accompanied by some sound criticism, is indeed the true school of war.”…
Lest we forget… Bear