RIPPLE SALVO… #124…”Sweet Land of Liberty…”... but first…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FOUR of a swing back through a forgotten campaign in the history of our country…
2 JULY 1966… ON THE HOME FRONT… NYT… Sunny and fair is holding for Saturday and the weekend of fireworks…
Page 1: “Vietnam Strains Tactical Air Arm”…”General John McConnell, Air Force Chief of Staff, has warned Congress that the Tactical Air Command has been stretched to the limit of its present resources by the steadily increasing demands of the Vietnam War. Should a second emergency erupt in some other overseas theater, he has warned, the National Guard will have to be called up. The Tactical Air Command is a separate major command in the Air Force composed of 23 tactical fighter wings comprising approximately 1,656 aircraft. The Air National Guard, the reserve component, has 23 squadrons of 18 aircraft each. Several squadrons are taking intensive training to act as priority units in the event of a call-up.” The General was testifying before Senator John Stennis’ Senate Armed Services Readiness Sub-Committee…Page 2: “U.S. Economic Aid To Saigon Heavy”… $675 million in a year was a record for one country…”The United States furnished South Vietnam with about $675 million worth of economic aid during the fiscal year that ended yesterday. They said that the assistance was more than twice as much as was given the previous year and was the largest dispensed to support a single country’s economy in any one year since the United States began giving foreign aid in 1948. all told 93 countries have received aid since then.”
2 JULY 1966…THE PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEF…CIA TS (sanitized)…Your Humble Host obtains these briefing items from the on line source https://www.cia/library/readingroom “President’s Daily Brief” ( indicate the date you are interested in )… I copy the entire four plus page brief for each day, but post only the North and South Vietnam items, which unfortunately remain more redacted than not. The CIA completed their last look at opening up these briefs September 2015. Just for today I will be a little more expansive in the inclusion of PDB notes to RTR…
- South Vietnam: The US Embassy notes that there has been a great deal of behind-the-scenes activity within the Buddhist Institute this week. The outcome of all this is not yet clear, but there are reports that Institute leaders are moving gradually toward an accommodation with the government, including an agreement to participate in the September elections. Meanwhile, Ky has told newsmen that a reshuffled cabinet will be made public early next week. The reason for the delay–an announcement on the reorganized cabinet had been unofficially promised for 1 July–is not entirely clear, but probably stems from advice Ky’s entourage to reconsider some of his intended changes. Earlier information indicates Ky apparently has been talked out of taking over the foreign affaire portfolio from the able Foreign Minister Tran Van Do. (no redactions for the day)
- Yugoslavia: The central committee of the Yugoslavia Communist Party has strongly endorsed Tito’s purge of his former heir apparent, Aleksandar Rankovic… and much more
- France: The countdown for 1 July for the first French nuclear test in the Pacific was halted literally at the last second…and a little more
- Indonesia: Open criticism of Sukarno has picked up again in the Djakarta press. Only two of three papers, including one financed by Sukarno himself, are still giving him strong support. the anti-Sukarno papers now often refer to the President simply as “Sukarno,” an impoliteness known to infuriate him…” and some more…
If you are interested in more CIA info than I am going to include in RTR, go have fun panning for dust and nuggets in the CIA Reading Room… so far, in my panning of four months of briefs, about the only interesting Vietnam item I have found, was a short note back a few weeks ago that reported that Ho Chi Minh had switched from Lucky Strike cigarettes to Salems…worried about his health????
2 JULY 1966…ROLLING THUNDER OPERATIONS… NYT (2 July reporting 1 July ops) Page 4: “4 U.S. Planes Lost In North Vietnam”…”Four American aircraft were shot down yesterday (1 July) as United States aircraft carried out 53 missions over North Vietnam. Two of the planes were F-105D Thunderchiefs and the others were a Skyraider fighter-bomber and a Navy A-4 Skyhawk. One pilot was rescued but the fate of the others is unknown. Military sources said another plane, an F-4 Phantom was damaged when American jets sank three North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin less than six minutes from the USS Coontz. No planes were lost. At the same time it was announced that seven of the eight South Vietnamese civilians killed accidentally yesterday by a secret American “anti-personnel” weapon container (BDUs were jettisoned poorly by F-100s) were children.”
“VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES” (Chris Hobson)… as reported in the NYT 3 July, but with one of a kind details… One aircraft lost on 2 July…
(1)MAJOR LAWRENCE JOHN FRAHMAN was flying an O-1E Bird Dog of the 23rd TASS and 505 TACG out of Nakhon Phanom on a combat mission in Vietcong infested Quang Nam province and crashed for unknown reasons. MAJOR FRAHMAN was Killed in Action on a mission to find and direct the killing of ruthless enemy ground forces… The Frahman family is observing more than our nation’s birth this weekend, they are honoring the combat death FIFTY YEARS AGO of MAJOR L.J. FRAHMAN… perhaps a red rose on the tile in front of the Vietnam Wall under the name of their fallen warrior…
RIPPLE SALVO… #124…. “My country, ’tis of Thee, Sweet land of Liberty Of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, Land of the pilgrim’s pride, From every mountainside (especially Mount Ogden) Let Freedom ring… My native country Thee, Land of the noble free, Thy name I love, I love the rocks and rills, the woods and templed hills, My heart with rapture thrills Like that above…….”
Please include “Mighty Thunder’s” post “Independence Day” on this website in your weekend…. red white and blue… enjoy these special days to celebrate our freedom… “Let Freedom Ring in our Sweet land of Liberty,”
Lest we forget….. Bear ……….. ==30== ………..