RIPPLE SALVO… #172… “WHY CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?”…. but first…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-TWO of a return to three years of the 1960s both at home and at war over North Vietnam…
20 AUGUST 1966… IN THE NEWS AT HOME… from the pages of the New York Times… A sunny Saturday that will hold for the whole weekend…
Page 1: “Air Strike Ended After Six Weeks; Union Votes Pact”…”Officials of all five airlines that had been struck said yesterday that flights would be resumed today on a regional basis but that full scale operations would be underway by Monday. The longest and costliest airline strike in the country’s history ended tonight in its 43rd day as members of the machinists union approved a new contract with five major airlines. The International association of Machinists announced that it’s members had ratified by a vote of 17,727 to 8,235 the three year contract their leaders had negotiated with the carriers on Monday.”…
Page 1: “Johnson Pledges Slumlord Curbs In Syracuse Talk”…”President Johnson announced here today that he intended to ‘take the profit out of poverty.’ Speaking to a large and enthusiastic crowd in Columbus Circle in downtown Syracuse the President described as ‘shameless’ the exploitation of the poor by slum land-lords. To help end this exploitation he said he has ordered an increase in the number of legal centers set up under the poverty program as part of a major effort to help tenant obtain ‘safe and sanitary’ housing. Syracuse was the second stop on a three-day five state swing through New York and New England in search of support for the Great Society and votes for a half-dozen freshmen democrats in the House.”… Page 1:”Senate Approves Johnson Slum Aid”…”President Johnson’s $1’2 billion plan for erasing city slums passed the Senate without debate today. The vote was 52 to 22.”…
Page 1: “Chicago Injunction Limits Rights Drive”… “The city of Chicago obtained as injunction limiting the number and size of demonstrations. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, immediately denounced the injunction and indicated he might defy it. ‘We have violated injunctions in the South and may have to here.’ He called the legal maneuver ‘a tragic expression of bad faith on the part of the city.’ The order restrains Dr. King and his associates in the Chicago Freedom Movement from holding marches in more than one area of the city on any day having more than 500 persons in a march, holding a march at night or during traffic rush hour, and holding a march without giving 24-hours notice to the police.”…
Page 1: “213 Vietcong Killed By Australian Units”…”Australian soldiers killed more Vietcong in four hours yesterday than they had previously since they began fighting in Vietnam in June 1965. The Australians reported 213 enemy dead. Casualties suffered by one of the two 150-man Australian companies engaged in the battle in a rain drenched rubber plantation 40 miles southeast of Saigon were described as moderate. The second company reported light casualties. In Australia it was announced that 17 soldiers were killed in the engagement and 26 wounded, bringing the toll of Australian dead in the war to 73. The encounter began when the hardest hit Aussie company happened onto a reinforced Vietcong battalion of 500 men in a well dug-in, well consolidated position. “We didn’t expect such a force. They hit us with everything, heavy machine guns, mortars and plenty of automatic weapons. Then they attempted to cordon off the company and annihilate. As the guerrillas tried to close their circle around the embattled company, the second company with .50cal machine guns mounted on armored personnel carriers bringing in reinforcements ripped into them. The heavy rain apparently muffled the sound of the approaching armored cars. In a matter of minutes 25 guerrillas were killed and within an hour the others were in retreat. Brigadier O.D. Jackson, commander of the 4,500 man Australian task force in South Vietnam, the Sixth Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, described the battle as an ‘epic of courage that will go down in Australian history.’ The battle took place in Phuoctuy Province.” The Brigadier said ‘our greenest battalion marked it’s first anniversary as a combat unit less than three months ago.’….
20 August 1966… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (21 August reporting 20 August ops)… “In the air war over North Vietnam yesterday American pilots flew 113 missions. The fliers struck eight oil depots and reported six secondary explosions–an indication of direct hits. They also said 50 barges, 5 bridges, 15 railroad cars, and 15 trucks were damaged or destroyed. Navy pilots, attacking a Nam dinh storage area 45 miles southwest of Haiphong reported a string of fires and one secondary explosion. Hanoi said there were two United States planes shot down Friday (19th) but there was no confirmation from Saigon. In south Vietnam, American pilots flew 433 sorties and reported destruction of 655 huts and 52 sampans. South Vietnamese pilots flew 293 sorties.”… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson)…there were no aircraft losses in Southeast Asia on 20 August 1966….
Oh, happy day…. “He who fights and flies away, lives to fight another day…”
RIPPLE SALVO… #172… “Why can’t we all just get along.” (Rodney King)… Poor LBJ: On the war front the “POL strangulation strategy” wasn’t going well and neither were his efforts to get Ho Chi Minh to the negotiating table. And on the home front, it was another long, hot summer of riots, demonstrations, marches and discord in all quadrants. The poor guy was bent on concurrently waging a war and creating a “Great Society.” Your Humble Host will remain attentive to this dilemma for the duration of this project. LBJs attempt to accomplish both goals proved, in the end, a compete bust. His example, and our national experience in the last five years of the 1960s, has been devalued and largely ignored as a lesson for the ages. Our leaders ignore the lessons of history at our national peril. “A man has to know his limitations”(Clint). So also, a nation has to know its limitations.
In August 1966 LBJ went on the stump in an attempt to restore order, refuel American spirit, and reinforce support for both of his quests–the war and his “Great Society.” Here is an abridged and abbreviated version of his 20 August speech in Kingston, Rhode Island as reported by the NYT….
“Johnson Warns Violence Harms Cause Of Justice”… “President Johnson, in a stern yet compassionate warning to demonstrators across the country, said that ‘social justice cannot be achieved by methods that violate the rights of others.’ He acknowledged that Negroes and other disadvantaged citizens ‘have a right to protest the conditions of their lives,’ a condition he described as ‘a vicious cycle of poverty’ that ‘hobbles the human personality from generation to generation.’ But he stressed that social progress was difficult so long as ‘our society is torn by violence and discord and he reminded demonstrators that although they possess the right of dissent they also carry the responsibility not to ‘injure the person or property of others in making the protest.’ The President spoke under clear and sunny skies before a predominantly student audience at the University of Rhode Island at Kingston at the start of a three day, five state tour of New York and New England. The speech delivered in somber, restrained fashion, was one of Mr. Johnson’s most frequent statements ‘on the relationship between civil peace and social justice’… In sum, it represented an appeal not only to the Negro demonstrators but also to all segments of the population, including the well-to-do, to appreciate the strains that American society is now under and to make every effort to ease them.
‘On every front the dangers are very real: In our cities excess decay; in our economy excess indifference to the public interest; in each the answer is voluntary self-discipline. And that is the duty of every citizen.’… ‘The great source of pressure and aggravation is the gap between the prosperity of the many and the poverty of the minority. People who have been denied basic human rights for centuries begin to demand a share in society. And the gap between what they want and what they have is badly revealed. The proud assertions of our democracy are then challenged. This gap sets up impulses in those who have as well as those who do not. those who ecome fearful of those who are poor become increasingly strident and on occasion violent. Neither attitude is fully justifiable. While both groups have the right to protest. Neither has the right to infringe upon the other. Both possess responsibility.’…”……
Have a great weekend… and RTR will be back to remembering the air war and those came home on their shields tomorrow….
Lest we forget… Bear ………. –30– …………