RIPPLE SALVO… #717… USA TODAY IDENTIFIES 1968 as a “VIOLENT VOLCANO THAT NEVER STOPPED ERUPTING IN RECRIMINATIONS AND ASSASSINATIONS, DAILY CASUALTY COUNTS AND DEMONSTRATIONS, AND NIGHTLY TELEVISED VIOLENCE AND UNREST…. A YEAR OF CHAOS AND CHANGE…. EVENTS CONFUSED AND FRIGHTENED US… BUT WE COULD SEE A BETTER FUTURE.”… Sorry, USA Today, Jules Witcover had it right in his book: “The Year The Dream Died: Revisiting 1968 In America“… but first…
Good Morning: Day SEVEN HUNDRED SEVENTEEN of remembering the events and heroic warriors of Vietnam, and in particular, the aviators who dared to carry the war into the heartland of North Vietnam… The Yankee Air Pirates of Operation Rolling Thunder…
20 FEBRUARY 1968… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a cold and cloudy Tuesday in New York City…
THE GROUND WAR/KHESANH: Page 1: “FOE HURLED BACK FROM KEY VILLAGE NEAR SAIGON–POINT WITHIN MORTAR RANGE OF BASE TAKEN IN 8 HOURS–Allies Stalled In Hue–Hanoi Reports Big Gain–Says Drive Brought Mastery Over Much Of Countryside, But U.S. Disputes Claim”... “An enemy force a more than 300 seized a village within easy mortar range of Tansonnhut air base and General William C. Westmoreland’s headquarters yesterday and held it for eight hours before being driven bask. Striking in mid-morning, the Vietcong troops quickly overran the police station and the market place in the village of Tanthoi. United States armored vehicles and South Vietnamese troops rushed to the village and fought the enemy with machine guns and mobile cannons. It was the key battle in a day of renewed fighting on the outskirts of Saigon. at another point, eight miles northwest of the city an enemy force opened fire on a United States patrol column. At least six United States infantrymen were killed and 28 wounded in the clashes. Enemy casualties were undetermined. The attacks came as the Hanoi radio asserted that offensives against South Vietnamese centers had diverted allied attention from the rural areas are given Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces ‘mastery over extremely large areas of the countryside.’… Vice President acknowledged at a news conference that the offensives had halted the pacification program and had a temporary psychological impact, but he said that they had failed to attain their objectives.’… Bitter fighting continued in or around three major south Vietnamese cities in addition to Saigon. In Hue 300 miles north of Saigon, United states Marine and South Vietnamese units were stalled in their persistent efforts to drive the Vietcong and North Vietnamese units from an ancient Citadel strongpoint that they have held for 20 consecutive days….Heavy fighting was also reported around Phanthiet, 70 miles east of Saigon, where Vietcong forces overran a hospital and a jail Sunday. ‘So far 102 enemy have been killed in this operation,’ the United states military command said…. Page 2: “MARINES ADVANCE AGAINST CITADEL IN HUE STALLED–U.S. TROOPS RAISE A FLAG BUT ENEMY BLOCKS DRIVE–Tanks Repulsed By Rockets–2 Journalists Wounded”…
Page 2: “A Chaplain Chooses To Stay At the Front And Dies–Marines Recall A Friendly Guy Who Was With Them In The Battle For Hue”… (Humble Host calls your attention to the biography of Father Vincent Capodanno, who died a heroes death at Hue and was awarded the MEDAL OF HONOR (Posthumously)). Read at;
http://www.milarch.org/father-capodanno-bio/
Page 4: “Senator Fulbright Opens Seminar With A Vietnam Twist”… Page 5: “Grandson of General “Blackjack” Pershing Killed in Vietnam”… Page 15: “Senator Eastland Offers a Security Bill–It Would Make Aid To Hanoi Punishable As Treason”… Page 18: “A Closing Missile Gap: Although The Soviet Is Catching Up, U.S. Banks On Mutual Deterrence”… Page 26: “Hopes Dim For Rights Action–Chances Of Closing Debate Fades As Dirksen Balks”… Page 28 Governor George Romney Scores Vietnam War In Wisconsin Campaign Speech”… Page 31: “Nixon Gains On Johnson”… Page 31: “Governor Tom Connally Contends Kennedy Criticism Of War Hurts U.S.”…
State Department, Office of the Historian, Historical Documents, Foreign Relations 1964-68 Vietnam, Volume 6: Document 78. “A Memorandum of Conversation” that Ambassador-at-Large Averell Harriman had with U Thant, Secretary General of the UN, that is addressed to President Johnson to prepare the President for a meeting with Thant on 21 February … The principal agenda item for the meeting is Thant’s pressure for the US to take a chance on halting the bombing of North Vietnam and trusting Ho Chi Minh to make a reciprocal move toward de-escalation of the war… read at:
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d78
20 FEBRUARY 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times…Page 1: “In the Khesahn area in the northwest corner of South Vietnam, where two to three North Vietnamese divisions are massed, American marines were harassed by mortar fire in a 24-hour period. United States aircraft struck back with heavy bombing and strafing raids in the area. U.S. aircraft also flew 65 missions over North Vietnam, blasting two airfields as well as missile and radar sites near Hanoi, and they attacked storage areas and lines of communication in widely scattered areas of the country.”… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 20 February 1968…
From the Compilation “34TFS/F-105 History” by Howie Plunkett: 20-Feb-68... “On 20 February 1968 the 44 TFS at Korat converted to an all two seat F-105F squadron to fly only the Wild Weasel and Commando Nail missions. The squadron gave up their F-105Ds and ‘strike pilots were either attacked or assigned to the two other fighter-bomber squadrons (34TFS and 469 TFS). Their fleet of ‘Fs’ included six “2098s” (night radar bombing modifications), five ‘Combat Martin’ (Special electronic counter-measures aircraft), and 12 Wild Weasel III aircraft.”
“The 12 assigned F-105F ‘Wild Weasel III’ aircraft were utilized primarily in the hunter-killer (Iron Hand) role against radar-controlled enemy surface-to-air missile sites and radar controlled (FIRECAN) anti-aircraft artillery (AAA). Six of the ‘Wild Weasel III’ aircraft were dual capable in that they also possessed the radar equipment to perform the COMMANDO NAIL(night radar bombing) mission. These were the remainder of the wing’s ‘Fs’ which had been modified early in 1967 with the inception of COMMANDO NAIL.”…
RIPPLE SALVO… #717… Humble Host will make this post short in order to give you time to check out the 19 February 2018 USA TODAY episode of their year-long 50-year remembrance: “1968: A Year of Chaos and Change.” The focus yesterday was on the contributions of Cassius Clay cum Muhammad Ali to the history of our times, with emphasis on his conscientious objector dodge of the draft that didn’t work for him. And how “The Greatest” never-the-less emerged to be “the greatest” in the eyes of most of the world. Humble Host is among those who continue to be reviled by his conduct. Muhammad Ali was no Private Joe Louis, but he could have been. For the USA Today look-back at 1968 start with…
https://www.usatoday.com/sixty-eight
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/02/19/1968-project-muhammad-ali-vietnam-war/334759002/
Humble Host will be following and reviewing the USA Today “project” for the remainder of the year..
RTR Quote for 20 February: GEORGE PATTON, JR., 6 June 1944: “Cowards are those who let their timidity get the better of their manhood.”
Lest we forget… Bear