RIPPLE SALVO… #563… Humble Host reminds: The Ken Burns production “The Vietnam War” is through December 1965 with about 7 years to go (and 7 episodes). Rolling Thunder is covered well, so far… Also…
JAMES RESTON WRITES: “Shouldering Out of Haiphong Port Carries U.S. Policy Into New Phase”… but first…
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED SIXTY-THREE of a return to a bloody chapter of American history written 50 years ago in the air over North Vietnam… it was called “the air war, ” but if you were there it was “Rolling Thunder.”….
20 September 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a fair and pleasant Wednesday in NYC…
Page 1: The Lead: “Rumanian Heads General Assembly of U.N.–First Red in Post–Manescu, Foreign Minister, Receives All Except One of 113 Votes Cast–Vietnam Peace Urged–Thant in Report, Declares International Situation Has Worsened Considerably”… “Corneliu Manescu, Rumania’s Foreign Minister was elected President of the 23rd session of the General Assembly at its opening today…In his speech of acceptance Mr. Manescu called for an end of war in Vietnam and warned of the danger and futility of attempting in any international crisis to impose a solution from outside by force and against the wishes of those concerned…he said he has no plans–just hope–for a UN initiative to end the Vietnam was…the crisis should be solved through the application of ‘established means.’ ‘... Page 1: “Thant Asks Limit on ‘Micro States”… “…sees the threat to Organization in full Membership for all small nations…a line has to be drawn somewhere–full membership in the 122-nation organization for an increasing number of sparsely populated, economically weak, and politically inexperienced states ‘could lead to a weakening of the U.N. itself.”…
FALL IN AMERICA 1967: Page 11: “160-MPH Storm Beulah Menaces Texas–Governor Connally Mobilizes Guard–Many Flee Brownsville”... “Winds gusting up to 70-mph felled giant palms and raised havoc across the lower Rio Grande as Hurricane Beulah kept edging toward shore early today…warnings up to Matagorda Bay…extremely dangerous hurricane… Page 14: “Rusk At west Coast Reception to Win Support on Vietnam”… “California Democrats anxious to give local discussion of the Vietnam war a less partisan cast…two dozen members of ‘Peace Action Council’ were at the scene to picket Mr. Rusk.”... Page 3: “Carmichael Visits Syria”... “A three-day visit at the invitation of the Syrian Government…Al Baath newspaper has Stokely Carmichael’s picture on page 1 with caption: ‘Arab Syria Welcomes Leader of Black Revolution.”... Page 28: “Kennedy Backers Vow to Continue–Say They Won’t Stop Until ‘NO’ is Unequivocal”... “A leader of a citizen’s group promoting Senator Robert F. Kennedy for the Democratic Presidential nomination said today that the group would continue its efforts unless the Senator moved ‘unequivocably’ to stop them. representative Charles O. Porter of Oregon is co-chair of the Citizens Committee for Kennedy in ’68″… Page 31: “Race Integration in Suburbs Urged–Paul Douglas, Chairman of the President’s Commission on Urban Problems, Tells Hadassah Unit Housing Bias Must End”… “Speaking in Miami Beach to 2,000 delegates to the 53rd Convention of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Douglas said: “Unless widespread housing desegregation was accomplished in the nation’s suburbs, ‘America will be torn by the sharp hostility of the affluent white suburbs and the Negroes living in the cities.’ “...Page 33: “Hartford Police Seize 36 Youths–Tear Gas Used in 2nd Night of Racial Disorders”… “Gathering in bands of 30 and running through the city hurling rocks at cars and store windows. Mayor George Kensala: ‘It is unbelievable. These kids are running through the city yelling for blood.’ “…
VIETNAM: Page 14: “Air General Cites Need for Land War”… “Lieutenant General William W. Momyer, Commander of the Seventh Air Force, said today that bombing of North Vietnam could bring the war to a conclusion, only in combination with ‘continuous pressure’ on enemy ground forces in the South. In this respect, he appeared to differ with members of Congress who have asserted that all-out bombing would bring North Vietnam to the negotiating table. ‘We must seek with our bombing to make it as difficult as possible for him (North Vietnam) to support his forces in the South, to disrupt his supply lines to the maximum extent, and to destroy targets of military value. Combine that air action with continuous pressure that you’ve got to exert in the South. You’ve got to seek him out and destroy him wherever you can. In my judgement, it’s a combination of these two pressures that hold the best hope of bringing this thing to a successful conclusion.’ General Momyer was speaking at a Saigon briefing.
“Page 1: “Four Chiefs Of Volunteer Unit in Vietnam Quit Over War”… “The director and three key field staff members of a major volunteer agency financed by the United states Government have resigned in protest against the war in Vietnam. The International Volunteer Services in a letter to the President calls the war ‘an overwhelming atrocity.’ …’We have seen enough to say that the only monuments to this war will be the dead, the maimed, the despairing and the forlorn. The trend has been escalation of the war. We say the trend should be de-escalation of the war.’ …The organization has 170 volunteers and seeks to help the Vietnamese at the village and hamlet level teaching English, training refugees, working on agricultural projects and assisting widows and orphans. the volunteers live, eat and work with the Vietnamese and earn $80 per month on two-year tours.”…
20 September 1967…The President’s TS Daily CIA Brief… North Vietnam: Hanoi Comments on Anti-Infiltration Barrier: Comment is still parsed on Hanoi radio, but what there is disparages the proposed barrier by quoting US and other Western press comments that the installation will be costly, futile and will pin down large numbers of men in static defense…Hanoi describes the barrier as an attempt to curb the movement of South Vietnamese patriotic forces,” thus avoiding even an oblique admission that North Vietnamese troops are moving into the South.
20 SEPTEMBER 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (21 Sept reporting 20 Sept ops) Page 4: “69 Missions Are Flown–Bad Weather Grounds Navy Planes”… “Bad weather brought the air offensive to a virtual standsti8ll. air force and Marine pilots flew 61 missions but for the first time since last October the carrier based fighter-bombers did not fly. ‘There is no point risking aircraft and men in this weather,’ said a military spokesman, referring to the rain and thick fog blanketing both the Gulf of Tonkin and the targets in the southern panhandle and around Haiphong.”… (“roll the movie…”)
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 20 September 1967…
19 September 1967… At the President’s Tuesday luncheon there were a few pertinent comments on bombing policy. “Secretary McNamara said there was no need for new targets to be approved this week since the JCS has 49 targets already authorized but not struck. The Secretary said improved jamming techniques have prevented loss of any aircraft using the new Air Force devices. The Secretary said it may be necessary to begin escorting reconnaissance aircraft since one was shot down by enemy jets this week. They previously had been flying without escort (Air Force only)… Secretary McNamara said it will be 3-6 months before we get the barrier working along the DMZ. He said he would like to have it operational by November…”
RIPPLE SALVO… #563… “TARGETS IN THE NORTH” by James Reston… “Shouldering Out of Haiphong Port Carries U.S. Policy Into New Phase”… NYT, 21 September 1967, Page 2……..
United States air raids on North Vietnam in the last few days have continued a process described as “shouldering out” the port of Haiphong. Military leaders have long urged that they be allowed to bomb the Haiphong docks or mine the Haiphong harbor–and should be permitted to do everything possible to isolate the principle port city of North Vietnam–which is known to be clogged with imported equipment–by bombing bridges, railroad yards and communication facilities. A railroad and a bridge, both not far from the center of Haiphong were struck for the third time Monday the 18th in the “shouldering-out” operation. These attacks, along with an earlier raid on the docks at Cam Pha, one of North Vietnam’s three major ports, and the raids on bridges and rail yards near China’s border, have led to reports that President Johnson had overruled Secretary McNamara and the Administration is divided over United States bombing policy.
But well informed sources say these reports are exaggerated. There are differences, they say, but no major split in the Administration’s Vietnam policy. The relationship between the President and Mr. McNamara is considerably more subtle than the reports that the Defense Secretary was “overruled” would suggest, they said.
The President’s policy in Vietnam is still one of “gradualism”–of gradually increasing the pressure both in the North and the South. During 1967, the form of pressure most easily recognized by the public has been the addition of new and hitherto forbidden targets to the target list’
Until August 8, forbidden and restricted areas had barred some of the most important targets in North Vietnam to American fliers. a circular area with a radius extending 10 miles from the center of Hanoi and an area with a 4-mile radius from the center of Haiphong were “forbidden.” Targets within these circles could be bombed only by White House permission, and even re-strikes required Presidential approval.
Thus, the Longbien bridge formerly known as the Paul Doumer bridge across the Red River in Hanoi, has been bombed once only. It is perhaps the single most important target as far as impeding the flow of supplies is concerned. Interdiction bombing requires continuous re-strikes to prevent the repair of bridges, or the construction of new ones as bypasses. Yet the Lonbien bridge has been bombed only once.
In addition to the forbidden areas, a “restricted” circle with an additional radius extended around Hanoi, and an additional restricted buffer zone extending 30 miles from the Chinese border. Certain targets within these restricted areas, such as missile sites that were interfering with approved bombing operations, could be struck without special permission, but others required approval.
On August 8, Admiral Grant Sharp, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, who directs the bombing of North Vietnam arrived in Washington to testify the next day before the Senate Preparedness Sub-Committee of the Senate Armed Services Committee headed by Senator John Stennis, democrat of Mississippi.
He was given a new Rolling Thunder message–Rolling Thunder being the code name applied to the bombing of North Vietnam (HUMBLE HOST NOTES THAT THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I HAVE READ THE CODE NAME FOR THE AIR WAR IN THE OPEN PRESS, NYT 21 Sept 1967). The message listed many new targets that the military had unanimously urged on many occasions should be included in the approved target list.
A censored version of Admiral’s testimony before the committee was made public yesterday in Washington. He urged the mining of Haiphong harbor as one of the ways to end the war and that Haiphong was the center through which most of the military hardware from the Soviet Union and other Communist nations arrives in the North….
The new targets left the forbidden zones in tact but included many targets in the restricted zones and in the quadrants northeast and northwest of Hanoi. Some observers say that, in effect, the restricted zones have been eliminated.
The effects of the new policy were particularly important in the interdiction of the rail and road lines from North Vietnam into China. The restricted zones had meant that normally about one third of the most important railroad into China could not be bombed. Bridges, defiles, rail yards and tunnels near the Chinese border had been immune.
Still more targets were added to the list in August and in early September as the Stennis subcommittee held its hearings and released its recommendations. at the time the Secretary of Defense McNamara testified on August 25, however, the targets important to the “shouldering-out” process within the four mile forbidden circle has not been added to the list.
The secretary’s testimony included a fervent and detailed argument against the effectiveness of “bombing the ports and mining the harbor” of North Vietnam.
He said that a very small part of the military equipment imported for the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong came through Haiphong and that in any case, many ships did not use the docks at Haiphong. They unloaded into barges off shore and then were dispersed at night and in bad weather to many points along the North Vietnamese coast and up rivers.
Nevertheless, after he finished testifying, Congressional informants said that the targets that are important to the “shouldering-out” process around Haiphong have been approved to bottle up Haiphong, but not as yet for bombing its docks or mining its port. A factor in this decision is believed to have been the imminence of the northeast monsoon season, with its bad weather and low visibility, which will reduce the weight and effectiveness of the United States bombing effort.
Some observers believe that, when the monsoons fully compel a reduction of the bombing effort, the President might then agree to another bombing pause “to spike the doves,” but at the same time when such a pause would be less important to American strategy.
It is Secretary McNamara’s complete support of the policies of his Commander-in-Chief that is most valued by the President. Mr. McNamara can be, and has been, a lightning rod for Presidential decisions. The President knows that the Secretary will never willingly allow a hint of disagreement with his chief to leak from the Pentagon and that Mr. McNamara will gladly shoulder the blame for decisions made by the President….
RTR QUOTE for 20 September: SENECA: “Loyalty is the holiest good in the human heart.”…
Lest we forget… Bear