RIPPLE SALVO… #142… and the war goes on, and on…. but first…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED FORTY-TWO of a review of forty month air war called Rolling Thunder…
21 JULY 1966… ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE HOME TOWN PAPER… New York Times…A sunny, pleasant Thursday in the Old Navy Yard in Brooklyn…
Page1: “Johnson Proposes Parley On POWs To North Vietnam”… “A conference under Red Cross auspices to assure proper treatment of all prisoners of war was proposed to North Vietnam by President Johnson today. He indicated however that the Hanoi Government had shown no interest in similar invitations extended in private. Mr. Johnson said at a news conference that the American people would regard a trial of American prisoners of war as ‘war criminals’ as ‘very revolting and repulsive’ and would react accordingly. But he refused to say what he would do if the trials were held as threatened. It was the President’s first public comment on the vigorous administration to head off the trial and punishment of several dozen airmen in North Vietnamese hands. Although hinting that there would be no executions, Hanoi has not responded in an encouraging way to a series of appeals, including several by American and world figures who have been critical of American tactics in the war. The North Vietnamese have repeatedly refused United States requests that the captured fliers be treated as prisoners of war (who were on bombing missions when captured) and granted protection under the 1949 Geneva Convention on prisoners, to which North Vietnam is a signatory. Hanoi has also refused to deal with the International Committee of the Red Cross, which the President suggested as the sponsor of the meeting he proposed. President ho Chi Minh of North Vietnam promised in two messages to Americans yesterday to treat his enemies in a humanitarian way. His ambassadors in Peking and Prague were reported to have said that trials for war crimes would definitely be held…. Page 1: “Major Collins walks To Near-by Agena And Returns A Space dust Collector”… Gemini has fuel problems and will be coming back a day early but highly successful mission accomplished… Page 1: “Polaris Ballistic Missile Submarine Program Is Ending Today”… with the launching of the 41st and last of the class that “changed the dimensions of strategy.”… Christened: USS Will Rogers.
Page 1: “President Warns Negroes Of Peril To Their Advance”…”President Johnson warned today that disturbances by Negroes in big city slums could jeopardize civil rights gains. The President pointed out that Negroes constituted a 10-per cent minority in the United States. He said he believed that while most of the 90-per cent white majority supported racial equality and justice, and they wanted these to be achieved without violence. The President’s statement was in response to a question at a news conference about whether he believed that such developments as the black power slogan and the racial disturbances in Chicago and Cleveland had created a new antagonism among whites that might hurt the civil rights movement.”…
Page 4: President Johnson responses to Press Conference questions… A question about “developments in Chicago and Cleveland that have created a new antagonism among whites that might adversely effect the civil rights program,?… President; “I am very concerned about the conditions that exist in many of the large cities during this summer. I have talked to the Governor’s that subject this morning and I have been in touch with a number of mayors in most recent days. As I said in a previous press conference, I’m not interested in black power or white power. What I am concerned with is democratic power with a small d. I believe that if we are not to lose a great many of the gains we have made in recent years in treating people equally in this country, and giving them equality in opportunities, and equality in education, equality in employment, then we must recognize that while there’s a Negro minority of 10 per cent in this country, there is a majority of 90-per cent that are not Negroes. But I believe most of those 90 per cent have come around to the viewpoint of wanting to see equality and justice given their fellow citizens. Now they want to see it done under the law. And they want to see it done orderly, and they want to see it done without violence. And I hope that the lawfully constituted authorities in this country, will only obey the law, will not resort to violence; will do everything they can do to cooperate with constituted authority to see that the evil conditions are remedied, that equality in given, and that progress is made. And I shall do everything that’s within my power to see that that is done.”…
Page 4: Writer Tom Wicker: A question about agitation and riots was posed to the President: “Does the administration have any information that the current wave of riots are the work of professional agitators who want to ferment trouble in our major cities?”… President’s response: “Where there is trouble, there are always individuals that suspicion is attached to, but I would not want to say that the protests and the demonstrations are inspired by foreign foes. I so say that on occasions where you find trouble you also find people who do not approve of our systems and who in some instances contribute to the violence that occurs.”… Wicker comment: “The trouble is that as two summers of urban rioting and the emergence of the black power movement show, great numbers of Negroes realize all too well they are only a minority and believe it is democratic power with a small d, of which Mr. Johnson spoke, that has denied them their rights, equality of jobs, and comfort for a full century… Yet change and progress are always slow and inefficient in a democratic society; white moderates can no more remake themselves and their instincts than slum Negroes; and it does little good for either to preach at the other in a language he cannot understand about the values he finds irrelevant of unworthy. Perhaps seldom before has it been so true that all Americans have promises to keep and miles to go before we sleep.”
21 JULY 1966…THE PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEF…CIA (TS sanitized)…South Vietnam: Ky mentioned to Ambassador Lodge today that he thinks the time has come to establish a rallying point in North Vietnam for what he believes are many fervent antigovernment elements there. He advocates a parachute drop of a battalion of about 400 men, all Vietnamese, at a point in the mountains south of the 19th parallel. the men would be close to the sea and could be supplied at night by planes. the premier believes these troops could conduct sabotage operations, terrorism and help political uprisings. Ambassador Lodge apparently had no comment… Communist China: Peking is making new efforts to counter speculation in the West that North Vietnamese resolve may be weakening…
21 JULY 1966…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times…Page 4: “2 Jets Down In North Vietnam, Bringing US Total To 300″…”Two United States planes went down over North Vietnam yesterday raising the total lost in the war to 300. American planes encountered what a spokesman described as numerous surface-to-air missiles during strikes on oil depots and communication lines. One of the two planes lost was a Marine A-4 Skyhawk which was shot down by ground fire 25 miles Southeast of Dong hoi, the pilot was rescued. The other was an Air Force F-105D which went down 85 miles Northwest of Hanoi. the pilot is missing. No MIGs were seen during the day. In recent weeks the North Vietnamese have filled the skies with the 36-foot flying telephone pole. they have sent up at least 100 since July 5. They fired 29 on Tuesday, a record for one day. they followed up with nine on Wednesday. the two planes lost yesterday brought to 300 the number officially announced lost since the United states air offensive against North Vietnam was initiated in February, 1965…
“Vietnam: Air Losses: (Chris Hobson)… Two aircraft lost as reported by NYT…
(1) MAJOR H.N. LEVIN, USMC was flying an A-4E of the VMA-224 squadron and MAG-12 out of Chu Lai on a strike mission in the area just north of the DMZ that became known as the “Tally-HO” area… MAJOR LEVIN was hit by 37mm ground fire 12 miles north of the EDMZ while attacking a bridge. He turned seaward with his crippled aircraft and was forced to eject 10 miles offshore and was rescued by a Marine helicopter and returned to the fighta few days later…
(2) CAPTAIN RAINFORD TIFFIN was flying an F-105D of the 388th TFW out of Korat on a strike mission to POL storage site 10 miles north of Yen Bai. CAPTAIN TIFFIN aircraft was struck by antiaircraft ground fire approaching the target and was unable to eject and was Killed in Action in the ensuing crash in the target area. There were no transmissions or beeper heard or parachute seen. Fifty years ago this day CAPTAIN RAINFORD TIFFIN was Killed In Action while carrying the fight to the enemy in his homeland… He rests in peace… (crash site known + pilot did not eject = recovery and identification of remains for burial at home?… not reported)… Still missing?…
RIPPLE SALVO… #142… “VIETNAM’S ORDEAL CONTINUES”…
An OpEd from the New York Times (19 July) that sums up the prospects for an end to the war…. I quote…
Developments this past weekend have demolished any faint hope that there might be peace negotiations and a cease-fire in Vietnam in the near future. In Moscow, Prime Minister Gandhi of India received a total rebuff to her suggestion that the Soviet Union and Britain use their positions as co-chairmen of the Geneva conference to reconvene that meeting to seek peace in Vietnam. Mrs. Gandhi’s statement indicates the Kremlin has given Hanoi what amounts to a veto over any independent Soviet initiatives to end the fighting. President Ho Chi Minh’s tough speech spelled out once again North Vietnam’s obdurate opposition to peace on any terms but its own, and proclaimed a willingness to fight on for decades if necessary. Against this background there can be no expectation Prime Minister Wilson’s current effort in Moscow will have success, especially since Soviet Communist Party chief Brezhnev pointedly left town on vacation the same day Wilson arrived. Perhaps the most ominous aspect of the latest development is the increasing evidence Chinese Communist influence over Hanoi’s policy. Thus Ho Chi Minh’s assertions that regardless of how long the war continues the Vietnamese will someday make their country more beautiful than ever was essentially a paraphrase of Mao Tse-tung’s claim that humanity would have a bright future even after a nuclear war. Similarly, the Hanoi regime’s organ, Nhan Dan, was echoing Peking rather than Moscow when assailed Yugoslavia leader as ‘Traitor Tito’ and accused him along with Mr. Wilson and Premier Sato of Japan as being U.S. accomplices who are committing crimes. For the moment, at least, the outlook is for indefinite continuation of the war in Vietnam, and of the ordeal this represents for the Vietnamese people as well as for American and other foreign soldiers there. Soviet Premier Kosygin said last week that ‘it is possible and necessary to seek patiently for ways of resolving the existing differences among states.’ If Moscow could end its current paralysis and apply that sound principle to Vietnam and all it dangerous potentials, there might be a new hope and a brighter outlook.”
Kosygin: …”It is possible and necessary to seek patiently for ways of resolving the existing differences among states.”
Rodney King: “Why can’t we all just get along?” and Patton answered: “Rodney, it is because: ‘Man loves to fight. Always has and always will.”
To which Plato interjected: “And that is why I will always be right when I say: Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
Lest we forget…. Bear ……… –30– ……….