RIPPLE SALVO… #381… GUAM II and HO CHI MINH’s DISCLOSURES STIFLE PEACE TALK… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED EIGHTY-ONE of a return to the air war called Rolling Thunder...
21 March 1967… HEAD LINES and LEADS from the OGDEN STANDARD-EXAMINER (the library can’t find the NYT 21-31 March 1967 tapes)… on a sunny and warm Tuesday on the slopes of Mount Ogden…
Page 4: For Dutch… “World-Circling Sailor Takes Ketch Past Stormy Cape Horn”… “Sir Francis Chichester sailing all alone around the world in the 53-foot ketch, Gypsy Moth IV, reportedly has rounded the most perilous part of his voyage…He left England and made his first stop, Sydney, Australia in 107-days. He is planning on reaching Plymouth, England by May 18…” oohrah… for a real rugged individual!!!
Page 1: “Guam Meeting ‘Constructive,’ LBJ Says, Departs For US”...”President Johnson said today after two days of talks on the cloud shrouded island of Guam were instructive and productive but produced no momentous decisions. Holding a surprise news conference before he took off for Honolulu and Washington, Johnson said: ‘We took no decisions of a military nature.’ South Vietnam’s Nguyen Cao Ky and Chief of State Nguyen Van Thieu flew back to Saigon and as soon as they arrived Thieu announced that before this Guam conference his government had asked North Vietnam to join in a peace meeting. But he said no answer had been received from Hanoi. ‘If Hanoi is ready to discuss peace with us, we are ready to meet with them.’ While at Guam Ky made an emotional appeal for United American support that concluded: ‘There is no reason that you or other people should impose on us to surrender or accept domination from the Communists. We are willing to fight.’ “… Page 2: “Johnson At Guam: ‘I don’t think Hanoi is going to get much encouragement from thinking she can divide the American people’…’We are leaving Guam feeling hopeful and that we have had a very constructive two days.’… ‘There has been great progress.’…’We made as smooth a transition as we could–Bunker for Lodge as Ambassador.’… Ky: ‘Everybody tried to impose on us this condition–stop bombing, stop bombing. I think it is our turn to say something about this.’ “… FOR MINUTES OF MEETING:
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d116
Page 1: “Yank Guns Tear Cong to Ribbons”... “A regiment of 2,500 Communists hurled human wave after wave assaults at American positions near Cambodia today but American infantrymen, artillery, and aircraft sent the Reds reeling back with 423 bodies strewn over the jungle battlefield…remnants of the crack 272nd Viet Cong Regiment, which is heavily laced with North Vietnamese regulars, were sent fleeing across the Cambodian border.”… Page 1: “Blast Ravages Giant Oil Tanker”...”A violent explosion rocked the engine room of the stranded super tanker Torrey Canyon today and halted salvage operations…reports that the tanker, which still has 80,000 tons of oil aboard, was on fire mobilized a fleet of rescue ships and British Navy helicopters took off the ship’s captain, three crewmen and two salvage officers. The 61,263-ton tanker lay crippled and deserted at Land’s End, Seven Stone Reef on England’s shores, which have claimed many marine victims over the centuries.”...Page 4: “Apollo Nears End; Fire Cause Still Sought”... “A board of review expects to conclude its probe of the Apollo 1 fire within a few days without pinpointing the exact cause of the January 27 fire that killed astronauts Grissom, White and Young.”... Page 3: “Stubborn Winter Weather Hangs On”… “Spring heralded in song and verse as a time for budding flowers and first thoughts of love, was ushered in today by deep snow, freezing cold and storms. The northeast: 10-inches of snow. Thunderstorms with several inches of rain in Houston. Hail in San Antonio. Tornadoes in Texas. Bitter cold in Minnesota. Fair and warmer at 60-degrees in Ogden…”
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM… LIEUTENANT ROBERT W. BURNAND, JR., UNITED STATES NAVY (RESERVE)…the NAVY CROSS…12-16 OCTOBER 1966…
“The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the NAVY CROSS to ROBERT W. BURNAND JR., LIEUTENANT, UNITED STATES NAVY (RESERVE), for EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM in action through 12 to 16 October 1966 while serving in a detachment of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron SIX (HS-6), temporarily embarked in U.S.S. INTREPID (CVS-11), flying as Plane Commander of an armored search and rescue helicopter during a series of related rescue missions in support of combat operations in Southeast Asia. LIEUTENANT BURNAND was vectored to an inland area of North Vietnam on three separate search and rescue flights in valiant attempts to rescue a downed Navy pilot. Although encountering severe enemy ground fire, he persisted in his attempts to locate and rescue the survivor. During the final search into the same area, he and his crew demonstrated fearless bravery while under fire. An accompanying helicopter was riddled by intense enemy automatic-weapons fire which completely disabled one of its engines, forcing it to retire toward the sea. Observing this action, and realizing that it was absolutely mandatory that the operation continue in the same location, LIEUTENANT BURNAND and his crew decided to take a calculated risk and expose themselves to enemy fire in a valiant attempt to thwart the North Vietnamese and complete their mission. By executing evasive maneuvers and effectively directing accurate counter-fire at the enemy, he and his crew suppressed enemy resistance to such an extent that they successfully completed their assigned mission. By his outstanding courage, exceptional skill and fearless devotion to duty, LIEUTENANT BURNAND upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”
21 MARCH 1967…Operation Rolling Thunder...Ogden Standard-Examiner… Page 1: “Heavy weather over North Vietnam limited U.S. air strikes. Sixty-two missions were flown, mostly against coastal resupply targets though there was another raid–the fourth–on the Thai Nguyen power plant 35 miles north of Hanoi… “Vietnam: Air Losses”(Hobson)…There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 21 March 1967…
(1) LT PAUL CLAUDE CHARVET was flying an A-1H of the VA-215 Arabs embarked in the USS Bon Homme Richard on a Sea Dragon patrol off the coast of North Vietnam in very bad weather. LT CHARVET is presumed to have crashed in the area of Hon Me Island and remains where he fell 50 years ago from today. He rests in peace…
(2) LT I.R. EGES and MAJOR C.W. HETHERINGTON were flying an F-4C of the 433rd TFS and 8th TFW out of Ubon and had a mid-air with another aircraft over Thailand. Both aviators ejected and were rescued…
RIPPLE SALVO… #381… Guam II… (From “The Pentagon Papers” (Gravel ed.) pgs. 150-51)…
“During the Guam Conference one of the more unusual, unexpected and inexplicable developments of the entire war occurred. Hanoi, for reasons still unclear, decide to make public the exchange of letters between President Johnson and Ho during the Tet truce. The North Vietnamese Foreign Ministry released the texts of the two letters to the press on March 21 while the President, his advisors, and the South Vietnamese leadership were all closeted in Guam reviewing the progress of the war. Hanoi must have calculated that it would embarrass the President, make the South Vietnamese suspicious of U.S. intentions, and enhance their own peaceful image. By admitting past contacts with the U.S., however, the DRV assumed some of the direct responsibility for the failure of the peace efforts. Moreover, the President’s letter was conciliatory and forthcoming whereas Ho’s was cold and uncompromising. In any case, the disclosure did the President no harm with public opinion, a miscalculation which must have disappointed Hanoi greatly. After their return to Washington McNaughton (#2 in OSD) sent McNamara a memo with some State Department observations on other aspects of the disclosures:
‘Bill Bundy’s experts read this into Ho Chi Minh’s release of the Johnson–Ho exchange of letters: (a) Ho thereby ‘played the world harp,’ thereby ‘losing’ in the Anglo-Saxon world; (b) to Ho’s Hanoi public, he ‘told off the Americans,’ showing the hard-line but simultaneously reiterating the Burchett line (which China did not like); (c) in the process of quoting the President’s letter, Ho leaked the fact of previous exchanges, thereby admitting past contacts and preparing the public of future ones; and, (d) he ignored the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong).’
“The most obvious effect of the disclosure, however, was to throw cold water on any hope for an early break in the Washington-Hanoi deadlock.” end quote…
CAG’s QUOTES for 21 March: ALEXANDER HAMILTON: “A nation despicable by its weakness forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.”… PATTON: “Battles are won by a few brave men who refuse to fear and who push on.”…
Lest we forget…. Bear