RIPPLE SALVO… #504… LOOK MAGAZINE, 25 JULY 1967…FELIX GREENE GIVES Greasy, Cat, Rabbit and Pigeye, et. al., a free pass… all’s well in VEGAS, BRIARPATCH and THE ZOO… but first…
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED FOUR of a trip back through the bloody and brutal history of OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER and the warriors who laid it on the line for our country and each other fifty years ago…
22 JULY 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a hot and humid Saturday with rain a-coming in the Bronx…
SUMMER 1967 in America: Page 1: “McKissick Holds End of Violence Is Up To Whites–CORE Leader, At Meeting of Black Power, Warns of Further Rioting”… “Leaders of the National Conference on Black Power rejected the concept that Negroes were solely responsible for preventing racial violence in Negro ghettos. They said the classic responsibility rest with white people. ‘Bad conditions make for violence,’ said Floyd McKissick, chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality. ‘White people control the government, the money and the ghettos…’ asked if he thought rioting would continue in cities across the country, Mr. McKissick said he did ‘No sane person could say we are not due for more violence,’ he asserted. ‘You will have violence as long as you have black people suppressed.’ Leaders of the conference were jubilant–the original 400 attendees is now at 700 with 1,000 expected for the three remaining days of the 4 day meeting in Newark. Organizations attending include black nationalist groups: ‘US’ from Watts; Harlem Mau Mau; and the organization for Aftro-American Unity formed by Malcolm X who was slain in 1965.”… Page 1: “Hated and Pity Mix In Views of Whites On Newark Negroes”… “White citizens of this city’s 405,000 residents speak with a confused mixture of hatred, fear and compassion about Negroes who rioted here for five days. More than 150 interviews with white people–who form minority of Newark’s total population–showed that some residents and merchants are planning to leave Newark, and that many homeowners are attempting to buy weapons. Most of the white people interviewed spoke of Negroes with open hatred. But at the same time there were people were called Negroes ‘good people and good neighbor.’ And there were residents of the city and its prosperous suburbs who formed or joined organizations to help Negro victims of riots.”… Page 1: “Inglewood N.J. Beset By Brief Violence–3 Policemen Hurt Quelling Negro Youths–Troops Sent in Minneapolis–National Guard Called Up After Three Nights of Fires in Racially Troubled North Side.”…
MIDEAST: Page 1: “U.N. 63-26, Turns Crisis in Mideast To Security Council–Soviet Fails in Effort to Get General Assembly to Call for Israel Withdrawal–Session is Adjourned–Arabs Reject a Compromise Worked Out in Talks With Americans”… “The Soviet Union’s campaign to win a General Assembly demand for the withdrawal of Israel’s forces from the territory of three Arab states ended in failure tonight. the Assembly voted to send the Middle East issue back tothe Security Council…as a matter of urgency.”
VIETNAM-here and there: “Page 1: “Deficit In Budget Hits $9.9-Billion as War Costs Rise–Exceeds Johnson’s Original Estimate for Fiscal Year 1967 By $8.1-Billion–$11-Billion Indicated in May–Final Total Deficit 2d Highest Since World War II–Exceeded Only by Deficit in 1959″… Page 1: “Ky Announces a 50,000-Man Build-up”… “…an increase in force structure for South Vietnam and an overhaul for the nation’s defense structure.”...Page 1: “McNamara Defends Statements On Course of the War”... ‘I do not consider it optimistic to cite the progress that has been made. I do not consider it pessimistic to cite the problems which remain.’…McNamara said he wanted to set the record straight.”… Page 1: “Eisenhower Scores War of Gradualism”... “Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower believes itis time for Congress to decide whether to declare war in Vietnam. the General thinks we cannot win a ‘war of gradualism’ there, and that the nation’s other goals should be relegated to second place. He also believes that the nation would not need a tax increase if the nation ‘had set its priorities earlier’…Views were in a newsletter published by the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee.”…
Page 3: “MIG Killers Tell How”… (this short article replicates the previous days report of the downing of 3 MIGs by Bonnie Dick F-8 pilots)… “In the air war, United States Navy pilots told today while heavily outnumbered they shot down three MIG-17s and probably destroyed a fourth in a seven minute dog fight at 600-miles per hour over North Vietnam. The leader of the five plane flight of F-8 Crusaders from the carrier Bon Homme Richard, Commander Marlon Isaacks, who shot down one of the planes said it was the first taste of aerial combat for him and all but one of his pilots.’You get to be a pro in a hurry in this business.’ The F-8 pilots were flying cover for fighter-bombers attacking petroleum storage depots in Myxa, 27 miles northwest of the port city of Haiphong, when eight to ten of the MIGs darted out of the clouds. It was the first time the North Vietnamese planes had risen against American raiders in more than a month.
“Isaacks: ‘There were about four or five of them a mile and a half ahead of me. They seemed to be heading away. I popped off a missile and had the pleasure to see it go into one of them and explode.‘ LCDR Ray Hubbard, the only one of the pilots who had seen combat before said he got his MIG with an air-to-ground rocket that was meant for hitting anti-aircraft sites. ‘It was not guideable, but it was all I had. After firing all four rockets (5″ Zunis), I closed in at 6-o’clock and shot the rest of my 20-mm ammunition. As I pulled up I saw him eject.’… LCDR Robert Kirkwood knocked his MIG out of the air with 20-mm cannon fire. Commander Isaacks returned to the carrier with a hole two-feet in diameter in one wing…”…
Page 1: “GI Force Evades Trap And Kills 90”--Outnumbered Unit Puts Own Dead at 13″… “The United States 11th Armored Cavalry regiment outnumbered three to one reported having killed 90 Vietcong in a two-hour battle 30 miles northeast of Bienhoa…the Vietcong were preparing an ambush when surprised by the American force of 200… United States Marines also ran into heavy fighting. Two companies were conducting sweeps in Quangtri and Thuathein Province. In one engagement nine enemy and 2 marines were killed and enemy casualties are unknown. A Korean unit killed 47 enemy troops in a 75-minute clash in the Central Highlands.”…
22 July 1967… The President’s TS Daily CIA Brief…NORTH VIETNAM: Hanoi is making elaborate preparations to keep its key rail lines open. Recent photography shows that the North Vietnamese have already completed a pontoon bridge and ferry bypass for the mile long Doumer Bridge across the Red River just east of Hanoi–a bridge that has not been attacked. similar precautions have been noted for the nearby Hanoi Railroad Highway Bridge that was damaged by air strikes in April. Both of these bridges are on the line between Hanoi and Pinghsiang–the chief route for transporting supplies from Communist China (the Northeast railway)…
The State Department Office of the Historian, Foreign Relations of the US (FRUS), 1964-68, Vol5, Vietnam 1967…
On 22 July 1967 Walt Rostow, the President’s Special Assistant sent a memorandum to the President that states: “It may be useful if I set down for you some thoughts on the possibility of relative early negotiations to end the war in Vietnam. I start, of course, on the assumption that this is a long shot; and, even more important, the only way to maximize the chance of an early end of the war is to proceed on the assumption that the war will last a long time. Having said that here are my thoughts.”…
What follows gives the President some bright spots to think about. Included is a conclusion that the bombing of North Vietnam has “increased in effectiveness.” LBJ read it and initialed it… Worth a quick look at…
http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d252
22 JULY 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (23 July reporting 22 July ops): Page 4: “A military spokesman announced that 116 missions were flown on July 21. Among the targets were the Yenbay airfield 78 miles northwest of Hanoi, which is used as a storage area for heavy equipment… Among the targets in yesterday’s (21st)110 air missions against North Vietnam were the Langcon and Tranhop military installations 37 and 43 miles north of Hanoi, the Thainguyen rail yards adjacent to the steel complex that was smashed in a series of raids ending last month, and the Bandat railyards 39 miles north of the capital. Three enemy MIGs were sighted but not engaged. Ground fire was said to be heavy but no aircraft were hit.” ...”Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 22 July 1967. NYT, Page 4: Hanoi Claims 5 U.S. Planes…downed over the North.”
RIPPLE SALVO… #504… Look Magazine published a story by a far left journalist named Felix Greene titled “Are U.S. POWs Being Mistreated?” as the featured story in a weekly section called “Land of War; North Vietnam.” Greene was a British writer with years working the Far East beat. He was a left wing radical who was a “misguided advocate for peace and an apologist for totalitarianism.”…”His whole approach is to drown critical intelligence in a soggy puddle of emotionalism and mystical rhetoric,” was a comment by Chris Tame in a review of a Greene book, “Let there Be A World.” Felix Greene’s 25 July 1967 article in Look answered his own question. His conclusion was no, they are not being mistreated. And that’s what flew off the magazine racks on the home front in the summer of 1967… Alas, it would be years before the real truth would be known… How was it really?…
The following is from a book that belongs on every ROLLING THUNDER warrior’s shelves,”Honor Bound” by Stuart Rochester and Frederick Kiley… pages 304-305… I quote…
Although their government’s intensified bombing campaign promised to hasten the war’s end and in that respect boosted the prisoners’ morale, in many ways it complicated their immediate predicament. The steady flow of new shootdowns into the Hilton strained Vegas’s facilities and contributed to supply shortages and a general worsening of conditions. Rob Doremus, who had come over with the Briarpatch group in February, noticed the supply situation deteriorating in late May (67), with water and cigarettes scarcer and food quality poorer. Doremus attributed the slippage less to willful neglect than to the overcrowding and logistic problems caused by the bombing escalation. The rupture of city water mains left Hoa Lo without running water. Crippled transportation infrastructure and fuel shortages interrupted food deliveries. To restore water at Vegas, workers with the help of prisoners, dug three wells in the courtyard, but because the holes were shallow and were contaminated with runoff from the toilet area, the entire effect was tantamount to drinking and bathing out of a sewer. By late summer, the makeshift water supply was less running than crawling–and stinking impurities, worms, and other vermin. after only a few short months of operation, the newly renovated compound was acquiring the air of decay and squalor that characterized older prisons.
The hardship affected the Vietnamese as well and, along with the bombings’ physical devastation, put the captives’ handlers on edge must as the crackdown moved into full swing. Presiding over the punishment at Vegas were Cat and Frenchy, with some new faces joining familiar enforcers Bug, Pigeye, Rat and Big Ugh. Two new interrogators were promptly dubbed “Hack” (for his chronic cough) and “Kid,” the later also known as “Squint.” In charge at Desert Inn was a junior officer the PWs called variously “Greasy” (for his slick style), “Maggot” (for his unpleasantness), and “Flea” or “Fly” (for his diminutive size); a heavy drinker, he turned from smooth operator to sadist as he became more alcoholic. Denton was impressed by a tall turnkey the Americans named “Abe,” whose Lincolnesque visage belied a malicious temperament.
Many of the veteran PWs who spent the summer of 1967 at Vegas consider that time the more harrowing stretch they experienced–matching, and for some exceeding, the misery and brutality of the post-Hanoi March round of error at Briarpatch and the Zoo. Hervey Stockman later cited Begas’ communications purge a having “few equals in ferocity.” Bob Shumaker, who as the second-longest-held POW in the North spent eight years in captivity, reflected on that summer at Vegas as “the worst for me.” When the Vietnamese discovered Stockdale’s policy guidance, they introduced a version of “Make Your Choice” that had resisters shrieking in agony all hours of the night. Shumaker recalled “praying for death on a number of occasions, and finding myself a little envious of my buddies who had been killed.”
Although there is no evidence of any outright executions at Vegas in 1967, at least one prisoner appears to have died from mistreatment. Norm Schmidt was last seen by his Desert Inn companions being led off to interrogation one day in late August; from their own anxious encounters with Greasy, cellmates Shumaker, Harry Jenkins, and Air Force captain Louis Makowski concluded that Schmidt had angered the unpredictable officer and suffered a fatal beating. Others narrowly survived. Forced to kneel for hours in the hot sun in cuffs and irons, Denton contracted a high fever that left him incoherent and at one point convinced he was not going to make it. Shumaker, who had attempted suicide at Briarpatch, almost had his death wish fulfilled when he refused to participate in the filming of a propaganda movie and was subjected to a horrible session in the ropes. A team of five guards hoisted him until his head nearly touched his feet and then to silence his screaming, shoved a rag on a steel rod into his mouth. End quote from “Honor Bound”...
Hey, Felix Greene. Any more questions? How about you, Look editors?…
RTR Quote for 22 July: SHELLEY (The Cenci): “For there are…sufferings which have no tongue.”
Lest we forget… Bear