RIPPLE SALVO…#114… MORE THAN FREEDOM… but first…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED FOURTEEN of a look back at the Silent Generation’s War…Vietnam & Rolling Thunder….
22 JUNE 1966…ON THE HOME FRONT… (NYT)…Hump Day and warm and sunny in New York…
Page 1: “Hanoi Said To Bar Latest Offer For Peace Parley”…” As a prerequisite to negotiations Hanoi is demanding unconditional cessation of United States bombing of North Vietnam without any commitment that the communist country would diminish sending troops and supplies to aid the Vietcong guerrillas in south Vietnam. The impression of diplomats stationed in Hanoi is that the North Vietnamese are still determined to prosecute the war in the hope that the Saigon government will collapse politically or that President Johnson’s Administration will be compelled to withdraw due to the pressure of public opinion at home.”… The American proposal was to start peace talks with both sides simply reducing military activities. Unfortunately, the North Vietnamese rejected the bid as simply another “peace offensive fraud perpetuated by the Johnson Administration.”….Meanwhile, North Vietnamese regiments have massed in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam apparently to deal a blow during the monsoon season that would discourage the United States war effort…Page 1: “Philadelphia, Mississippi Whites and Negroes Trade Shots”…Marauding whites made four attacks by gunfire on the Negro community here tonight about eight hours after a white crowd assaulted a civil rights march now led by the Reverend Dr. Marin Luther King, Jr. Negroes returned the fire and wounded a white man.”…
Page 1: “Tri Quang Held In Saigon Vows Continued Struggle”…while being held a prisoner in a Saigon clinic. He vows to bring down the government of Premier Cao Ky Nguyen. “I don’t know how I shall do it, but the struggle goes on.” Tri Quang has been on a hunger strike for two weeks. South Vietnam has a Buddhist population of 12 million out of a total of 16 million and is the best organized non-communist force in the country. Tri Quang is the church. However, leading in his stead is the militant Tam Chau. The Buddhists have switched to a non-violent strategy of late and have offered Ky a letter of surrender, to which Ky responded with an offer of safety and amnesty for all monks who have taken part in anti-government struggle; an end to blockage of Secular Affairs Institute; release of all prisoners taken since the onset of the demonstrations; compensation for families of those killed in the Danang raid; and the repair of damaged pagodas….
Page 2: “Enterprise Returns From Vietnam Duty’...the world’s largest warship returned home today after eight months of launching attacks against enemy forces in Vietnam. The crew got their first glance at families since October 1965. The ship will deploy to the Western Pacific and the Gulf of Tonkin again in December 1966…
Page 2: “3 Seized U.S. Pilots Menaced By Crowd”… Three captured United States fliers were paraded before an anti-American rally in North Vietnam and threatened by a shouting crowd that demanded that the pilots be put on trial, according to a Hanoi Radio broadcast on 17 June. “On the night of June 15, three planes were shot down in Namdinh province and the pilots were captured. The people of Namha and Namdinh City held a rally to celebrate the victory. They put forward a proposal to the government to bring the pilots who have committed crimes against the people of North Vietnam to trial. The pilots were made to appear before the rally. The officials put in charge of security had to spread out to prevent the people from rushing the pilots. The participants shouted “down with the United States imperialistic atrocity and barbarism.” ….
22 June 1966…PRESIDENT’s DAILY BRIEFING… CIA (TS sanitized)…South Vietnam: Most of the key figures involved in aqntigovernment movement which followed General Thi’s ouster in March now have been apprehended or packed off to Saigon by Ky’s security forces. thus for the time being at least, organized resistance seems to be coming to an end. Tam Chau saw Tri Quang today and urged him to approve some limited demands which the Buddhist Institute is apparently negotiating with the government. These demands have been watered down considerably. They now center on the question of government indemnification for Buddhist personnel and property damages and the release of persons arrested for supporting the struggle movement. There is no indication that the government will accept the letter demand… (sure there is! read the New York Times– see above)…Another day with North Vietnam still blanked out after 50 years of TS classification…
22 JUNE 1966… ROLLING THUNDER OPERATIONS… NYT (23 June reporting 22 June and 21 June) …”US Jet Downed By MIGs Over North Vietnam”…”One enemy pane was destroyed by a sidewinder missile. MIG-17 jet fighters shot down a US Navy F-8 Crusader yesterday over North Vietnam. It was the first American aircraft lost to enemy jets in over a year (LCDR COLE BLACK…see 21 June RTR). The F-8 destroyed was one of four from the Seventh Fleet carrier Hancock that fought four MIGs about 46 miles north of the port of Haiphong for about 15 to 20 minutes yesterday (21st) afternoon. One of the MIGs was shot down by a Sidewinder missile and a second MIG was hit by 20mm cannon fire and was leaking fuel as it left the scene. LTJG Philip Vampatella was credited with the MIG “kill.” The fight began shortly after an RF-8 (LT LEN EASTMAN…see 21 June RTR) was shot down on a photo recon mission. The pilot ejected safely and was on the ground and on his survival radio but the helicopters were unable to reach either of the two downed pilots. The Crusader was the third American aircraft lost to North Vietnamese jets (two F-105s lost in early 1965). American successes: 14 MIG17/21s… “Vietnam: Air Losses” for 22 June 1966: two aircraft…
(1) CAPTAIN WARREN PARKER SMITH, of the 23rd TASS and 505 TACW out of Nakhon Phanom. “A Nail FAC and its pilot known as “Willie Pete” Smith was lost when it was shot down by automatic weapon fire near Ban Muong Sen in Savannakhet province in Southern Laos. Another pilot in the vicinity saw the O-1F make what appeared to be a controlled landing near Route 911 but thought that the pilot was slumped over in the cockpit. He did not answer any of the radio calls made to him and when the rescue helicopter arrived about an hour later the cockpit was found to be empty. a more intense search had to be abandoned due to intense ground fire in the vicinity of the wreck.”…CAPTAIN ‘WILLIE PETE’ SMITH was Killed in Action…But there is more to this story!!! … there MUST be… anybody know it?… A brave warrior was left behind fifty years ago today…
(2) CAPTAIN D.K. ANDERSON was flying an F-100D of the 90th TFS and 3rd TFW at Bien Hoa on a close air support mission and delivering napalm on Vietcong when hit by ground fire. He was forced to eject from the burning aircraft in the target area in the delta. An Army helicopter braved the enemy fire to rescue CAPTAIN ANDERSON….oohrah… and lives to fight another day…
RIPPLE SALVO…#114… IS THERE AN AMERICAN GOAL?… It is very painful for an old warrior like me to watch the dominant progressives in our nation systematically destroy the greatness we were handed by our forefathers. A greatness millions have fought to preserve for more than ten generations. Much blood has been sacrificed to protect our freedoms. This week Victor David Hanson published an essay he titled “America In Free Fall”… Too bad his masterpiece isn’t made required reading for every American, especially those among us who exist to soak up scarce resources like sponges and remain ignorant of the unsustainable condition our beloved country has been allowed to “free fall” into by our leaders. Dr. Hanson’s concluding paragraph resonates in my headset…would it resound in every American’s headset…
“This election year so far has emblemized the perfect storm of unrest and confusion–and an even more worrisome response to it. In the past, when 51 percent of societies no longer believed in or wished to defend their collective values and traditions, there were no longer reasons for them to continue. And so they did not–a warning we should heed.”
Fifty years ago in 1966 as the nation approached Independence Day our nation was in a lesser “storm of unrest and confusion.” But a storm, nevertheless. The search for a clarion call for our people to come together in unity was sounded. That “brilliantly clear” call appeared in many forms and forums. Here is one I found from June 1966 that is worthy of immediate reissue to all Americans who “give a damn” about the future of our nation. Not the environment. Not the rest of the world. Just the United States of America and all she stands for… “The paramount purpose of a nation is survival…”… try this on for size…
A Clarion Call to my Countrymen and Women…. “Is There An American Goal?” (Author Unknown)
“Yes we believe there is, but many people have become increasingly confused about it of late years.
“Some think it is material prosperity. But contrary to popular opinion, material prosperity is not the American goal. Material prosperity is only one of its byproducts.
“Others are sure it is Freedom. But Freedom alone is no goal. Freedom is the political climate we have laboriously won in which we can strive to achieve our goal.
“What then is our goal?
“At the risk of seeming slightly our of character, we will try to cut through the welter of political bombast generally reserved for Independence Day by stating simply and directly what we believe it is. The goal of the American way of life is and always has been, the eventual creation of a self-reliant, individually responsible, self-disciplined, well educate, and spiritually motivated people, and to help when we are able, other people of good will in other lands to do the same.
“Let us then, on this and every day, pray that God will give us the strength and the guidance to make significant progress toward this goal.”
Dr. Hanson writes in “America In Free Fall”…”The United States has seen periods of near fatal internal chaos–in the late 1850s leading up to the Civil War, during the decade of the Great Depression between 1929 and 1939, and in the chaotic 1960s. Something similar is starting to plague America today in a variety of political, economic, social and cultural fronts.”
Dr. Hanson describes our precarious position as a nation as being in “Free Fall,” implying that the death of our democratic republic is now our certain destiny. A destiny that has taken control and we as a people are helpless to alter the straight path of a free fall. I prefer to picture our nation as being in a tightening spin with enough altitude to recover and remain a viable country (where the people share the goal expressed in my “clarion call”). Divided we will perish as a nation of free people. Only through compromise and unity will we remain free. Unfortunately, we are spinning and losing precious time and altitude while our cockpit crew is fighting for the control stick and arguing about which rudder, left or right, will start the recovery and return our nation to the flight path required for survival as a free people.
Lest we forget…. Bear ………. –30– ……….