RIPPLE SALVO… #355… sidebars and little boxes on page 5... but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED FIFTY-FIVE of a return to the war that took the lives of 58,000 gallant Americans…
23 FEBRUARY 1967… HEAD LINES of The Gray Lady–The New York Times on a rainy Wednesday in NYC...
Page 1: “Harriman Finds Signs That Hanoi is Nearer Talks”… “Averell Harriman, Ambassador at Large, said tonight he saw some indications that peace in Vietnam was getting closer… He said there were signs that the North Vietnamese leaders were ‘coming around to the point where they may be willing to talk about a settlement of the war in Vietnam.’…Interviewed on a national education television program, Harriman suggested that the ‘allies’ might find an opening by exploring potential differences between the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong…elements within the Vietcong want to avoid domination by North Vietnamese…”... Page 1: “Hanoi Offers Anew to Talk If Bombing Ends Permanently”... “A spokesman for Hanoi reaffirmed today its offer to enter into talks with the United States if American bombing attacks against North Vietnam were unconditionally and permanently halted. Mai Van Bo, the North Vietnamese representative in Paris indicated that his government’s position on this point had not changed in spite of the resumption of American bombing.”…
Page 1: “Army Said to Fight Maoists in Honan”...Units of the Communist China Army turned on followers of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, killing 2 and arresting nearly 1,000 in Honan province. The development came in the midst of speculation that Chairman Mao was offering amnesty under certain conditions to his opponents in China’s violent power struggle.”… Page 1: “White Gorilla is Found”... “The world’s first known white gorilla has been discovered in Africa, the National Geographic Society announced today. It is a baby, only about two years old with white fur, pink skin and blue eyes. Ordinarily gorillas are black…it is described as healthy and vigorous.”… Page 1: “Meany Opens Way To Reuther Return”…”In arrangement has been worked out to provide Walter P. Reuther with a seat on the AFL-CIO Executive Council if he seeks to rejoin within the next few months. Mr Reuther had resigned his seat in the recent feud.”… Page 23: “Negroes Protest Alabama Deaths”…”75 Marchers In Birmingham”… “It was the fourth march this week in a city often seared in racial strife in the past. The demonstrations this week are the first in more than a year.”…
Page 15: “F-111 Difficulties Stir Congressional Interest”… “A stretch-out of the production program for the F-111 fighter-bomber, continued problems the F-111B version of the controversial General Dynamics plane was under study by congress. The swing-wing plane, formerly known as TFX, has been under development for four years. Delivery schedule for the next fiscal year has been reduced by 37 vehicles.”
23 FEBRUARY 1967… The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized) SOUTH VIETNAM: Generals Ky and Thieu will try to reach private agreement on which is to throw his hat in the presidential ring. Failing this they will leave it up to their fellow officers to choose between them; in any event, the military will put up only one candidate. Thieu meanwhile is hedging his bets. While quietly lining up civilian support for the presidential ambitions he is also trying to have written into the new constitution an “armed forces council” with clearly spelled out powers. This if Ky gets the nod, Thieu could still keep his hand in Through leadership of the military…. SOVIET UNION: A Soviet diplomat in London says that Kosygin made clear to the British that Moscow is not now interesting in negotiating an East-West agreement to reduce forces in Europe. He did this by saying that the question of German’s frontiers must first be settled–a precondition he knows is unacceptable to the West. The source says Kosygin was responding to pressures from within the USSR and from Hanoi against any step that might help the US transfer troops from Europe to Vietnam. Also, Moscow may believe the West will soon reduce its forces in Germany anyway, and hence can see no need to be so forthcoming…
23 February 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER... New York Times (24 Feb reporting 23 Feb ops) Only coverage concerned ops in SVN. Page 3: “American pilots flew 545 sorties over the South yesterday, the highest number flown in a single day to support Operation Junction City.” (Bear/#36/SVN/Trucks) “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) One fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 23 February 1967...
(1) CAPTAIN G.I. ZIEGLER and CAPTAIN C. GORE were flying an O-1E Bird Dog out of 20th TASS and 504th TASG and were hit by ground fire while taking off from the forward base at Khe Sanh. They were able to bail out successfully and were rescued with minor injuries.
RIPPLE SALVO… #355… My RTR project involves three sessions of rolling New York Times microfilm by my eyeballs every week. About a dozen hours a week. I read a lot of old newspapers and take a lot of notes. Good sport for an old fart. On my quest for the best of Rolling Thunder– or “the air war in the North” as it was called in the press– I get to the bottom of a lot of pages. And, that’s where I find, back about page 5 the little box of the day, or at least three times per week: “The Defense Department reported the loss of blank American troops killed in action in Vietnam.” Then the little box in New York adds the names of the fallen from towns within the subscriber area.
In 1965 the numbers of KIA were single digit, 5,6 maybe 8, and all the names and hometowns of the dead were included. In 1966 I noticed the numbers were in occasionally double digits, the 20s, and only the names of local troops were carried. As the number of troops in-country grew into the hundreds of thousands– in February 1967 it was up to 414,000 and growing– the numbers in the little boxes on page 5 were growing too, as one would expect.
February 1967 marked the end of the second year of our war in Vietnam. The total killed: just past the 6,000 mark… 52,000 to go! I wonder if the “President’s Daily Brief” had included a little box score of KIAs on his page one it would have made any difference in how he went about each day as Commander-in-Chief?… fifty year old little boxes mean something to me… and should have meant more to him…
Here are a few scores I noted this week: 77 (Junction City in full swing); 36 (many Marines); 45 (now fighting near the DMZ, the Central Highlands and the Mekong Delta); and 44 (new strategy: find, fix, fight, follow and finish).
Another regular NYT report is the weekly total Vietnam war body count reported by the Defense Department –theirs and ours. Here is the little box from 24 February 1967 found on page 3 of the NYT: “172 G.I.s Die in Week”…“For the week ending 18 February a total of 172 American servicemen were killed in action, one of the largest figures in recent months. In addition, 8o2 were wounded. The total of enemy dead was placed at 2,020, an increase of nearly 1,000 over the previous weeks tally of 1,085. U.S forces in Vietnam are now 414,000.”
Did I hear the General running things in Iraq and Syria say on TV this morning that he wants 5,000 more American troops for the push on Mosul???…
CAG”s QUOTES for 23 February: FOCH: “Our peace must be our peace, not the vanquished.”… PATTON: “Use steamroller strategy, that is, make up your mind on a course and direction of action and stick to it.”…
Lest we forget… Bear.