RIPPLE SALVO… #809… “MILITARIZED”– “THE HEAVY FIGHTING AND TROOP MOVEMENTS AROUND AND IN THE VIETNAM DEMILITARIZED ZONE SEPARATING NORTH AND SOUTH MAKE ANY RESEMBLANCE TO A BUFFER ZONE PURELY COINCIDENTAL. At Conthien recently, a sun-burnt Marine with a southern accent sat behind a gun and jiggled its barrel in the direction of the DMZ. ‘If that’s a demilitarized zone,’ he drawled, ‘I’d sure as hell hate to see one that’s militarized.’ ‘… The New York Times 19 May 1968 OpEd “PRESSURE OVER THE DMZ” at Ripple Salvo below…
Good Morning… Day EIGHT HUNDRED NINE of a return to the air war called ROLLING THUNDER…
HEAD LINES from The New York Times on Thursday, 23 May 1968…
THE WAR: Page 1: “SAIGON’S FORCES PRESS ENEMY IN NORTHERN AREA REPORT KILLING 170 IN TWO DAYS”… “South Vietnamese troops carried the fight to the enemy in the northern provinces yesterday. in battles near Danang and Quangtri the Government troops reported having killed 170 North Vietnamese while taking light casualties themselves. There was no significant action in either of the two American offensives in the northern provinces announced yesterday, and the United States troops elsewhere in South Vietnam reported only sporadic contact with the enemy… The heavies ground fighting took place 12 miles south of Danang, the command center for the five northern provinces. Details were sketchy, but …by midafternoon the South Vietnamese troops had killed 92 North Vietnamese. They also took three prisoners.”…
THE PEACE TALKS: Page 1: “HANOI AIDE SUGGESTS POLITICAL SOLUTION”… “The North Vietnamese delegation said today that it would move into talks on a ‘political settlement of the Vietnamese problem’ once American bombing and other acts of war against North Vietnam are stopped. North Vietnamese officials asked later whether this would involve bringing in other parties in the talks, specifically the South Vietnamese National Liberation Front, replied that once the bombing question was settled, the ‘two parties’ now engaged in the talks would move on to other subjects. Nguyen Thanh Le, the North Vietnamese spokesman said at a news conference that these subjects would include ‘questions relating to a settlement of the problem to a political settlement of the problem to a political settlement of the Vietnamese problem within the framework of the 1954 Geneva accords on Vietnam. Previously, North Vietnam negotiators spoke of mutual interest.; the shift in phraseology was apparently intended to put more pressure on the United States to halt the bombing.”
Page 1: “De GAULLE REGIME UPHELD–CENSURE FALLS BY 11 VOTES–10 MILLION NOW ON STRIKE–HINT BY POMPIDOU– BEFORE BALLOTING HE INDICATES AN EASING IN PARIS STAND”… “Black marketing Develops In Paris–Government Appeals For a Halt As Prices Soar On Items In High Demand”… Page 14: “Live Broadcast Of French Debate Alters Its Tone–Voice Of French Strikers–Georges Seguy-He Puts Union Demands And Wages First”… Page 15: “Washington Official Worried By French Events–They disavow Desire To See Politically Unstable Nation Under de Gaulle”… Page 15: “Strikers Morale High In Brittany–Townsmen Find Adversity Overshadows Factions”… “Marseilles Tugmen And Barge Crews Join Strike”…
Page 1: “COLUMBIA WARNS REBELLING STUDENTS AFTER 68 ARE HURT IN CAMPUS CHAOS–Kirk Says All Steps Necessary Will Be Taken For Peace”… Page 10: “Faisal Says U.S. Policies Spur Rampant Mideast Communism”… Page 11: “Egypt Asserts U.S. Is Being Deceived By Israel–Official Declares Washington Is Fooled On Acceptance Of U.N. Resolution.”…
23 MAY 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (24 May reporting 23 May ops) Page 4: “Hanoi Claims 4 Downings”…”The North Vietnamese press agency reported today (23rd) that gunners shot down four American planes over the Nghean and Quangbinh Provinces yesterday (22nd)…”… (Hobson shows three downed: LTJG EDWIN MILLER, RF-8G, POW: LCDR R.F. THOMAS, A-4F, Rescued; and, CAPTAIN JOHN CREWS, KIA, and 1LT DEAN ST. PIERRE, F-4D, KIA)… “VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES” (Chris Hobson) There were four fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 23 May 1968…
(1) CAPTAIN J.E. CROWELL, USMC and CAPTAIN W.S. POOLE, USMC were flying and F-4B of the VMFA-542 Bengals and MAG-11 out of Danang on a close air support mission south of Danang and were hit by small arms fire over their target. Both ejected and were rescued to fly and fight again…
(2) 2LT DAVID H. WHITEHILL was flying an A-37A of the 604th ACS and 3rd TFW out of Bien Hoa on an escort for a Ranch Hand spray flight that came under attack from intense ground fire 30 miles northeast of Bien Hoa. 2LT WHITEHILL took the gun-site under fire making three strafing passes on the hot site. On the third pass he lost the duel and crashed before he could eject… Young LT WHITEHILL was killed in action and died on the battlefield a brave, bold warrior fifty years ago this day… so young…
(3) LCOL EMMETT RUCKER, JR., MAJOR JAMES L. SHANKS and SGT HERBERT E. SCHMIDT were flying the #2 C-123B Ranch Hand Provider of the 12th ACS and 315th TFW out of Bien Hoa in a six aircraft formation spraying mission– unrelated to the LT WHITEHILL mission — near Xom Rach Goc at the southern tip of Ssouth Vietnam. The aircraft was hit by intense automatic weapon fire in the port engine which caught fire leading to a wing fire. Shortly thereafter, as LCOL RUCKER prepared to ditch at sea, the aircraft rolled and crashed at sea killing all three of the onboard souls. They rest in peace where they fell, ‘killed in action, bodies not recovered’… Their names are on “THE WALL”… TO LEAVE A REMEMBRANCE, click on their name and you will be guided to leave a remembrance at “Wall of Faces“… and you will feel an inexplicable wave of goodness of heart…
(4) An A-1E of the 1st ACS and 56th ACW out of Nakhon Phanom lost an engine on a helo escort mission and the pilot ejected to be rescued (by the helo he was escorting?)…
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES (KIA/MIA/POW) ON 23 MAY 1968 FOR THE FOUR YEARS OF THE OPERATION IN THE SKIES OF NORTH VIETNAM…
1965… NONE …
1966… NONE …
1967… NONE …
1968… NONE… A very good day, 23 May…
RIPPLE SALVO… #809… NYT, Sunday 19 May 1968, page 1E. Column by GENE ROBERTS…
PRESSURES OVER THE DMZ…
“Saigon–When Ambassador W. Averell Harriman proposed in Paris last week that both the allies and enemy pull back from the demilitarized zone (DMZ) as a first step toward peace in Vietnam,Quite a few military men here thought he was getting right to the heart of the matter. Though attention has been focused largely on the Paris talks and fighting in Saigon in recent weeks, There has been continued heavy fighting in the northern provinces around the DMZ. Casualties in the region have been high, and accounted for nearly half the 562 American deaths for the week that ended a week ago yesterday, a record weekly high for the war.
“Few pieces of real estate have bothered the military more in recent years than the six-mile-wide zone that straddles the Benhnai River between the two Vietnams. Although the Geneva agreements established the zone in 1954 as a buffer zone between North and South Vietnam. It has not served as that since 1965.
“The United States began complaining in 1965 that North Vietnamese soldiers were crossing it at will on their way to battle stations in South Vietnam. the complaints accomplished nothing and on July 30, 1965–in what was surely a high policy decision–United States planes began bombing the zone for the first time.
TWO NEW STEPS…
“The bombing failed to stop the infiltration, and eight months later United States commanders took two more steps: First, they evacuated Vietnamese families from the zone; and second, they moved up artillery batteries and directed them to fire into the zone systematically in an effort to ‘harass and interdict’ the enemy infiltrators. This did not stop the infiltration either so the Americans tried a bigger and bolder plan. They cleaned a 600-yard wide ‘trace’ for miles along the zone, and equipped it with four key garrisons. The theory behind all this was that it would be easy for American troops to spot and ‘eliminate’ North Vietnamese troops as they crossed the vegetation-free trace. Military commanders quickly learned, however, that theory was one thing, practice another.
“Then high-ranking civilians in the Defense Department stepped in and supported a proposal to beef up the trace with a network of electronic sensors, alarm systems, barbed wired and other devices. This came to be known as the McNamara Line (for former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara) but it has yet to become reality. for one thing, construction crews ran into heavy fire from the enemy who by this time had brought enough artillery and other weapons into the area to pound one of the allied garrisons (Conthien) with upward of 1,000 shells in a single day. For another, a substantial number of Marines opposed the project. They argued that barriers were no good unless they were backed up by machine gun installations. They argued that if they did this, they would become even more of a defensive rather than offensive force.
“From time to time, photographs taken by allied reconnaissance pilots over the zone have detected enemy encampments, gun emplacements, and supply dumps in the zone. What would be the gains for the allies if they could persuade the enemy to withdraw from the zone? The chief gain would be that it would close the enemy’s most direct route into South Vietnam and leave him with only one other route into the country–the Ho Chi Minh trail through Laos.
“Once the demilitarized zone was closed to infiltration the allies would be free–in time–to shift many of the more than 200,000 Unite States and Vietnamese servicemen now in the northern provinces and use them to help plug the entrances and exits to the Ho Chi Minh trail. And the prevailing military view here is that once North Vietnamese infiltration was curbed, the allies could almost coast downhill to victory.” End quote…
How is that for wishful thinking?… The difficulty, or impossibility, of sealing the DMZ, or any of South Vietnam’s borders with three nations providing sanctuary status for the North Vietnamese, leads Humble Host to the conclusion that going for the throat –the targets of Linebacker I and II– was the only hope the allies had for putting an end to the fighting. Linebacker I and II, and III, IV and V, if necessary, in 1968 would have been fully justified… This was especially the case when the U.S. and North Vietnam failed to achieve compromise and settlement in Paris in the summer of 1968…
RTR Quote for 23 May: SAMUEL JOHNSON, Letter to Boswell: “Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal consessions.”…
Lest we forget… Bear