RIPPLE SALVO… #235… SENATOR EV DIRKSEN…”…a bewildered United States…”… but first…
Good Morning: Day TWO HUNDRED THIRTY-FIVE of a 1000-day revisit of Operation Rolling Thunder, 50 years in the rear view mirror…
23 OCTOBER 1966… THE HOME TOWN NEWS from the front pages of the New York Times… A cloudy but fair Sunday in New York…
Page 1: “Johnson Renews His Offer To Halt Bombing In North”…”President Johnson renewed today the United States offer to stop the bombing of North Vietnam and to schedule a withdrawal of American forces if the enemy will say what it is prepared to do for peace. His remarks were made in a statement prepared for his departure for the Manila Conference on Vietnam, which starts tomorrow. He ended his three day Australian visit after an overnight stay in Brisbane where he was ebulliently received last night. (In Remarks prepared for his arrival in Manila on Sunday afternoon, the President said he had no doubt that the seven nation conference could reach agreement on overtures to end the war through negotiations.) The Australian reaction to his tour so far has strengthened Mr. Johnson’s confidence that his policy on Vietnam is correct and that it will eventually succeed. During the Australian tour Mr. Johnson drew record breaking crowds at every stop. There were also a few demonstrations by opponents of allied participation in the war.”…Page 1: “Fowler Doubts Recession In U.S. If War Is Ended”…”Secretary of Treasury Henry D. Fowler said today that ‘the nation need not fear a recession when Vietnam hostilities come to an end.’ On the contrary, he said, ‘the coming peace in Vietnam will provide the opportunity for even greater progress in the living standards for the American people.’ Mr. Fowler did not in any way indicate that he believed the end of the war was near. He said, in fact, that there were ‘no signs of early termination of the war.’ Fowler expressed his views in a speech he had prepared for delivery at the semi-annual meeting of the Business Council, an organization of business executive that advises the Government on economic policy issues…the text of the speech was delivered to Business Council members in Mr. Fowler’s absence (he had to remain in Washington for the closure of the 89th Congress)”….
Page 1: “Tax Bill Passed as 89th Congress Ends Session”…”The 89th Congress adjourned today. Its two-year life continues until January 10 when the 90th Congress will convene, but its work is done, barring an unexpected recall by the President. Adjournment followed Senate approval of a tax bill that included a much disputed provision for financing Presidential campaigns from Federal income taxes…The traditional ceremony of informing the President that Congress was ready to adjourn was carried out by House and Senate leaders in telephone calls to Brisbane, Australia. Although it was 5:30AM in Brisbane the House leaders put in the first call. The President had instructed aides to awaken him for the ceremony. They did so.”… Page1: “Head Start Value Found Temporary”…”A major study has concluded that the educational advantages gained by a pre-school child in Governments Head Start program tend to disappear six to eight months after he has started his regular schooling. The report also provides considerable evidence that head Start children are more damaged by poor kindergarten teaching than their classmates who have not had the benefit of the program. The study was directed by Dr. Max Wolff of the Center for Urban Education in New York. Dr. Wolff said, ‘Head Start cannot substitute for the long overdue improvements of education in the elementary schools which have failed the Negro and Puerto Rican children. It can only prepare them to reap the full benefits of better education when it is provided.’…”
Page 1: “Hungarians find Life Better 10 Years After Revolt”…”It was just 10 years ago that the straw flame of the Hungarian revolt flared up in a dark and divided world and then rapidly burned itself out. It left almost everyone, including Hungarians, puzzled about what had happened. The straw flame–szalmalung– was described this week by several intellectuals as Hungary’s chief characteristic. But it is impossible for a visitor to recreate the image of those days when the straw burned bright. Today in the ambient light of Autumn, Budapest is glowing perhaps more beautiful than ever before. There is a shining new bridge spanning the Danube…the scars of World War Ii and the wounds of the uprising are almost completely erased from the city’s face.”… Page 1: “Scientists Fear Domination By Politics”…”Revolutionary changes are taking place in the way the directions of American sciences are being determined. These changes include a sharp increase in congressional involvement, as ever more dominant role of the Federal Government in financing research and a proliferation of agencies, committees and panels seeking to chart future trends. For a variety of reasons, government figures, from the President to the most junior Congressman are concerning themselves with the administration of science as never before. this in turn, has led to cries of alarm from segments of the scientific community…roughly three quarters of university research is sponsored by Federal funds…”…
Page 10: “Ho Chi Minh Says U.S. Will Widen The War”…”President Ho Chi Minh of North Vietnam said today that the United States had called the Manila conference to expand and widen the war. The North Vietnamese leader made the statement in a speech to a congress of security forces…’The Americans are multiplying their political and military maneuvers’…’they prattled about peace at the Unite Nations. They are convening a 7-nation conference in the Philippines. In short, they are scheming to broaden the war and bring it to an even higher degree of fierceness.’…” Sports (football): Navy 21, Wm&Mary o; Notre Dame 38 Oklahoma O (63,439 Sooner fans sat in silence as #1 Notre Dame and Terry Hanratty skunk Oklahoma); Army 28 Pitt 0; Alabama 42 Vandy 8; Nebraska 21 Colorada 19; and, Auburn 20 Clemson 10…”
23 OCTOBER 1966: OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NYT (24 Oct reporting 23 Oct ops)… Page 3: “In the North bad weather again held the number of attack missions to fewer than 100. The pilots spread their 82 missions around areas near the major cities of Hanoi and Haiphong and through the long, slender panhandle region along the coast. A reconnaissance plane, a Navy RA-5C Vigilante, looking for enemy targets crashed yesterday and the pilots were listed as missing. The cause of the accident is unknown.”…. “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) Two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 23 October 1966…Page 78…
(1) An A-4E from VA-163 embarked in USS Oriskany was damaged in a midair accident and was abandoned at sea.. The pilot survived and was rescued…
(2) LCOL WILLIAM J. NEWTON and CAPTAIN SAMUEL J. BAKER were flying a T-28 of the 606ACS out of NKP on a maintenance test flight and inexplicably crashed killing both officers… no additional information is available to me, but LCOL NEWTON and CAPTAIN BAKER are remembered on this 50th anniversary of their ultimate sacrifice for their country while flying in hostile country… May they rest in peace…
RIPPLE SALVO… #235… As the 89th Congress ajourned on 22 October 1966, Senate minority leader Everett Dirksen, one of the great ones, sat down and wrote a 15 pager he titled “Where Our Nation Stands At Home and Abroad.” The Senator cut is short with a few spoken comments that were reported in the NYT. I found some remarkable similarities with the “State of the Nation” at the recess of the 89th Congress in October 1966 with the adjournment of our current congress this month… I quote… NYT 20 October 1966, Page 10: “Dirksen Discerns A Bewildered U.S.”…”summing up the outgoing 89th Congress and ‘our time.’ Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen said today that ‘under the calcimine of the Great Society lies a nation beset by uncertainty, queasy doubts and bewilderment.’
‘Meanwhile, the Senate minority leader said, ‘The administration goes its higgledy-piggledy way, it’s high priests no longer the flower of American culture, but skilled political salesmen who pursue domestic social programs with the popeye ardor of Harpo Marx clearing house.”
Earthy and baroque language rolls off the pages (of the 15-page report) as it does extemporaneously off the Senator’s tongue. Painting an ominous picture of the Administration, Mr. Dirksen used as his theme a quotation of Franklin D. Roosevelt who upon assuming the Presidency in 1933, said, ‘The government’s House is not in order.’ From that day until the 89th Congress convened in 1965, the 70-year old Senator said, ‘Our Republic was solidly grounded upon the tough virtues of our fathers. But today, what had appeared to be a golden glow only two years ago has been broken by rolls of thunder. Anger and fear have replaced much of our laughter.
Abroad there is jeering and sneering at our country. Our flags are burned and spat upon, our embassy attacked. In Vietnam the death toll continues to mount.’
He said the second session of the 89th Congress was coming to a close just as:
‘An additional 150,000 National guardsmen were sent abroad to fight a war which already is the longest and third largest war in our history. Some 14,000 National Guardsmen were sent to guard our streets at home as a result of racial violence. People are afraid to walk the streets alone. Police are confronted by a 46-per cent increase in crime from 1960 to 1966. Children under 16 being arrested is up 54-per cent.’
‘Inflation sent the cost of living skyrocketing to the highest in all our history and when the real spendable earnings of people were less than they were less than just a year ago. Nothing could quench the insatiable desire of the Administration to spend money for such things as studying why Australia Aborigines sweat, the behavior of ostriches in Africa, send 100,000 cans of women’s hairspray to Vietnam, and studying the love life of an octopus.’
‘The Johnson Administration has a remarkable collection of humming bird economists who can reverse themselves without even stopping. They stand in mid-air while making motions in an attempt to convince everyone the Government can spend for vast new domestic programs while at the same time supporting a war costing $25 billion per year.’…”
Sound like 2016? My search for the entire 15-page document continues… Have a great Sunday…
Lest we forget… Bear ………. –30– ……….