RIPPLE SALVO… #596… President Johnson was frequently asked, “What is it like to be President?” His response: “Splendid misery.” Monday 23 October 1967 was such a day. 50,000 marchers were still in town; 208 were still holding out at the Pentagon: the Israelis were ready to get even for the loss of a destroyer to Egyptian Styxx missiles; the Soviets were building aircraft carriers; race issues abound unabated; the nation and the Congress were reviewing the Vietnam options and slipping away from support for the policies of LBJ and Secretary McNamara; and the office was host to a steady stream of leaders of both the Executive and Legislative branches. “Splendid misery, in an office where there are ‘no easy days!'”… (Humble Host adds: Ditto for the CO of an aircraft carrier!)… but first…
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED NINETY-SIX of a look back at American history and Operation Rolling Thunder 50 years ago to the day…
23 OCTOBER 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a great blue skies Monday…
Page 1: “War Protesters Defying Deadlines; Seized In Capital 208 Refuse to Disperse at Pentagon as Permit For Demonstration Expires–400 Arrested Earlier–Leaders of Two Day Peace Rally Say Military ‘Lied’ In Denying Use Of Tear Gas”... “A two-day protest against United States involvement in the war in Vietnam was brought to an end early today as Federal marshalls and troops arrested some 208 demonstrators who had remained through an often noisy, sometimes violent vigil at the Pentagon…Saturday afternoon and evening…an estimated 35,000 persons thronged about the Pentagon after a march from the Lincoln Memorial… “… Page 1: James Reston: “Everyone Is a Loser–Washington A Sad and Brooding City In Wake of Antiwar Demonstration”… Page 33: “Militant Negro Deplores March–Split With White Radicals Near Complete C. Sumner Stone Says”… “Executive Director of the Washington Committee for Black Power, said today that the lack of large numbers of Negroes at the anti-war protest yesterday tends to reaffirm and almost complete the split between ‘white radicals’ and ‘black militants’… Stone said: ‘Black people are beyond the march bag, marching is not our thing anymore. We realize that our priority is creeping radicalism a home.”…Page 1: “State’s NAACP Opposes the War And New Charter”... “After stormy debate, disrupted by singing, hand clapping demonstrations, the New York State NAACP convention voted today to condemn the war in Vietnam…vote by delegates, 102-72….’to use its good offices to urge the immediate termination of hostilities in that war ravaged land.'”…
Page 36: “U.S. Communist Party Supports Negro Violence”… “The Communist Party of the U.S.A. declared yesterday in a new position paper that ‘Negroes had the right to use violence to achieve change when channels for democratic change are closed to them’… ‘The principal question facing the country is not violence in the Negro community but the increasing violence being directed at it. Claude Lightfoot: ‘We as Marxists have always affirmed that oppressed people have the right to forcibly overthrow an oppressive regime when the channels for democratic change are closed to them. This right is affirmed in the Declaration of Independence. Therefore, there can be no question of the right of black people in the United States to use violence to achieve change…. We believe that conspiratorial, terroristic actions which are not based upon a program aimed at improving the condition of life for the masses which do not receive the support of the masses are reckless adventures, provocative and politically irresponsible toward the people, that they invite reprisals upon the black community and therefore should be rejected.’…. ‘The difficult area, and legitimate one, in our opinion, is the one of self-defense which we support, including armed self-defense, if necessary. We believe that under the circumstances black people not only have the right but the responsibility to defend their persons, their homes and their community. And in line with this position we support the demand that black people police their own community.’… “… page 39: “Negroes Sought In New Jersey Attacks–Nine White Teenagers Beaten–Arrests Expected Soon”… Page 39: “Negroes Charging Police Brutality Set Fires In Atlanta”… “…200 Negroes smashed store windows and set fires in response to what they said was brutality by a black policeman.”…
Page 1: “Israelis Blame Soviet Missiles in Sinking Ship–Say 3 of 4 Projectiles Fired From a Boat At Port Said Homed In on Destroyer Elath–159 of 202 in Crew Are Safe–Eshkol Denounces Attack As Unprovoked But Egypt Charges An Incursion”... “…the commander of Israel’s navy said today that Soviet missiles, probably the most advanced in Moscow’s arsenal, were used by the United Arab republic yesterday in the dramatic sinking of the Egyptian destroyer Elath… from an Egyptian craft in Port Said harbor, 13 1/2 miles away…it might have been the first time in history sea-to-sea missiles had been used in combat.”… Page 1: “Russians Building an Aircraft Carrier; Policy Shift Seen–Move Viewed as Departure From Traditional Soviet Nay Stress on Defense”… “Believed designed for helicopter rather than jet operations.” …
23 October 1967… The President’s Daily Brief (CIA-TS, Eyes Only)… MIDDLE EAST: Israel is under great pressure to retaliate for the sinking of its destroyer Saturday… the Egyptians are bracing for the expected blow… SOUTH VIETNAM: about 73% of the registered voters cast ballot’s in yesterday’s lower house elections… COMMUNIST CHINA: Peking has issued a nation-wide directive ordering the immediate reopening of all schools from primary grades through the universities. This is another big step in the push toward moderation and the return of normality. Order has been re-established in much of the country, though violence still sputters in a few areas. The army appears to be dealing quickly and firmly with those Red Guard extremists who still resist the reining in of the Cultural Revolution…. MOSCOW: Moscow has slammed the door on Japanese hopes that it might be willing to talk soon about returning some of the island seized from Japan at the end of World War II… LATIN AMERICA: Reports are filtering in on the reaction of Latin American radical leftists to “Che” Guevara’s death….confirm the death was the sharpest psychological blow ever suffered by Castro’s guerrilla warfare program... SOUTH AFRICA: The threat of new violence is rising rapidly... NORTH VIETNAM: A Czech Reporter on Conditions in Hanoi: a Czech news dispatch from Hanoi described the capital as relatively quiet at present, braced for a resumption of US air raids as soon as the weather clears. the Paul Doumer Bridge is described as open to limited traffic. Cars must slow down in places along the bridge where there are “uneven spots” in the road. The dispatch claims that the bridge was repaired with relative speed because the bombing had been foreseen and repair materials had been assembled in the vicinity prior to the bombing…. Soviet Freighter Captain Claims US Harassment of his ship. The master of the Soviet freighter Bakurani, interviewed by an East German reporter in Haiphong, talked of “continuing US provocations” against Soviet merchant vessels in the Tonkin Gulf. He said helicopters of the US Seventh Fleet had circled low over his ship taking photographs and that US warplanes had constantly flown over from 30-miles off Haiphong until the ship reached port…. Hanoi on The US Antiwar Demonstrations: North Vietnamese propaganda over the weekend contained a steady flow of material designed to exploit the American antiwar protests. The tome of the commentary was set by a 20 October Hanoi broadcast containing remarks of Premier Pham Van Dong to a US antiwar group which has been visiting Hanoi. Dong called the American demonstrations part of the “common struggle” by the Vietnamese against “aggression” in Vietnam and termed the protesters “comrades in arms” with the Vietnamese… Although the recent Hanoi commentary on the demonstrations has been plentiful in volume, it has not been phrased in such a way as to suggest that the North Vietnamese are changing their assessment of effectiveness of the protests. The evidence indicates strongly that they still regard antiwar sentiment in the US as important, but not a determining influence on American policy. US strategy in Vietnam, Hanoi apparently estimates, will continue to be shaped primarily by the development of the military and political situations within South Vietnam and by the balance of forces there between the Communists and allies… A Soviet News Account of Haiphong Bombing: A Soviet news dispatch goes on at length to describe the “barbaric” US air raids on Haiphong designed to “isolate the city from the rest of the country.” He quotes Haiphong city officials as claiming that residential areas , schools, hospitals, industrial enterprises, and transport services have been “wrecked” by the raids. Transportation is the “main problem,” according to the dispatch, and the city is “mobilizing all its forces to solve it.” Thanks to this great effort, the report goes on, communication between Haiphong and the rest of the country has never been interrupted….
23 OCTOBER 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… (24 Oct reporting 23 Oct ops) Page 7: “Haiphong Hit Again”... “United States Navy jets bombed Haiphong again yesterday….Carrier-based warplanes struck the railroad yard at Haiphong, North Vietnam’s main port, for the second consecutive day and also attacked a major highway bridge (see details of this unusual strike below) in raids aimed at clogging the city’s wharves and warehouses with supplies brought into the area… the United States command made no announcement immediately of any plane losses in the raids against the North. The North Vietnam News Agency reported two American planes had been shot down. The Navy pilots said they had dropped one span of a highway bridge in Haiphong that had been hit previously. The bridge is one of four major spans leading out of the city, all of which have been attacked (and dropped) by American bombers.”
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were three fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 23 October 1967…
(1) CAPTAIN W.F. TREMPER, USMC, and MAJOR J.I. EDDY, USMC were flying an F-4B of the VMFA-122 Crusaders and MAG-11 out of Danang on a ferry mission to Cubi Point, P.I. and were forced to eject when the aircraft became unflyable. They were rescued to fly and fight again.
(2) and (3) Two F-105Ds of the 333rd TFS and 355th TFW out of Takli went down after a midair collision southwest of Udorn. MAJOR RODNEY McLEAN was killed in the accident. The second pilot survived but was seriously injured…
ROLLING THUNDER–GOING DOWNTOWN HAIPHONG… LIEUTENANT COMMANDER BUD EDNEY…
On 23 October 1967 Lieutenant Commander Leon Albert Edney serving with Attack Squadron 164 embarked in USS Oriskany planned, briefed and led a twenty-three aircraft major air wing strike against the Haiphong Highway Bridge (North). The strike was part of the concentrated effort to sever all communication routes leading to and from the enemy’s major port city of Haiphong. Two spans of this key bridge had been destroyed on a previous strike. The objective of his mission was to place specially configured influence fuzed bombs in the area of the bridge to preclude easy access for repair crews and disrupt attempts to by-pass this choke point with waterborne logistic craft. The precise delivery of all weapons was essential to achieve the desired coverage, LCDR Edney noticed after careful study of the enemy defensive order of battle in the area that the repeated strikes in the Haiphong area had significantly reduced the enemy antiaircraft resistance. On his own initiative he changed the bomb load on four of his six flak suppressor aircraft and assigned them to attack the bridge prior to the main strike group’s attack in an effort to destroy the northern span. This would not only ensure a more permanent interdiction of this major supply route, but would also make the placement of the influenced fuzed bombs more effective against attempted repairs. Although the antiaircraft artillery threat had been reduced, the target was well within the range of four active surface-to-air missile sites. LCDR Edney effectively deployed his anti-surface-to-air missile elements to provide maximum protection from this serious threat.
Encountering low hanging clouds in the target area, LCDR Edney courageously elected to continue on to the target. With split second timing he detached the division assigned to bomb the bridge just ahead of the main strike group’s attack. This division succeeded in destroying the additional span of the bridge. LCDR Edney then led the remainder of the strike force in a high-speed weaving approach to the roll-in point. Overhead the target the strike was fired on by several surface-to-air missiles. Encountering 37mm and automatic weapons fire during the run he skillfully led the strike group in placing all the influence fuzed mines in a perfect position to interdict the waterway around the bridge. Recent intelligence sources have confirmed the effectiveness of these missions in slowing the movement of essential war supplies in and around Haiphong. LCDR Edney’s detailed planning, professional and courageous flight leadership, and successful completion of this demanding and complex mission ensured a prolonged interdiction of this major line of communications into Haiphong. (Source: CVA-34/1650/va-164/11/js ser.0122 of 30 Jan 1968 Declass 1980)… With highest respect and admiration, sir… oohrah…
RIPPLE SALVO… #596… The historical documents now available to the public include two “Notes of Meeting” for the President on 23 October 1967. The issues discussed, first with his “wise men,” McNamara, Rusk, Wheeler and Rostow. Here are a few teaser quotes from that meeting: President:
“I am proud of the way our men in Vietnam handled themselves in commenting on the demonstrations here this weekend. I am concerned as to how we handle the draft card burners who are handing in their draft cards at various federal centers.”… “We have got to do something about public opinion.”…and: “Bob, are you ready to go to Phuc Yen?”
Later in the afternoon the President added seven leaders from the Congress to his discussion of several of the hottest topics. Attending were the Vice President, CIA Director Helms, Senators McCormack, Long, Byrd, Mansfield, Dirksen, Hickenlooper, Margaret Chase Smith, Sparkman and Hayden and Representatives Mahon, Albert, Moss and Bates.
President quotes from the three page document:
“I have asked the Leadership to meet with me today in order to discuss with our search for a peaceful settlement in Vietnam, and in particular the question of whether or not a cessation of bombing would lead to negotiations.”… “Unfortunately, it is my conclusion, and that of all of my principal advisors, that a total cessation of bombing at this time would not in fact lead to productive negotiations. I want to review with you the reasons why we have come to this conclusion.”… “I am quite willing to order cessation of bombing and to meet any condition imposed by Hanoi if this will in fact lead promptly to productive discussions. But I simply cannot take this action if the only result would be that North Vietnam would take advantage of the cessation to reinforce and resupply its troops in a major way.”…
The meeting convened at 5:36p.m. and ended at 7:04 p.m. Congressman Carl Albert had the last word: “I would tell them to jump in a lake. We must continue to do what we have to do.”… Read the “Notes of Meeting” for 23 October at:
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d363
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d364
Tomorrow: Phuc Yen and Rolling Thunder gets nasty…
RTR Quote for 23 October: Ephesians VI, 16: “The shield of faith.”… “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”…
Lest we forget… Bear