RIPPLE SALVO… #962… THE NEW YORK TIMES WAS UNIMPRESSED WITH GOVERNOR GEORGE WALLACE’S CHOICE FOR HIS VICE PRESIDENTIAL RUNNING MATE: GENERAL CURTIS E. LeMAY, USAF, Retired. … EVIDENCE: Sunday, 20 October 1968, Op Ed on page 14E…
The Editors showed their colors with the title of their short piece on the distinguished Air Force general: “DR. STRANGELOVE, WE PRESUME.”…I quote: “And then there is George Wallace’s running mate, General Curtis E. LeMay. The candidate who blames ‘traitors’ in the United States Government for the Chinese intervention in the Korean war. Who were they? ‘You know who they are as well as I do.’
“The candidate who would ‘blow the whistle’ on the ‘no-win policy’ in Vietnam, who would bomb Haiphong and other supply centers even in heavily populated areas, who would bomb North Vietnam ‘back to the stone age,’ if necessary, to achieve ‘victory.’ The candidate who thinks the nuclear bomb is ‘just another weapon in our arsenal.’
“That a man who espouses such views should even be considered eligible to stand one life away from command of the world’s most formidable nuclear arsenal is a slur on the judgement of Americans and an affront to humanity. It is also another measure of the total unfitness of Mr. Wallace himself to be considered seriously for the Presidency.” In fact, The Times didn’t think much of George Wallace either… More on General LeMay below… but first…
GOOD MORNING… Day NINE HUNDRED SIXTY-TWO of a celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam war and the air war over North Vietnam called Operation Rolling Thunder… Lest we forget the great service and sacrifices of the men who alone took the war to the enemy where he lived for 44-months of a bloody and historic bombing campaign….
THE WAR: Page 4: “FOE SHELLS A U.S. MARINE BASE AND TOWN NEAR DMZ KILLING 6–23 WOUNDED IN FIRST RAID ON DIVISION POST IN 56 DAYS–Rains Hamper Fighting”… “Six persons were killed and 23 were wounded today when enemy guns bombarded the most important United States military base near the demilitarized zone. The shelling was the first in 56 days at the Marine Base at Dongha. No ground attack accompanied the barrage. The base, 10 miles south of the eastern end of the buffer zone servers as the headquarters and major supply point of the Third Marine Division. Dongha also was struck by some of the shells, which apparently were fired from the 130-mm guns emplaced to the north, perhaps in the Dmz or in North Vietnam….Farther south, in Quangtri Province, marines working near Anhoa, about 29 miles southwest of Danang, spotted more than 100 enemy soldiers. Artillery fire was called in killing 54. No discernible pattern emerged from the scattered clashes other than the fact that the great majority were initiated by Allied units. Bad weather hampered combatants throughout the day.”…. Page 4: “MARINE SLAIN SAVING OTHERS IS AWARDED MEDAL OF HONOR”… “An 18-year-old Marine killed in Vietnam while dragging wounded comrades to safety was posthumously awarded the nation’s highest award for bravery today. Navy Secretary Paul R. Ignatius presented the Medal of Honor is Mr. and Mrs.William I. martin of Charleston, w. Va, who were flanked by a 200-man honor guard at the Pentagon. General Leonard F. Chapman, the Marine Commandant, read a citation telling how their son, Pfc. Gary W. Martini, exposed himself to Communist fire to drag members of his platoon.”…
PEACE TALKS: Humble Host will brief 14 Historical Documents in tomorrow’s post that have piled up this week as the intensity of activity has increased and a drive toward the President’s 31 October 1968 announcement of the cessation of the bombing approaches, and Rolling Thunder wraps up with final RT ops on 1 November 1968.
HEAD LINES: Page 1: “THIEU DECLARES HE IS ASSISTING THE PEACE EFFORTS– Reply To Humphrey Calls For Good Reason To Believe Hanoi Will De-Escalate–His Reasons Debated–Session Due In Paris Today Amid Speculation of Possible Breakthrough”… Page 1: “APOLLO 7 SPLASHES DOWN AFTER PERFECT MISSION–U.S. Prepares Moon Shot In December”… Page 1: “EGYPT DEMANDS ISRAEL’S APOLOGY–Response At U.N. To New Peace Proposals By Eban Termed Disappointing”… Page 1: “NIXON INTENSIFIES BLOWS AT HUMPHREY ON OHIO TRAIN TOUR”… Page 1: “HUMPHREY BUOYED BY TEXAS OUTLOOK–Finds Long Feuding Leaders In Apparent Harmony And Crowd At Rally Warn”… Page 1: “POLITICAL OBSERVERS CAUTIOUS ON VICTORY BY NIXON WARINESS IS BASED ON WALLACE BID AND MEMORY OF 1948″… Page 9: “SPIRIT OF CZECHS REMAINS DEFIANT–Political Acts Belie The Idea Nation Has Capitulated”…
23 OCTOBER 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times: Devoid of coverage of Rolling Thunder operations… VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES (Chris Hobson) There were three fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 23 October 1968…
(1) 1LT R.E. BRYAN was flying an F-100D of the 612th TFS and 37th TFW out of Phu Cat in a flight of F-100s providing close air support a few miles southwest of Hue. He was gunned down on a strafing run when he flew into a wall of .50-cal fire. 1LT BRYAN was able to fly the failing Super Sabre east to eject about 5 miles at sea. He was rescued to fly and fight again–as a Misty FAC– by a Navy ship. He would be downed and rescued again as a Misty on 12 January 1969.
(2) MAJOR MARION E. REED was flying an O-2A of the 20th TASS and 504th TASG out of Danang and controlling strike ops in the DMZ a few miles from the coast when hit by ground fire. He was firing a marking round in a dive when hit and was unable to abandon the O-2 Duck before it crashed. Left as a remembrance on the VVMF Wall of Faces page for Major Reed is this from Alan Ogawa: “Remembering that day Kinh Mon Battle…You were supporting us C/1/61 Fifth Division when your planes went down at Kinh Mon. You are indeed a hero. You were flying low over the enemy fortified NVA complex. You were protecting us ground troops. There is a book called A Hundred feet Over Hell by Jim Hooper whose brother was also a pilot.”… MAJOR REED is buried at Ft. Logan National Cemetery… He is remembered on this 50th anniversary of his final flight with highest respect and admiration…
(3) CAPTAIN RICHARD L. EDWARDS was flying an O-2A of the 20th TASS and 504th TASG out of Danang about an hour after MAJOR REED had perished in an area 15 miles south of Danang when hit at 1,500 feet by ground fire. He was unable to escape his flaming aircraft and was killed in the crash. A very bad day for the 20th TASS… A remembrance was left for CAPTAIN EDWARDS on the VVMF Wall of Faces site by Jaqueline Kay Edwards Ellis, CAPTAIN EDWARD’S daughter: “Always in my heart…I could not be prouder that this man was my father. he ws such a good Christian man. I love you Daddy, you will always be in my heart.”… CAPTAIN EDWARDS, a Lopez FAC, is buried at Woodland Cemetery, Ironton, Ohio… He is remembered with admiration on this 50th anniversary of his death on the battlefield in combat…
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES (KIA/MIA/POW) ON THE FOUR 23 OCTOBER DATES OF THE FOUR YEARS OF THE OPERATION OVER NORTH VIETNAM…
1965, 1966,`1967 and 1968… NONE… oohrah…
RIPPLE SALVO… #962… GENERAL CURTIS E. LeMAY was on the campaign trail and had 40 reporters in his train. Humble Host pulled a few quotes from five articles oc the media coverage during the period 18 to 23 October 1968…
20-Oct-68 NYT “LeMay Says Bomb Curb Wastes American Lives”… “General Curtis E. LeMay, the American Independent party candidate for Vice President, charged today that the Johnson Administration’s restricted bombing policy in the Vietnam war was ‘wasting’ American lives. The general had just ended a three day tour of South Vietnam”… “He said he would offer…Wallace… a ‘sensible, proper and efficient solution to the war.’… ‘The bombing of North Vietnam has been inefficient, and the restrictions on targets have given the enemy safe sanctuaries for troops and and material,‘ General LeMay told newsmen as he left Saigon this morning…. ‘American casualties have been ‘much higher than they should have been’ Because, he said, bomber pilots ‘were forbidden to hit the right targets. Lives have been essentially been wasted.’… “Asked about proposals for an American halt of all bombing in North Vietnam, General LeMay said: ‘I’ve always been against bombing halts. We’ve had several of them in the past and they produced no tangible results toward a settlement of negotiated peace. And it has cost us resources and lives.’ ”….
23-Oct-68 NYT, page 17: “LeMAY ASSERTS PEACE GESTURE MAY BE A TRICK”… “The retired Air Force Chief of Staff, running as the Vice-Presidential candidate with… Governor Wallace– spoke out on the war as he made his first major political swing of the campaign. In a statement at the airport in Couth Carolina, he declared: ‘I warn the American people that between now and Election Day some gesture is going to be mde either by Washington or by Hanoi to indicate that peace is in the offing. The gesture would be to influence the American voter. The one thing the Communist World fears more than anything else is a complete changing of the guard in Washington. Their big nightmare is that the present no-win policy, in the past supported and in this campaign espoused by both Mr, Nixon and Mr. Humphrey, will be thrown out at the polls by the American people and replaced by those who are pledged to put an end to this disastrous war.” A few protesters showed up at a LeMay speech and were met with this denunciation of his critics with this: “They have tried to create an image of LeMay, the big bomber general with a thunderbolt in one hand, a nuclear warhead in the other and a kind of wild gleam in his eye, anxious to plunge this country into nuclear war if given half a chance.‘ Elaborating his views to a newsman afterward on his plane, he said: ‘It seems to be that the left-wing press accuses anyone who advocates a firm stand against Communism as saber-rattling.’ “….
RTR quote for 23 October: PRESIDENT D.D. EISENHOWER, Reader’s Digest, October 1968. Authored an article that listed “executive ability and skill in selecting and using subordinates” as a “vital attribute of the Presidency.”…
Ike observed:”Any chief executive who tries to do everything himself, as some Presidents have, is in trouble. He will work himself into a state of exhaustion and frustration and drive everyone around him half-crazy.”…
Lest we forget… Bear