RIPPLE SALVO… #206… AN 11-YEAR WAR + 58,000 KIA = QUAGMIRE… but first…
Good Morning: Day TWO HUNDRED SIX of a daily history lesson that matters…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… 50 years ago on this date…
23 SEPTEMBER 1966…THE FRONT PAGE NEWS AT HOME…NEW YORK TIMES… A fair Friday for the UN visitors…
Page (1) “U. S. Offers To Stop Raids In North If Hanoi Pledges It Will also De-Escalate”… “President Johnson said today that Arthur Goldberg’s Vietnam peace proposals to the United Nations General Assembly had been made with his full approval. The administration appeared cautious, however, about expecting any favorable response from North Vietnam. Senatorial critics of the Administration’s policy were enthusiastic in their praise of the speech. Mr. Johnson, asked at his press conference whether Mr. Goldberg’s speech was an ‘important new initiative,’ made a point of avoiding any such description. ‘I think it is good for him to say it. We are very anxious, as you well know, to do anything and everything we can through every forum we can, to try to promote peace in the world. I think that is what he is trying to do. He has my full approval and the Secretary of State’s approval.’ It was not completely clear whether the subdued public comment by the administration reflected its considerable pessimism about a favorable response from Hanoi or it was designed to avoid overselling that has been leveled at the peace offensive of last January. Critics argued then that although the peace effort might have failed anyway, it was not helped by the kind of emphatic tub-thumping provided by President Johnson.”…Page 1: “Thant Hails U.S. Stand As Do Most In UN Except Reds”…”The United States proposal today, a step-by-step de-escalation of the war in Vietnam by both sides, starting with a halt in the bombing of North Vietnam, was well received by the General Assembly. ‘The bombing will stop,’ Arthur Goldberg told the General Assembly, ‘the moment we are assured privately or otherwise, that the step will be answered by corresponding, appropriate reductions of the North Vietnamese war effort. Qualified sources emphasized the importance of the word ‘assured.’ The Administration, they said, is now willing to accept assuances rather than evidence of North Vietnam’s desire to take steps toward peaqce. they regard this as progress. Ambassador Goldberg said the second step toward de-escalation of bombing, was the United States readiness to withdraw its forces as others withdraw theirs, under international supervision, either by the United Nations or otherwise.”…
Page 1: “30% Increase In Warplanes Ordered By McNamara”…”Defense Secretary McNamara announced today an increase of about 30 per cent in the planned production of fighter and fighter-bombers for the fiscal year beginning next July 1. At a news press conference at the Pentagon this afternoon Mr. McNamara said the Administration intended to provide 280 more war planes than had previously been planned. The Secretary noted that the Defense budget had been based for planning purposes on the assumption that the Vietnam war would continue until June 30, 1967, the end of the current fiscal year. ‘I told congress repeatedly that if the conflict were to continue beyond that date, we would have to adjust certain program accordingly. Because of the long lead times involved in aircraft production, I have come to the conclusion that it is wise now to place an order for aircraft that may be require to support a longer war.”…
Page 1: “GM Raises Prices $54 On ’67 Autos”…”The General Motors Corporation raised prices today on its 1967 model automobiles, but heavily undercut it’s competition in the process. The GM increases average $54 a car. The Chrysler Corporation disclosed a $103 advance yesterday and the Ford Motor Company raised prices $112 on Friday.”… “Food Costs Led New Rise In Price Index In August”…”The Consumer Price Index recorded another substantial rise in August as food prices, which normally decline during that month, continued to climb. The index rose .5 in August to 113.3, which means what a typical family could buy in 1959, the base period, for $10 now costs $11.38.”
Page 11: “Jets Bomb Blind With Radar Eyes”…”A radar device designed more than 15 years ago as a training aid to improve the accuracy of strategic bombing called the MSQ77 and codenamed Skyspot, the device enables American tactical fighter-bombers to delivery heavy strikes on enemy troop concentration accurately in driving rainstorms or pitch darkness. An improved version of the device is being installed at several sites and promises to extend the range of radar bombing against targets in both areas (North and South Vietnam). A more advanced device called LORAN-D will make possible even more accurate blind bombing anywhere.”… Page: 4 “A Spokesman announced that 96 Americans and 172 South Vietnamese died in combat in the week ended Saturday. United States wounded for the week numbered 583. There were 703 enemy soldiers killed in action.”…”Mines Set Off In Error, Kill 7 GIs In Vietnam”…”American Infantrymen accidently activated and detonated four land mines in their own minefield and killed seven soldiers and wounded 14. There were two incidents: the first mine killed one trooper then when others went to his aid, another three mines went off and killed six more Infantrymen.”…
23 SEPTEMBER 1966…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NYT (24 September reporting 23 September) Page 8: “The air war over the North continued at the heavy pitch that has characterized it for several weeks, with 118 missions flown by Air Force, Navy and Marine fighter-bombers.”… also…Page 3: “In the Marine operations which began August 3 in an area near the DMZ the count of North Vietnamese dead now totals 620. It was announced today that fighter-bombers sories in support of the operations, most of them just south of the border zone had reached 1,288, a new record for a single operation in Vietnam.”… “Vietnam: Air Losses”(Hobson)…There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 23 September 1966… ooohrah…
RIPPLE SALVO… #206… NATION BUILDING… We are a few days away from the first Presidential Debate between Clinton and Trump. There will be no shortage of questions for the two nominees. I will be attentive to all of the 3-hours of Q&A, but especially to those questions and responses that probe the nominees readiness to be sworn in as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and their respective positions on “nation building,” if they dare take one. The Rand Corporation has a little study called: “The Beginner’s Guide to Nation Building.” Therein they speak of “nation building” as “the use of armed force in the aftermath of a conflict to underpin an enduring transition to democracy.” Our country has a compulsion for such foolishness–nation building. In fact, we are so keen on pursuing “the spread of democracy,” we don’t even wait for the “aftermath of a conflict” to start building a new democracy. We have a track record of stepping into chaotic situations to take charge–as “the World’s Leader”– to roust the tyrants and grow democratic republics where the possibility of failure and unintended consequences are ignored. Our Presidents are imbued with the spirit of Wilson and TR Roosevelt and are hell bent on making the world “safe for democracy.”
A great reference on the subject: The Atlantic Magazine published an essay titled “Nation-Building 101“ by Francis Fukuyama… http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/01/nation-building-1o1/302862/ …
Writer Fukuama prefaces his superb and instructive essay with two quotes attributed to George W. Bush: one from pre 9/11 and one post 9/11.
11 October 2000: “I don’t think our troops ought to be used for what’s called nation-building. I think our troops ought to be used to fight and win wars.”
26 February 2003: “We meet here during a crucial period in the history of our nation, and of the civilized world. Part of that history was written by others; the rest will be written by us…Rebuilding Iraq will require a sustained commitment from many nations, including our own: we will remain in Iraq as long as necessary, and not a day more.” (2016–13 years later and the President just added 500 more troops to our Iraq “advisors.”)
It is nothing short of tragic that President Bush and Vice President Cheney rushed into Iraq and the land of Islam and tribes without pausing to consider the painful lessons of Vietnam where we expended blood and treasure in a losing effort to plant and grow democracy where it has never been. I wonder if either of these leaders had read Marguerite Higgins’ 1965 book, “Our Vietnam Nightmare“? A few paragraphs from her book might have made a difference. Making the world safe for democracy and saving “weak, collapsed or failed states” is beyond our means and our track record, our history tells us so. Here’s a little history from our misadventure in Vietnam… Higgins, pages 288-289… I quote…
What are we in Vietnam for?
We are not, theoretically, in Vietnam as conquerors. As compared to the situation in Japan and Germany, we do not have the right, theoretically, to treat the Vietnamese as a beaten foe for whom we can remold to suit our political heart’s desire.
We are in Vietnam, theoretically, to help the duly constituted authorities and the people combat the Communist armies–officers and enlisted men–sent south by Ho Chi Minh in massively mounting numbers to terrorize, bomb, burn, trick, and bleed the Vietnamese nation into submission to the Communist North, because among other things, if the North left the South alone, Free Vietnam, would thrive and prosper and put Ho Chi Minh to shame just as surely as West Berlin put East Berlin to shame.
But what did the United States do? It allowed itself to forget that it was in Vietnam as an ally, not as a conqueror. In the fall of 1963 Washington went into the business of hiring and firing governments. We not only forgot the one overriding priority, the war effort, but also, for the first time in history, conspired in the ouster of an ally in the middle of a common war against the Communist enemy, thus plunging the country and the war effort into a steep spiral of decline.
Even the State Department, which played such a dominant role in signaling the downfall of Diem–the tragic outcome. In the White Paper of February 1965, the State Department says in typically cynical tones; “The military and insurgency problem was complicated by a quite separate internal political struggle in South Vietnam which led in November 1963, to the removal of the Diem Government….There have been a number of changes in the leadership and composition of the Saigon government in the ensuing period. These internal developments and distractions gave the Viet Cong an invaluable opportunity and they took advantage of it.
What had happened? Very simple. The good Americans had acted on the very false assumption that somehow an Oriental country that had never in the twentieth century experienced nationhood or known peace could nevertheless develop “instant democracy” and operate responsibly in the middle of a war, acting with the smoothest and patriotic dedication that is expected of a country like Great Britain, where it took hundreds of years and many wars to make responsible parliamentary government possible.
Such a false assumption is a bungle that history does not lightly forgive. The impossible, if well-meaning American demands for trappings of democracy brought near chaos instead.
America had heard mutterings of discontentment about Diem’s undemocratic ways almost from the moment his regime was born. But the U.S. Government finally turned to him partly because it was bamboozled into believing Diem was, among other excesses, indulging in the evils of religious persecution. We had the arrogance to play God in Vietnam. and yet our ignorance was so abysmal that we fell for a hoax perpetrate by a tiny, militant, totally untypical group of Buddhist extremists led by Thich Tri Quang, who then and subsequently served Communist ends. Some American officials came to call Thich Tri Quang the “Makarios of Southeast Asia.” But this does an injustice to the Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios, who at least never deliberately deceived his own core-religionists, inspiring them to tragic suicides by fire as a technique of political pressure and personal aggrandizement. A robed Machiavelli with incense, Thich Tri quang and the United States so tightly wrapped around his demagogic finger that Washington blindly placed the blame, not on Thich Tri Quang’s door, where it belonged, but at Diem’s”
Page 290, One more paragraph, if you please…
“The supreme irony of it all is that since the anti-Diem coup d’état that Washington signaled in hopes of better times, American officials have privately come full circle. As one small example, the United States in recent months (1965) has lost any illusion that a Vietnamese riot makes right. By now Washington has concluded that in the light of the indiscipline, factionalism, irresponsibility, and endemic plotting characteristic of the educated Vietnamese, no person can keep control of the situation in Vietnam without resorting to virtually the same tight reign that Diem used. In other words, Diem was right and we were wrong. A strong authoritarian hand was not a whim but a dire necessity.”
And so we go about the world “with the arrogance of God” intervening and purging “strong authoritarians.” Vietnam, Panama, Granada, Dominion Republic, Somalia, Haiti, Nicaragua, Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria ……
Strauz-Hupe: “It is the historical destiny of the United States to expend itself establishing that a democratic republic is the most viable form of government.”
Meanwhile, here at home we are transforming and building a new nation with ever more power concentrated in the executive… “a strong authoritarian.” My message to the next President of the United States– How about a lot less “nation building” on foreign shores and more “of, by and for the people nation building” here in America?
Lest we forget… Bear ………. –30– ……….