RIPPLE SALVO… #566… NYT, 23 Sept 67, Page 1`: “Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko of the Soviet Union Insists Only U.S. Pullout Can End the War–Addressing U.N. General Assembly, He Finds Nothing New in U.S. Appeal–Offers Hanoi More Aid–Goldberg Replying Invites Soviets to Open Dialogue as Test of Sincerity”… a few exerts from the Gromyko speech at Ripple Salvo…but first…
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED SIXTY-SIX of a 1000-day review of the 45-month air war called Operation Rolling Thunder….
23 September 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a cloudy Saturday waiting for the rain..
FALL IN AMERICA 1967: Page 1: “Johnson Defends Price of the War–Says U.S. Stand in Vietnam Makes Far Heavier Cost in Future Less Likely”... “President Johnson vigorously defended today the price the nation is paying to defend the South Vietnamese, saying ‘this effort made a greater war and a far heavier price less likely in the years to come.’… ‘I tell you as sincerely, and I believe it as deeply as I believe anything, the stand we are making in that country now is just as important to you as the stand we made in your parents and grandparents homelands in years past.’ Mr. Johnson was speaking to leaders of fraternal and ethnic organizations. … ‘The question is always whether it is worth paying the price…I say it is.’ “… Page 1: “Teacher’s Union Now Threatening To Prolong Tie-up–Charges Education Board Reneges on Pact and Says Members Won’t Return on Monday-–Ratifying Vote is Off”.... Page 10: “ACLU Protests Limit On Pickets–Urges Johnson To Remove White House Restriction”... “…Charge recently imposed police restrictions on numbers of demonstrators in front of the White house violate rights of assembly and free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution…’restriction is arbitrary, unnecessary and undemocratic.” Maximum assembly of 100 is allowed.”… Page 14: “Group Assails Use of Dogs By Police–Newark Anti-Poverty Agency Opposes Council Decision”… “City Council decision to provide patrol dogs to Police Department will ‘exacerbate an already tense situation.’ “… Page 16: “Governor Romney Pays Visit to Coast Hippies–Gets Mixed Reception from Haight-Asbury Crowd”… “The flower people had a good deal of difficulty understanding what the undeclared presidential candidate was doing in the midst of a free Friday chicken and corn feed in the Haight-Asbury Park that is their common preserve.”… Page 16: “Rockefeller Says Reagan Poses Threat to Nixon At Convention on TV Broadcast”… Page 16: “Disorder in Maywood, Ill”… “…curfew imposed after the arrest of 20 members of a crowd of 500 persons pelted police cars with bottles.”… Page 16: “Snipers Fire Shots at Police In Aurora, Ill. After Negro March”… Page 16: “President and Lynda Attend Ceremony At Marine Barracks”… “Attend Friday evening ceremony at Eighth and I to observe fiance Captain Charles Robb march in Evening Parade.”…
VIETNAM: Page 1: “Enemy Intensifies Shelling of Conthien”… “Intense artillery barrages continued to hit the small outpost of Conthien where 35 Marines have been reported killed and 468 wounded in the last 10 days. Despite all the heavy armament the United States could muster against North Vietnamese gun positions in and near the demilitarized zone in recent weeks, the shellings have increased, and the end was not in sight…More than 300 rounds of mortar shells and rockets hit Conthien today. Six Marines were reported killed and 56 wounded…Conthien was pounded by 653 rounds yesterday killing 7 Marines and wounding 135.”… (Humble Host notes: the 22 September showing of Ken Burns’ “The Vietnam War,” episode 5– titled: “This is war. This is what we do.”–included more than ten minutes of film coverage of the Marine efforts to hold that hill at all costs. Very moving. Very informative. Every young woman who aspires for combat should be see this about fifteen times. Every American who thinks our daughters should “man up” a post on the battlefield like Conthien should have to see it fifty times. War is a killing business and there is no role for women in places like Conthien.) …
23 September 1967: The President’s Daily Brief (TS eyes only) By CIA: Status of the Hanoi Powerplant: damage inflicted by air strikes against the Hanoi powerplant limits operation to about one-half capacity. This is in line with previous forecasts which predicted restoration to full capacity by no sooner than the end of the year.”…
Giap’s Analysis of the War–Continued from 22 Sept: the last portion of the defense minister’s analysis of the war is now in hand. It contains nothing startling and continues to profess confidence in ultimate victory.
Giap reaffirms that, although the Vietnamese Communists cannot hope to match the number of US and Allied troops in the South, they can nonetheless wage the war successfully–by maintaining a “stalemate” until the US tires. He argues that this can be done by improving the quality of the Communist forces and by superior tactics…The North Vietnamese leader says he expects the US soon to increase its troop strength in the South by 50,000 and eventually by as many as 100,000 to 200,000. This does not matter, he says. The Communists can counter this by giving greater role to irregulars and by increasing irregular strength. this is a subject that has been a controversial one in Hanoi. Giap has long argued that the guerrillas have a very important role to play, in conjunction with regular forces. His opponents (Le Duan?) have argued that the guerrilla role should be subordinate to that of the regulars….
Giap dismisses the concept of a ‘barrier” across the northern portion of South Vietnam in a few sentences, stating that it would be ineffective….The problem of how to defend North Vietnam also gets some attention. Giap refers both to air defense and to ground invasion, which is mentioned as a possibility. . He admits that some air defense units have performed poorly and calls for disciplinary measures against those whose negligence has caused avoidable damage…..
23 SEPTEMBER 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (24 Sept reporting 23 Sept ops) Page 1: “Jets Raid Positions of Foe Shelling Conthien Marines”… “American warplanes struck back yesterday (22nd) and today (23rd) at North Vietnamese artillery positions that have been pounding the small Marine outpost at Conthien near the demilitarized zone. Conthien was battered again today with five shells a minute. The Marines kept the duel and exchange of firing across the buffer zone (6 miles wide)…. B-52s are flying night and day to attack the North Vietnamese positions along the DMZ and North...Air Force, Navy and Marine fighter-bombers also attacked the enemy gun positions north of Conthien...Air Force pilots reported secondaries on one mission and left five fires burning. Navy pilots reported damaging an anti-aircraft position and setting off explosions on the gun site. Marine pilots flew 125 missions in support of ground operations and forces around Conthien…..Poor weather over most of North Vietnam limited pilots to 107 missions yesterday (22nd), most of them in the panhandle in the DMZ area. No American aircraft were lost in combat over the North, but updated figures on aircraft lost over the North now stands at 683 airplanes North and 290 in the South. Total 973…
“Vietnam: Air Losses: (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 23 September 1967…
(1) MAJOR D.S. AUNAPU was flying an F-105D of the 469th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat on a “Milky” and got shot down. Chris Hobson tells it this way… “When not flying Rolling thunder strikes or armed reconnaissance missions in the North, the F-105s occasionally flew Combat Skyspot radar bombing missions over North Vietnam or Laos. This usually involved a flight of four F-105s led by an F-105F or an EB-66 that signaled the other aircraft when to release their bombs (“Hack”). This technique was often employed during periods of bad weather when the aircraft had to operate above an overcast. MAJOR AUNAPU was flying a Skyspot mission when hit and damaged by AAA (probably radar directed 85mm) near Ban Katoi, 30 miles northwest of the DMZ. The aircraft almost reached Korat before MAJOR AUNAPU was forced to eject.”… He survived to fly and fight again
RIPPLE SALVO… #566… The United Nations was back in town for the wrap-up of a lengthy recess of the 22nd meeting of the General Assembly and the kick-off of the 23rd Session of the General Assembly and it was open-mike time for the un-United Nations to take shots at the un-United States… Here is what the Soviets thought about the United States and the war in Vietnam… A short address by Alexie Gromyko was made to ask the General Assembly for support in condemning the United States…..
“The war in Vietnam is the most large-scale war since 1945. Its danger lies not only in the scale and intensity of hostilities but also that at any moment the fighting can overrun new areas and draw new states into its orbit. It is quite in vain that Washington is trying to delude people by making all kinds of tranquilizing statements. To act in this way means telling an untruth and turning a blind eye on the real danger lying in wait for the world-at-large in connection with the war in Vietnam’
“Attempts are made from time to time on the American side to depict matters as if the United States is not loathe in taking a ‘peace initiative’ in Vietnam. In such cases the press is appropriately tuned up and Washington’ emissaries begin touring certain capitals while all kinds of backstage meetings and talks are launched in the United Nations though it has nothing to do with the solution to the problem. But each time such an ‘initiative’ turns out to be a soap-bubble intended either for domestic or for external consumption.
“What was the reply of the United States government to the statement made last January 28 by the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam about their readiness to begin negotiations on a settlement of the Vietnam problem after cessation of the bombing of the territory of the D.R.V. and other aggressive acts against Vietnam? The reply was barbarous bombings of residential areas in Vietnamese towns…
“…the aggressor’s half-hearted censures and whispered entreaties merely increase the temptation to seek a way out of the predicament in adventures that are still more rash and dangerous….
“That is why it is so important that everywhere in the world, including the 22nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, condemnation of the Untied States aggression in Vietnam should ring out loudly and that the people, including the American people, should see that the wall of moral and political isolation around the aggressor is growing.
“Every honest man in the world and, first and foremost every politician and statesman, unless his tongue is in his cheek, must say outright that the Americans have come with arms in hand to a distant land that does not belong to them and trying by force of arms, to impose an order that suits certain quarters in the United States that they are trying to drown in blood the inextinguishable desire of the Vietnamese people to be independent and free.”…. The General Assembly failed to support the Soviet resolution to condemn the United States… It wasn’t even close… and the UN moved on to the 23rd GA session
RTR QUOTE for 23 September: A MARINE AT CONTHIEN: “This is war. This is what we do.”…
Lest we forget… Bear