RIPPLE SALVO… #537… ON 25 AUGUST 1967 SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ROBERT STRANGE McNAMARA TAKES THE OATH… but DO NOT overlook the “NOTES OF MEETING” in the White House on 24 August to decide “whether of not to authorize air strikes on the Phuc Yen Air Field.”… but first…
Good Morning… Day FIVE HUNDRED THIRTY-SEVEN of a look back of fifty-years to the air war over North Vietnam secretly called OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…
25 August 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a cool and cloudy Friday in NYC…
Page 1: The Lead: “U.S. And Soviets Submit A draft Of Atomic Pact–Johnson Hails It–He Says The Proposal Is ‘A Great Gift For The World’–Curb Is Proposed–Treaty Would Block the Proliferation of Nuclear Arms”... “The U.S. and USSR submitted to the identical texts of draft treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. the draft left blank the article on inspections… for consideration of 17 nation disarmament conference, then United Nations.”…
SUMMER IN AMERICA 1967: “Urban Coalition Conference Urges U.S. Spur Jobs For Millions–Conference of 800 Leaders Calls For New Priorities–Private Role Stressed–Dissatisfaction With Johnson Response to Cities Difficulties”… “A convocation of more than 800 mayors, business, labor, church and civil rights leaders called on the Government today to reorder national priorities and develop emergency work programs to provide jobs in the nations riot torn cities. The group, which calls itself the Urban Coalition, held a one-day meeting to the Shoreham Hotel in Washington. It sought solutions to the urban crisis and in the words of the keynote speaker, Mayor John Lindsay of New York, to forge a national coalition of those with a stake in the nation’s cities and people.”… “A Statement of Principle Goals and Commitments of the Urban Coalition”…”(1)Provide at least one million meaningful and useful jobs immediately concentrating on the huge backlog of employment needs in parks, streets, slums, college…etc. (2) develop closer working relationships with the private sector and through incentives encourage industry to create vast new programs of job training… (3) Undertake bold and immediate steps to provide a decent home for every American, including the goal of at least a million housing units for low-income families annually… “… Page 1: “Kennedy Appeals For City Gun Curb–He Warns Council of More Senseless Killings and Scores National Rifle Group”... “Senator Robert F. Kennedy urged the New York City Council to approve legislation to control the sale of rifles and shotguns, which he termed ‘the tools of the urban rioter and the machinery of senseless killing.’ … ‘If we do not pass these laws, we sign a death warrant of more policemen and more children who will be caught in tomorrow’s crossfire.”… Page 2: “U.S. Gets Appeal From Churchmen–Urged to Restate Its Policy on Vietnam Withdrawal”...”…. 223 Leaders of World Council of Churches calls on United States to reaffirm publicly its commitment to withdraw its troops from Vietnam.”…
VIETNAM: Page 2: “U.S. Lists Targets Struck in North Vietnam”... “Nearly 300 targets have been struck in North Vietnam since the air war began two and a half years ago…More than half were listed as troop concentrations, bridges and antiaircraft gun/missile sites. The Defense Department said that the intensifying air campaign was directed at solely military targets. It listed dikes and dams, inter-nation shipping and heavily populated areas as ‘types of targets we endeavor to avoid.’ Three types of targets–barracks, soviet-built missile sites, and bridges–have been struck more than 50 times. Among the other targets frequently attacked were ammunition depots, which were raided more than 15 times, oil storage plants more than 10 times, supply depots more than 20, power plants more than 10, and ports and air fields more than 5 each.”… “Casualty Report: 108 Americans were killed in action last week and 283 were wounded. In the same period 1,493 Vietcong and North Vietnamese were reported killed. Fighting remained light but terrorist attacks killed 167 Vietnamese citizens, wounded 254 and abducted 126. since the first of the year Vietcong have killed 2,027 Vietnamese civilians, wounded 3,683 and abducted 2,783.”…
State Department Office of the Historian Document 294 from FRUS, 1964-68 Volume V, Vietnam, 1967…Notes of Meeting… Subject: Whether or not to authorize air strikes on the big North Vietnamese MIG base at Phuc Yen… Humble Host calls this “The anatomy of a no-decision punt”… this is one of the most interesting conversations in the Oval office I have added to this project… This is a must read for Rolling Thunder aviators and history buffs… Read, absorb and shake your head in wonderment at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d294
The President’s TS CIA Daily Brief (24 Aug) SOUTH VIETNAM: A captured Viet Cong document suggests that an all-out attack on communications facilities may be a key feature of the Viet Cong to disrupt the election (of 3 September) the Viet Cong evidently intend to hit communications sites especially hard on 2 September and use the resulting confusion to spread anti-election posters and leaflets. Another captured document indicates that in one province the Communists will try to act in concert with any Buddhist opposition to the elections which might materialize.
25 AUGUST 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… The New York Times (26 August reporting 25 Aug ops) Page 1: “U.S. Again Bombs Near China Line–A Rail Yard 18 Miles From Border Raided”... “fighter-bombers of the United States Air Force attacked a railroad yard 18 miles from the border of Communist China yesterday during continued strikes at North Vietnam’s rail lines…The jets based in Thailand hit four rail yards along the northeast rail link with the Chinese border as thunder showers limited attacks near Hanoi and in the northwest. The strikes hit yards 18, 28, 24 and 47 miles from the border… the strikes found and targeted more than 100 boxcars in the four rail yards… One Air Force F-105 Thunderchief was shot down by ground fire during the day. It was the 660th American plane shot down in North Vietnam and the 13th this week
“Navy carrier pilots attacked the Port Wallut naval base 61 miles north-northeast of Haiphong and 30 miles south of the Chinese border. The base is North Vietnam’s chief military port…used primarily by small PT attack boats… A building in the base complex was heavily damaged…Navy fighter-bombers also hit the Kepha airfield 37 miles north-northwest of Haiphong and Marine pilots in an unusually deep raid in North Vietnam struck the Hoalac MIG base 15 miles west of Hanoi. The spokesman said the raids were at night precluding battle damage assessment. Marine planes also bombed the Longcon military area 28 miles north of Hanoi in another USMC night attack.”
“Vietnam: Air Losses”(Chris Hobson) There were three fixed wing aircraft downed in Southeast Asia on 25 August 1967…
(1) LTJG R.W. GERARD was flying an A-4C of the VA-15 Valions embarked in USS Intrepid on a coastal recce north of Vinh in a division of A-4s striking barges and was hit by ground fire. LTJG GERARD was able to fly the aircraft well to sea before system failures and a wing fire required him to eject. He was rescued by Navy helicopter to fly and fight again…
(2) COMMANDER EDWARD JAMES JACOBS, LTJG JAMES JOHN ZAVOCKY and ADJ2 CLAIRE RONALD ALLAN BOIS were flying an RA-3B “Black Bart” from the VAP-61 based at NAS Cubi Point and operating out of Danang on a night mission along the coast of North Vietnam using IR to call targets for carrier based pouncers… The aircraft perished and an extensive search failed to find any evidence of survivors or the crash site… COMMANDER JACOBS, LTJG ZAVOCKY and ADJ2 BOIS were killed in action, “bodies not recovered” and they rest in peace where they fell… They are remembered here fifty years after they gave the last full measure for our country on a dark night 10,000 miles from home…
(3) CAPTAIN WILLIAM OTIS FULLER and 1LT THOMAS MICHAEL KILLCULLEN were flying an F-4C of the 558th TFS and 12th TFW out of Cam Ranh Bay on a night road recce on Highway 1A ten miles north of the DMZ when hit by ground fire. The aircraft was observed to crash near Xom Quan without a voice call or beeper… CAPTAIN FULLER and 1LT KILLCULLEN remain where they fell fifty years ago…”bodies not recovered”… left behind?… but remembered with admiration on this half century anniversary of their final flight for our country…
RIPPLE SALVO… #537… The “Stennis Hearings” on the conduct and effectiveness of the air war opened on 9 August with Admiral U.S.Grant Sharp the first witness. The final witness was Secretary McNamara, who took a seat on 25 August to respond to a subcommittee that had heard from all the military leaders and the Senators were loaded for bear as the Secretary of Defense came to bat… The following is from “The Pentagon Papers,” Gravel Edition, pages 199-200…
“The subcommittee heard first from the military leaders involved in the war. It was told that the air war in the North was an important and indispensable part of the U.S. strategy for fighting the war in the South. It was told that the bombing had inflicted extensive destruction and disruption on NVN, holding down the infiltration of men and supplies, restricting the level of forces that could be sustained in the South and reducing the ability of those forces to mount major sustained combat operations, thus resulting in fewer U.S. casualties. It was told without the bombing, NVN could have doubled its forces in the South, requiring as many as 800,000 additional U.S. troops at a cost of $75 billion more just to hold our own. It was told that without the bombing NVN cold have freed 500,000 people who were at work maintaining and repairing the LOCs in the North for additional support of the insurgents in the South. It was told that a cessation of the bombing now would be “a disaster,” resulting in increased losses and an indefinite extension of the war.
The subcommittee was also told that the bombing had been much less effective than it might have been–and could still be–if civilian leaders heeded military advice and lifted the overly restrictive controls which had been imposed on the campaign. The slow tempo of the bombing; its concentration for so long well south of the vital Hanoi/Haiphong areas, leaving the important targets untouched; the existence of sanctuaries; the failure to close or neutralize the port of Haiphong–these and other limitation prevented the bombing from achieving targets of real significance, moreover, gave NVN time to buildup formidable air defenses, contributing to U.S. aircraft and pilot losses, and enabled NVN to prepare for the anticipated destruction of its facilities (such as POL) by building up reserve stocks and dispersing them.
When Secretary McNamara appeared before the subcommittee on August 25, he took issue with most of these views. He defended the bombing campaign as one which was carefully tailored to our limited purposes in Southeast Asia and which was therefore aimed at selected targets of strictly military significance, primarily the routes of infiltration. He restated the objectives which the bombing was intended to serve:
McN: “Our primary objective was to reduce the flow and /or to increase the cost of continued infiltration of men and supplies from North to South Vietnam.
“It was also anticipated that these air operations would raise the morale of the South Vietnamese.
“Finally, we hoped to make clear to the North Vietnamese leadership that so long as they continued their aggression against the South they would have to pay a price in the North
“The bombing of North Vietnam has always been considered a supplement to and not a substitute for an effective counter-insurgency land and air campaign in South Vietnam.
“These were our objectives when our bombing program was initiated in February 1965.”
McNamara said: Weighted against these objectives, the bombing campaign had been successful…
“It was initiated at a time when the South Vietnamese were in fear of a military defeat. There can be no question that the bombing raised and sustained the morale of the South Vietnamese at that time. It should be equally clear to the North Vietnamese that they have paid and will continue to pay a high price for their continued aggression. We have also made the infiltration of men and supplies from North Vietnam to South Vietnam increasingly difficult and costly.”
Tomorrow: Ripple Salvo will give voice to McNamara on the success of Operation Rolling Thunder at limiting infiltration… In fact, Humble Host will give McNamara a few days to put his testimony in the RTR archives…
RTR QUOTE for 25 August: THOMAS JEFFERSON, Writings: “The wise know too well their weakness to assume infallibility; and he who knows most, knows best how little he knows.”
Lest we forget… Bear