RIPPLE SALVO… #568… Humble Host suggests, for your consideration, the Central Intelligence Agency Library and Reading Room as an alternative to staring at professional athletes as they pound on each other and take a knee when the better thing to do is to stand up for our country. Their choice, their right. I have made my choice, too. Beethoven, blog, books and the CIA reading Room, et. al…. see RS #568 below for a sample… but first…
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED SIXTY-EIGHT of a return to yesteryear and the air war over North Vietnam that went on and on, unless you got smoked or bagged…
25 SEPTEMBER 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a sunny Monday in NYC…
FALL IN AMERICA 1967: “Organization of American States Ministers Adopt New Anti-Cuban Policies–argument On step to fight Subversion Considered a Victory for U.S.; Bolivia and Venezuela Oppose–Mexico Won’t Sign”… Page 1: “Gains Made in Effort to End Tie-Up at Schools–Classes Will Be Held Today–Teachers Back Union Leader–Two week-old strike and teacher’s walkout makes some progress toward agreement.”… Page 1: “McNamara Leans to New Defense Against Bombers–$4-Billion Airborne Radar and Plane System–Would Aim at Soviet threat–Major Savings Expected”... “Plan, which calls for anti-missile net would cost $#500-million per year to provide some missile defense for the continent.”… Page 30: “South Carolina Negroes Meet to Push for Voter Registration”… “Senator Fritz Hollings is in trouble due to his vote against confirmation of Thurgood Marshall as Associate Justice on the Supreme Court.”… Page 32: “Flood Breaks Dam; Thousands Trapped In Texas”... “…flood waters from Hurricane Beulah broke through a diversion wall dam at Mercedes. Dead at 44.”… Page 33: “Governor of New York Pushes For Racial Action–Fears Negro-White Warfare Without Urban Solutions”... “…in response to a question : ‘Does the nation face the prospect of racial guerrilla warfare?’ Governor Rockefeller said yesterday that there could be direct violence between whites and Negroes next year or the year after if slum problems were not specifically dealt with.”…
VIETNAM: Page 1: “Militant Vietnam Buddhists Ally With Critics of Voting”… “Buddhists of Trich Tri Quang cast their lot with defeated politicians and disgruntled students are a new anti-government alliance and demanding September 3 election results be set aside and elections for Constitutional Assembly set for 22 October be delayed.”…
Page 3: “Colonel Robin Olds, Top Pilot in Vietnam, Goes Home”… “Col. Robin Olds, who shot down more enemy MIGs in Vietnam than any other American pilot, has gone home. The 45-year-old pilot flew his 100th and final mission over North Vietnam yesterday, the Air Force reported. He then departed for the United States where he will become the commandant of cadets at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs…Colonel Olds, a one-time West Point football star and a World War II ace who shot down 24 German planes, was credited with shooting down four MIG interceptors in Vietnam, one less than the number needed to be rated an ace… He is married to Ella Raines, the former movie actress, and lives in Washington, D.C.”…
Other News of Significance for 2017: Page 1: “Israelis To Live in Two Seized Areas–Plans Announced to Settle Sites on the West Bank and Syrian Heights (Golan)”… Page 1: “Oil Boom is Aiding Reform Plans of Shah of Iran”…
25 September 1967…The President’s Daily Brief… see Ripple Salvo below…
25 SEPTEMBER 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (26 Sept reporting 25 Sept ops)…Page 11: “Stormy weather in the North again limited strikes to the Southern Panhandle…pilots flew 74 multiple-plane missions, hitting barges and storage areas. The Navy pilots flew one mission from the three carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin…the North Vietnam press reported one American fighter-bomber was downed over the port of Haiphong.”… No losses reported by U.S.”’
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) there was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 25 September 1967…
(1) An EA-1F of the Navy’s VAW-13 squadron stationed at Cubi Point, P.I., was ditched at sea as a consequence of engine failure. All four in the crew were rescued…
RIPPLE SALVO… #568… RTR posts will always include the pertinent (Vietnam war) points included in the “President’s Daily Brief.” These documents from the 1960’s were last reviewed for public release in 2015 and are still heavily redacted after 50-years of time-lapse. Go figure! At any rate, they are useful in trying to figure out what the President was thinking on the days of Rolling Thunder. And they are interesting historical documents that are there for anybody who wants to dig a little deeper into what has gone before… The CIA produced PDB for 25 September 1967 includes the following: CIA sez…
1. South Vietnam. The militant Buddhists launched their formal protest yesterday against the recent elections. They held a press conference and pledged their support for the “heroic campaign” to force the Provisional National Assembly to invalidate the elections… We still expect Thieu and Ky to be declared the winners.
2. Soviet Union. Kosygin’s announcement on Saturday of the new aid agreement with Hanoi underlines again Moscow’s central role as economic and military supplier to the North Vietnamese effort. Soviet aid for North Vietnam–now almost all free–will continue to rise, but it does not represent a heavy burden for the Soviet Union. We feel the estimates in the US press that the Soviet aid figure has already reached a billion dollars a year are exaggerations. It will be more on the order of 700-million when this year ends. Some Soviet officials are (still redacted) dropping their heads again on how we can bring a settlement in Vietnam. The key, they say, would be US acceptance of the idea that the regime in Hanoi and the National Liberation front in South Vietnam are distinct entities that do not always see eye to eye. A good first step, they go on, would be the initiation of secret talks between the Saigon government and the Viet Cong. then, talks could begin between the Saigon government and the Viet Cong. Then, talks could begin between the US and the North Vietnamese… It would be difficult to start with Hanoi, they argue, since it would betray an ally for Hanoi to stop aid to the Viet Cong just as it would be difficult for Moscow to stop helping Hanoi of for the US to make a deal with the Viet Cong against Saigon’s wishes…Joseph Draft, who stopped over in Moscow last week, believes that Brezhnev at that time went out of his way publicly to build up the image of the National Liberation front and to stress his hopes for a future “independent South Vietnam.” Kraft speculates that Moscow was thus supporting an effort by Hanoi to give renewed emphasis to the idea that there are two wars going on in Vietnam–one in the north and one in the south, and that Hanoi is mainly concerned with the former…None of the Soviets, however, have come up with an answer to the clincher–without a concurrent agreement about arms and men from the north. Furthermore, NLF leaders in the south have continually insisted that they will never deal with Thieu and Ky… end CIA words…
In addition to the PDB the President has requested the PDB include an attachment, “Special Daily Report on North Vietnam: For the President’s Eyes Only”… Unfortunately, about 75% of these items are still classified (no explanation given, just blank paper. For example, the 25 Sept Eyes Only brief is 3 pages but the following paragraph is the only un-redacted bit that makes any sense after the censors delete the 50-year old secrets…
North Vietnamese Foreign minister Interview (At the UN???) ...first part redacted, then…Trinh had little to say. He insisted that the Communists are winning the war, and he rejected any United Nations ‘ action to arrange a settlement. Trinh expressed himself somewhat more directly than usual on the question of whether Hanoi would, in fact, talk if the bombing is stopped. In response to a question about the timing of US withdrawal from South Vietnam, he said it is too soon to talk about that and that first of all, the US must stop bombing, “then talks will follow.”…
What did Humble Host gain from access to this information? (1) Reinforcement of the fact that the Soviets were pumping more and more stuff into North Vietnam, and it was coming in two ways–Haiphong on merchants and down a track through China– which made the mining of the harbor an absolutely essential action if we really were committed to stopping the flow of materials to the battlefield. (2) Rolling Thunder was the most valuable bargaining chip the United States had in the game. We played it like it was worth a short stack of silver rather than a tall stack of gold, which is what Nixon did later with Linebacker.
If the CIA briefs are of interest to you, and you want more than a few lines in my RTR posts go to the CIA reading room then search for “The President’s Daily Brief (year and date)”…
RTR QUOTE for 25 September: WHITTIER: “For all the sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’ “…
Lest we forget… Bear