RIPPLE SALVO… #300… THE REGULARS: BOB HOPE AND HIS USO SHOW and FRANCIS CARDINAL SPELLMAN on his 21st visit with the troops… and then there is Harrison Salisbury in Hanoi along with four lady peace activists… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED of a return to the air war bravely fought over North Vietnam fifty years ago…
26 DECEMBER 1966…Headlines from the New York Times on a windy and cold Monday following a NYC white Christmas…
Page 3 (from the 24th) “President Johnson Honors Wounded Troops” as he meets a plane load of 20 wounded troops at Kelly Air Force Base returning from Vietnam for treatment for combat injuries at Texas hospitals. He spoke to the troops but gave no speech… Page 1 (25th): “125 Die in Vietnam as Cargo Airliner Plows Into Village”…”A four engine american cargo plane crashed in a populated area near Danang air base last night and authorities said today the known death toll of Vietnamese civilians was 125. an additional 42 were injured. The plane a CL-44 turbo-prop of Flying Tiger airlines carried a crew of 4 Americans and were unaccounted for. The plane crashed while groping for a landing in a driving rainstorm. The crash was the worst such disaster of the Vietnam war. The aircraft was flying under the control of the United States Military Airlift Command and had taken off from Tachikawa near Tokyo.”…
Page 1: “Troops Back on War Status”…”Until early this morning there were hopes that the 48-hour cease-fire, which was marred by more than 60 shooting incidents, would be extended. But no such instructions came, and United States and South Vietnamese troops and their allies returned to a status of normal operations. The clandestine Vietcong radio charged that American troops violated the truce on Sunday.”... Page 1: “Mao Marks 73rd Birthday, His Goals Still Eluding Him”…”Mao Tse-tung will mark his 73rd birthday tomorrow, the object of unparalleled national adulation but with the completion of his political goals in doubt…this year his career entered one of the most remarkable phases when his increasing dissatisfaction with his own creation, the Chinese Communist Party, led him to start a ‘great proletarian cultural revolution.’ The larger goal of the cultural revolution was nothing less than to change the mental outlook of the whole society. Chairman Mao sought to eradicate the concept of self and to create an immutable, irreversible political order in China that would survive both his death and the pressures for change that are slowly transforming European Communists. Before the task could be truly begun, Mr. Mao had to try to reform and purge his own party, a step that has led to the present crisis. Some analysts here in Hong Kong believe the cultural revolution has reached a stalemate.”… Page 1: “9 Governors Fear Democrats Face Bigger Loss in ’68″…”The Great Society programs enacted during the last three years are proving to be something less than the political boon that the Democrats had expected (or promised). These programs in the eyes of a good many political observers have been the source of much of the political trouble that has befallen President Johnson in recent weeks…The governors are now concerned about the possibility of even greater losses in the ’68 election.”… Page 21: “U.S.Effort to End the War Doubted”… “Dr. Eugene Blake, general secretary of the World Council of Churches expressed doubt that the United States was trying as hard as it should to end the Vietnam War. Speaking on CBS-TV ‘Face the Nation,’ he said: “The moral issue in Vietnam is a rather simple one. Is it right for us to use our overwhelming power to get our way in Southeast Asia?’…” …Page 26: “B-52s Again Blast Targets in South as the Truce Ends”…”United States Air Force B-52s hammered Vietcong targets near Saigon today about an hour after the 48-hour truce ended….The targets were enemy base camps, storage areas and bunker complexes 28 and 29 miles from Saigon. The truce ended with American troops immediately moving out on operations. Saigon, oddly silent for two days, again reverberated with the sound of mortars, bombs and artillery after the cease-fire ended at 7AM.”…
26 DECEMBER 1966: OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (27 December reporting 26 December ops) Page 1: “Within hours after the truce ended American fighter-bombers struck within 12 miles of Hanoi…In yesterday’s raids over North Vietnam at least three Air Force fighter-bomber missions involving several planes attacked storage areas and truck parks in the Red River delta near Hanoi. Air Force Thunderchief pilots reported destruction of the Banpapan highway bridge on route 601, which is 64 miles east of Diebienphu, in three separate strikes Monday.”… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There were no U.S. fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 26 December 1966… oohrah
RIPPLE SALVO… #300… THE VISITORS… Bob Hope accompanied by Joey Heatherton, Phyllis Diller, the Korean Kittens and the Les Brown Band of visited several throngs of troops on a five day swing through South Vietnam…oohrah… NYT (24 Dec) “Hope Gets Medal and No Quip Fails”… He recieved a gold medal for distinguished service in entertaining American servicemen and women overseas for FIFTEEN CONSECUTIVE CHRISTMASES…the King of one liners was speechless upon receiving the award from General Westmoreland… Cardinal Spellman was also in South Vietnam for the Christmas season, his TWENTY-FIRST Christmas abroad with the troops… oohRAH…NYT (24 Dec) Page 2: “Spellman in Vietnam”…”Cardinal Spellman arrived in Saigon to spend his 21st Christmas overseas with the troops…One officer said: ‘We hardly count it a war if he doesn’t come.’ Spellman: ‘I didn’t think I’d be able to come back once more and I doubt if I’ll be around next year, but I thank God for giving me the blessing of once again being with you.’ He told the troops: ‘All America appreciates what you are doing, what you are attempting and achieving.’ Cardinal Spellman, 77-years old, is the archbishop of New York and military vicar of the Armed Forces of the United States…NYT (25 Dec) Page 3: “Cardinal Spellman Celebrates Midnight Mass at Cam Ranh Bay and said he prayed that Pope Paul’s plea for an extension of the Christmas truce in Vietnam would be granted.’I pray that the day will come soon when this will come to pass, for this war cannot or must not go on indefinitely.’ …”
Meanwhile, up North, Harrison Salisbury, the voice of the New York Times in North Vietnam, was grinding out one or two columns per day, and later a few books, while on his “Christmas in Vietnam” visa. RTR has posted some of his reporting from Hanoi in the past few days. He was the first of an endless stream of left wing writers, organizers and sympathizers to be welcomed into North Vietnam to report to the world what they were allowed to see and what they were told. Concurrent with the Salisbury visit, four women from the United States representing left wing groups, were readily available to foreign press to report what they saw on a short visit in Hanoi…NYT (26 Dec) Page 2: “4 U.S. Women In Hanoi Said to See Bombed Sites”…”The women were ‘deeply shocked’ by tangible evidence of the crimes committed by the Johnson clique in Washington, the Vietnamese press agency said.”… and as Salisbury wrapped up his visit a few days hence, another set of approved visitors would arrive to continue the flow of filtered reports on conditions in North Vietnam…eventually to include Jane Fonda…
The Salisbury visit was consequential, the others hardly so… And that’s the way it was in Vietnam on 26 December 50 years ago…
Lest we forget… Bear… -30-