RIPPLE SALVO… #659… “This confrontation is disturbing and damaging, but it is inescapable in a society that values individual conscience.”… but first…
Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED FIFTY-NINE submerged in the history of America in the 1960s and the air war called Rolling Thunder…
26 December 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a Tuesday of cold rain and brisk winds…
Page 1: “Allied Cease-Fire Ends In Vietnam: Bombing Resumes–U.S. Planes Attack Convoys Near Hanoi and Demilitarized Zone–B-52s Strike in The South–2 Americans Killed and 25 Injured in 108 Incidents During Truce”… “The 24-hour allied Christmas cease-fire ended at 6 P.M. yesterday Saigon time (5 A.M. New York Time) and as far as the United States military headquarters of General William Westmoreland was concerned, the war was on again. Air operations, which were suspended except for reconnaissance flights in the North and South Vietnam, resumed with air strikes in the southern panhandle, the narrow lower section of North Vietnam. An American officer said that the North Vietnamese appeared to have put an unusually large number of trucks on the supply roads south of Hanoi to take advantage of the pause (AP reported), A spokesman said that a seven-mile long convoy of about 150 trucks was attacked by Navy A-4 Skyhawk pilots near Thanh Hoa, 90 miles south of Hanoi. Twenty-three trucks had been reported destroyed and eight damaged. A number of explosions and fires were noted to have been sighted among the trucks. Eight trucks in another convoy were attacked by Navy carrier pilots along the coast. The pilots said that the trucks were heavily damaged. Air Force pilots reported having destroyed four trucks in two attacks near Donghoi, 40 miles north of the DMZ…. In the ground war, there were no reports of major fighting. A United States spokesman said all American and allied troops would resume military operations.’ Asked if they would ‘go on the offensive,’ he replied, ‘probably.’…”… Page 1: “New York Mayor Lindsay To Raise Number of Police On Patrol By 40-Per Cent–Greater Use of Civilians and Other Changes Planned to Free More Men–Year of Strategy Due–Mayor Discusses 3rd Year in Office With Crime Called No. 1 Problem.”…
Page 1: “Holiday Season Prompts Calls For Peace By Christians Around the World–Celebrate With Prayer”… Page 1: “President Johnson’s Peace Plan Derided By Hanoi–Foe Says Peace Proposals Mask American Policy of Intensifying War”… Page 5: “Pravda Says U.S. Planes Harassed Ship Off Vietnam”… “The Communist Party newspaper, Pravda, said today that United States planes were ‘unceasingly provoking’ Soviet ships delivering supplies to the North Vietnamese port of Haiphong. Pravda correspondents said the latest ‘provocation’ had been against the Soviet diesel ship Iman, carrying wheat to North Vietnam. First, United States bombers flew over the ship, and then helicopters from American aircraft carries appeared and shadowed the Iman, they said. After the helicopters, more military aircraft appeared above the vessel, and finally fighter-bombers began to harass the Iman , diving close to its masthead...” Page 15: “Romney In Visit to Vietnam G.I.s–Makes 16 Stops In Saigon and Danang”… Page 19: “25 Thousand G.I.s At Big Vietnam Base Hear Bob Hope Needle Westmoreland”… Page 24: “Analysis Finds Nation is Facing depression of Spirit”…
26 December 1967… The President’s Daily Brief… LAOS: Communist forces are keeping up the military pressure. Yesterday they pulled off a hit-and-run raid on a government-held town in the central panhandle, destroying USAID and Air America facilities there. Government forces in the north were also under Communist pressure over the weekend…YEMEN: The Russians may be wondering why they ever let themselves get involved in the Yemeni civil war. Their republican clients continue doing poorly despite all the Soviet help they have been getting… NORTH VIETNAM: Hanoi Rejects President Johnson’s “Five-point Plan”…the party daily Nhan Dan charged yesterday that the President’s proposal is a “worn-out trick.”… Hanoi said Ho Chi Minh is “strong and healthy” in order to try to refute rumors Ho is seriously ill…. Draft Dodging in North Vietnam: ...most young people in North Vietnam yearn for peace. The greatest fear of the young men is being drafted and sent South. They often try to avoid the draft by faking illness when the appear for their pre-induction physicals…the desertion of draftees from the training camps is becoming a real problem for the regime. The deserters usually do not get far, however, because they are unable to produce their identity cards when accosted by the authorities…
26 DECEMBER 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times coverage in first paragraph above…”Vietnam Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 26 December 1967…
(1) An A-4E of VMA-211 and MAG-12 at Chu Lai was lost on a test hop when the aircraft hydraulic system failed necessitating the pilot eject. The aircraft was lost at sea and the pilot was rescued…
RIPPLE SALVO… #659… New York Times OpEd 26 Dec 67…Page 32: “Friction Over Selective Service”…
“Resistance to the draft reflects a profound and growing opposition to the war in Vietnam. As long as that war continues, there is bound to be friction over Selective Service, the point at which the Government’s need for military manpower confronts the consciences of citizens who regard the was as a grave moral issue. This confrontation is disturbing and damaging, but it is inescapable in a society, that values individual conscience.
“There is another aspect of the anti-draft movement, however, that could and should be averted. Many of those who openly oppose the draft–including many who could themselves easily avoided induction–are protesting not only the war but the Selective Service System itself, a twenty-year old mechanism with built-in inequities that have grown worse with time.
“The imperfections of the draft have long been widely recognized. President Johnson last spring called it a ‘crazy quilt.’ A Presidential commission in March recommended extensive revisions, including abolition of student and occupational deferments, the introduction of a lottery to determine the order of eligibility and the establishment of uniform mandatory procedures for local boards. But Congress ignored these sensible proposals and extended the old law with modifications that, in the opinion of Burke Marshall, chairman of the President Commission, ‘made the system worse than it was before.’
“Since then, the injustice of a bad law have been compounded by the arbitrary attempts of Selective Service Director General Lewis B. Hershey to use the power of induction to punish dissent, an abuse of his power which defies the Constitution and the courts and demeans the spirit of national service.
“In the interest of justice and to avert a more critical confrontation between citizens and their Government over the draft, Congress next year should undo the damage it has done with this year’s ill-conceived law, and enact new selective service legislation encompassing the reforms recommended by the Marshall commission. It might also provide broader opportunity for alternative service in order to direct the energies of highly motivated war objectors into constructive national activities.”
RTR Quote for 26 December: NATHAN HALE, 22 September 1776: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”…
Lest we forget… Bear