RIPPLE SALVO… #359… HOW?… “SEARCH AND DESTROY”... but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED FIFTY-NINE of a look back of fifty years to a time of national distress and a bloody war…
27 FEBRUARY 1967… HEAD LINES AND LEADS from the New York Times on a fair Monday in NYC…
Page 1: “G.I.s Sight Enemy On Cambodia Side”...”An American patrol probing to the Cambodia border has reported that it watched a squad of armed Vietcong cross from Cambodia into South Vietnam. The sighting was one of the few times ever made public. American military intelligence officers have long asserted that guerrillas and their North Vietnamese allies were using Cambodia as well as Laos farther north as a refuge from bombs, artillery and ground offensives. This may be why Operation Junction City has encountered so few enemy troops in the 150 square mile objective area.”… Page 1: “Wide Tax Reform asked in Canada to End Inequities”…”A Royal Commission proposed a tax reform over the weekend that would amount to a revolution, the Commission chairman said. The program would seek to eliminate inequities, close loopholes and in general redistribute income in favor of Canadians with low-income. Included would be Canada’s first capital gains tax.”… Page 1: “Goldwater Says CIA is Financing Socialism in USA”… “Senator Barry Goldwater demanded today to know why the Central Intelligence Agency had been financing ‘left-wing organizations but not conservative groups such as the Young Republicans.’ Appearing on ‘Face the Nation,’ he said the CIA was supporting Norman Thomas the socialist candidate for president, the American Newspaper Guild and other ‘left-wing’ organization. ‘Why didn’t they spread the money around? In other words, what they have been doing with as far as I know is financing socialism in America.’ “… Page 1: “Europe’s Migrant Workers are Facing Job Crisis”...”The massive migration by south Europeans to jobs in the north, a vital ingredient of Europe’s economic well being and social stability for a decade has begun to move in reverse. Recession in West Germany, Britain and the low countries, which absorbed many of the surge of more than 5-million migrant workers, has sent at least 100,000 foreigners home, swelling already large unemployment roles in their native countries.”... Page 2: “U.S. Bombing of North Vietnam Is Backed by 67% in Gallup Poll”… “A Gallup poll published in yesterday’s Washington Journal Tribune said that more than two-thirds of the people in the United States favored continued bombing of North Vietnam. the poll which was completed immediately after the United States decided to resume bombing February 13 was based on 1,506 interviews. The results showed that 67% of those interviewed felt the bombing should continue, 24% felt it should be stopped and 9% had no opinion. A second question was: ‘Why do you feel that way?’ (To continue bombing or not). Most who said to continue said that is ‘the only way to end the war.’ Those who said stop bombing, said the reason was ‘to stop the killing.’ Other reasons to continue: (1)There is no other alternative, (2)We can’t back down, (3) They always violate truces. Reasons to stop: (1)Bombing hasn’t gotten US anywhere, (2)We had no right going in there in the first place, (3) It is the only way we can arrive at peace. Another question: Did we make a mistake going in to South Vietnam? was asked in August 1965 and again in February 1967 with the following result. In 1965 61% said it was no mistake and 24% said it was a mistake. In 1967 52% said it was not a mistake and 32% said it was a mistake..In both polls about 15% had no opinion…”
Page 4: “Perils Beset Job of River Patrols...which has become one of the most hazardous in South Vietnam. The patrol of the main river between Saigon and the South China Sea, especially. In the last six months the mine sweeping fleet has been attacked more than 50 times and 70-80 of the 100 men in the U.S. detachments have been under fire and about 45 have been killed or wounded.”… Page 4: “Enemy Shells Danang; 41 Die,Including 11 G.I.s”…”Thirty-two Americans and 70 Vietnamese were wounded in the predawn attack. Aircraft and buildings were damaged.”… Page 9:… “Mao Said to Decry Methods in Purge…along with Premier Chou En-lai have accused Maoist groups of having carried out the ‘cultural revolution’ in ‘bad taste.’ Mao: ‘The revolution must be promoted at a higher plane of morality than at present. The struggle should be conducted with more civility toward those who are to be criticized”…”
27 February 1967… Department of State Office of the Historian… FRUS, 1964-68,Vol V, Doc 90….
“Memorandum From the Joint Chiefs of Staff to Secretary of Defense McNamara”… On 30 January 1967 General Maxwell Taylor, Special Assistant to the President, made a report directly to the President concerning the content of a “comprehensive US policy on the settlement of the conflict in Vietnam.” General Earle Wheeler, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, provided the JCS input (in the form of answers to five questions from the President) to the formulation of this policy in this memorandum. Interesting reading for History 404 level students…at:
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d90
27 February 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…NYT (28 Feb reporting 27 Feb ops) Page 12: “In the air war over the North poor weather in the Red River Valley limited American pilots to 50 missions in the coastal panhandle region. Navy pilots struck targets 17 miles south of Haiphong and south of Donghoi.”… (Enterprise off the line: Cubi Point)… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) Two fixed wing aircraft were lost in Southeast Asia on 27 February 1967…
(1) MAJOR HAROLD JOSEPH ALWAN, USMC, was flying an A-4E of the VMA-121 Green Knights and MAG-12 our of Chu Lai was flying a maintenance test flight and requested to fly escort for a formation of Marine helicopters. At some unknown position MAJOR ALWAN disappeared. Possible position in the area of Quang Ngai off the coast. He remains missing… but is remembered on this 50th anniversary of his final flight with respect and a prayer for his family… Left behind…
(2) An A-4C of the VA-195 Dambusters embarked in USS Ticonderoga, suffered an engine failure returning from a strike mission. The pilot eject and was rescued.
RIPPLE SALVO… #359… Rolling Thunder was an air battle of “gradual escalation” that sputtered into 1967 as an interdiction campaign with major strikes on military, industrial and economic targets in the heartland as directed from Washington, all in support of the ground war being fought in South Vietnam. In February 1967 the strategy for defeating the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese became a “search and destroy” mission. Find, fix, fight, follow and finish. The strategy was one of “attrition” and it was accepted that large numbers of troops would be required to be successful. In addition the war would not be over quickly. We were in for a long war… An excellent summary of the situation on 27 February 1967 follows: (Source: “Fulbright: a Biography” by R.B. Woods, Pages 440-1)… I quote…
The administration gave General Westmoreland broad discretion in developing a strategy to defeat the enemy on the ground in South Vietnam (in contrast to the air war over which it retained tight control). Westmoreland’s “search and destroy” strategy demanded more and more men. In June 1966 the president had approved a force level of four hundred thirty-one thousand to be reached in mid-1967. as this buildup was taking place, Westmoreland put in a new request for an increase of five hundred forty-two thousand troops by the end of 1967.
The massive infusion of American uniformed personnel between 1965 and 1967 may have forestalled a military collapse in South Vietnam, but Westmoreland’s approach was based on a number of erroneous assumptions. Inherent in any attrition strategy was the notion that one could inflict intolerable losses on the enemy while keeping one’s own losses within acceptable bounds. In Vietnam that proved no to be the case. Because an estimated two hundred thousand North Vietnamese reached draft age each year, Hanoi was able to replace its losses, counter each American escalation, and frustrate Johnson’s hopes for a quick victory. General Vo Nguyen Giap, commander of North Vietnamese forces understood quite precisely what it would take to win the Second Indochina War, and he took full advantage of the special opportunities available to military men in a totalitarian society. Not having to worry about public opinion and elections, he and Ho (Chi Minh) could mobilize North Vietnam down to the last person and sacrifice life on the battlefield on a scale unheard of in a democracy. To North Vietnam’s strategic benefit, Giap proved absolutely ruthless. consequently, the United States was able to achieve only temporary military advantage. The North Vietnamese and Vietcong had been hurt, in some cases badly, but their main force survived; able to choose the time and conditions of battle, and free of time constraints, they retained the strategic initiative. In an effort to force the South Vietnamese to assume responsibility for defending their country, and in response to perceived political opposition to calling up the reserves, Johnson and McNamara deliberately held U.S. troop levels to one-half million, but as a result, Westmoreland did not have sufficient forces to wage war against the enemy’s regular units and to control the countryside… …end quote…
New York Times, 28 February 1967, page 12: The “little box” carried this report– “The Defense Department reported the loss of 77 American servicemen killed in combat in Vietnam in the past two days of fighting.”
CAG’s QUOTES for 27 February: MAO TSE-TUNG: “Select the tactic of seeming to come from the east and attacking from the west; avoid the solid, attack the hollow; attack, withdraw; deliver a lightning blow, seek a lightning decision.”… PERICLES: “The whole earth is the Sepulchre of famous men; and their story is not graven only on Stone over their native earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men’s lives.”
Lest we forget….. Bear