RIPPLE SALVO… #631… Dear Mr. President: “Your administration threatens us daily with the prospect of an all-out confrontation with China and inevitably with the Soviet Union, leading us inexorably toward a thermonuclear holocaust.”… but first…
Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED THIRTY-ONE creating a 1000-day on-line journal of the 40-month air war with North Vietnam in the 1960s…
27 November 1967… HEAD LINES from the New York Times on a fair and cool Monday in New York…
Page 1: “Vance Arriving In Ankara Today–A Decision Likely Greeks are Said to Agree to Withdrawal of Some Regulars From Cyprus–Turks Darken 3 Cities–They Are Reported Ready To Ease War Preparations If Athens Starts Pullout”... “Cyrus Vance, President Johnson’s special envoy… in Ankara for what diplomats here expect to be the decisive meetings with Turkish leaders in the crisis over Turkey.”… Page 1: “Egypt Rules Out Bases For Soviets–Declares Peace With Israel Possible, But Not Treaty”… Page 1: “7 Nation’s Banks To Press For A Stable Gold Market”… “…the 7 nations hold enough gold and foreign exchange reserves to guarantee the fixed price of $35 an ounce for gold.”… Page 1: “Kennedy Asserts Johnson Shifted U.S. Aim In Vietnam–Says Brother’s Policy Has Been Changed–Humphrey Defends Saigon Military”… “Senator Robert F. Kennedy said today on an ABC ‘Face the Nation’ TV program the Johnson Administration had turned away from the Vietnam policy of President Kennedy and had forgotten the moral responsibility to take in the war. ‘We turned, we’ve switched,’ he said, ‘and consequently the moral fiber of the United States had been ‘seriously undermined. First, we were there in Vietnam so that people would have their own right to decide their future, and could select their own form of government, and it wasn’t going to be imposed on them by the North Vietnamese, and we had the support of the South Vietnamese people. Now we have turned, when we found that the South Vietnamese haven’t given the support, and are not making the effort.”… Page 1: “U.S. Tanker With 37 Aboard Missing Off Japan”... “10,626-ton tanker Cleveland sent message ‘fire raging in engine room’ and later ‘abandoning ship.’ An air-sea rescue revealed only an oil slick at the ship’s last known position.”…
President’s Daily Brief… CYPRUS: The spotlight is back on Ankara’s side of the stage as the Turks consider the latest counter proposals from Athens. We have not yet heard how Mr. Vance fared at his breakfast meeting with the Turkish Foreign Minister. The Greeks are suggesting complete demilitarization of the island, and the Turks, who distrust Makarios, want to keep their 650-man detachment there. The issue is likely to cause a snag. Makarios, too, may prove somewhat difficult once he feels free from the threat of an immediate invasion. Tensions are still high in Turkey, but there was some moderation noted in press material over the weekend…. CAMBODIA…Sihanouk has told all foreign journalists to get out of Cambodia and he will let no more in after 1 December. The Prince’s pique stems from the articles written by two American correspondents about Viet Cong bases in Cambodia…. COMMUNIST CHINA: Militant Red Guards are still making trouble in some areas, although the over-all level of disorder in China is relatively low…. NORTH VIETNAM: More on the Hanoi bridges: both the Paul Doumer and the Canal des Rapides bridges are back in full operation…there has been a sizable increase in the number of antiaircraft emplacements at both ends of the Paul Doumer bridge…truck traffic was ‘extremely heavy’ last Friday night on the rod from the Canal des Rapides towards Hanoi… Hanoi Continues to US “False Optimism”: Hnoi radio’s English language broadcast on Saturday summarized an authoritative editorial of that day in the official daily Nhan Dan. the main pitch was an effort ti refute the “chorus of optimism, sung with gusto but undeniably tinted with pessimism” which has been coming out of Washington in recent weeks. Hanoi’s editorial quotes the New York Times of 19 November to buttress its argument that recent statements by US leaders are based on “tall stories” and are designed simply to refute the “spreading wave of national pessimism” in the US…went on to claim that this optimism cannot fool anyone… Hanoi Comment on US Antiwar Campaign: An article stated “we highly value the struggle of the American people” and see the antiwar effort as an expression of the American people’s struggle “for their own vital interests.” article concludes: “The decisive factor in the war will be the struggle of our own people.”…
State Department Office of the Historian: A 27 Nov 1967 memo from the JCS to SecDef McNamara in which the JCS layout their plans for the next four months of the war (“steady as she goes”). One pager. Nothing bright… read at:
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d418
27 NOVEMBER 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (28 Nov reporting 27 Nov ops)… “The United States command said that two more American planes had been lost in North Vietnam–a Marine A-6 Intruder and an Air Force F-4 Phantom–raising the total to 757 planes reported down in the North. During the day, Navy carrier pilots bombed the Kienan MIG air base six miles southwest of Haiphong. they said that the runway had been hit a number of times. Air Force pilots bombed the small Yenbay airfield, 78 miles southwest of Hanoi. Bad weather prevented assessments of the damage, a spokesman said. In their deepest penetration into North Vietnam thus far, B-52s bombed two truck parks and four large storage areas in the Mugia Pass, 108 miles north of the demilitarized zone. A spokesman said that 14 white secondary explosions indicated that explosives on the ground had been detonated. One target was on Highway 15, which is 20miles from the Laotian border. The other was four miles from the border.”
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia in 27 November 1967…
AMONG THE BRAVE…
LET’S GO FLYING and GET SHOT AT with LIEUTENANT DAVID WILSON PARSONS, USN, A-4 Skyhawk Light Attack Tailhooker, VA-15, USS INTREPID, on the day he earned his first DFC….. 50 Years Ago, 18 November 1967…
While the USS INTREPID Strike Group rendezvoused over the ship, Lieutenant Parsons, the Iron Hand leader, proceeded to Haiphong to ascertain conditions and the status of neutral shipping in the harbor. Leading his section within two miles of the center of the city, Lieutenant Parsons observed and reported the presence of third-nation ships moored in such proximity to the target so as to be endangered were the primary target to be struck. Upon receiving this intelligence, the strike leader made the decision to divert the strike to the secondary target and transmitted this decision to other element leaders of the group and supporting forces. approximately twenty minutes after the first aircraft had been launched, the Strike Group departed toward the target at Doan Lai. As it approached the coast-in point ten miles east of Haiphong, Lieutenant Parsons took up an orbit north of the city and observed two surface-to-air missiles as they came out of a SAM site headed toward the strike group, While broadcasting warning to the strike group he initiated a Shrike attack on the site, destroying the control unit. The two SAMs were observed to detonate harmlessly shortly after lift-off by members of the Strike Group. This was subsequently confirmed by the receipt of a message reporting that TARCAP aircraft from USS Coral Sea had observed the lifting SAMs explode after a Shrike attack on the site by an Intrepid A-4 Skyhawk. Ignoring a deluge of 57mm and 37mm fire, Lieutenant Parsons and his wingman re-attacked the firing site and destroyed two missiles on their launchers, verified by observed explosions by other aircraft. The Strike Group conducted a highly successful strike on the secondary target. As the force exited toward the coast-outpoint, two more SAMs were fired from another SAM site in the vicinity of Haiphong. Lieutenant Parsons again courageously took the site under attack, fired his one remaining Shrike missile at it and the site ceased emitting and the two SAMs were observed to go ballistic and pass well clear of the retiring Strike Group. Lieutenant Parson– and his puckered and breathless wingman– followed the Strike group back to USS Intrepid for a pair of OK3s… DAVE PARSONS: BRAVE! (see quote for today below)
HUMBLE HOST holds that flights like these are worth “reliving” in the 50th Anniversary of Rolling Thunder… for Red River Rats and Yankee Air Pirates who have a tale to tell and are too bashful to tell it, send it to the webmaster via email or contact form, and let him slip it in the archives of the air war with North Vietnam…
LIEUTENANT DAVE PARSONS’ Distinguished Flying Cross… 50 years ago this week… OOHRAH
“The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS to LIEUTENANT DAVID WILSON PARSONS, United States Navy, for HEROISM and EXTRAORDINARY ACHIEVEMENT in aerial flight as a pilot attached to and serving with Attack Squadron FIFTEEN embarked in USS INTREPID (CVS-11), on 18 November 1967. Lieutenant PARSONS and his wingman preceded the strike group into the Haiphong area to reconnoiter the weather. As the strike group crossed the coast, he observed the firing of two surface-to-air missiles. He immediately positioned his aircraft and fired a Shrike missile directly into the center of the site, causing the missiles to detonate harmlessly in the air prior to reaching the strike group. Ignoring the grave personal peril presented to him by the accurate and intense 57mm and 37mm anti-aircraft artillery fire, he then executed a devastating rocket and strafing attack on the site, destroying two surface-to-air missiles which were tracking the withdrawing strike group to go ballistic. Lieutenant PARSONS skilled airmanship, dauntless determination and EXCEPTIONAL COURAGE in the face of the enemy fire were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”…
RIPPLE SALVO… #631… The following letter was part of half page ad in the 27 November 1967 New York Times paid for by a group who chose “DISSENTING DEMOCRATS” as their masthead…
AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT JOHNSON AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY…
“This is to respectfully advise you, Mr. President, that as of this date we registered Democrats, who leaped elect you in 1964, are disassociating ourselves from you and your administration because of your conduct of the war in Vietnam.
“We voted for you because you gave us hope of peace when in your election campaign you said: ‘we are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.’ (October 21, 1964) This was a pledge, Mr. President. Since then we have suffered over 100,000 American casualties and countless Vietnamese have also been killed in this war.
“Your administration threatens us daily with the prospect of an all-out confrontation with China and inevitability with the Soviet Union, leading us inexorably toward a thermonuclear holocaust.
“Mr. President, we dissenting Democrats want a cessation of bombing and an end to escalation. We want an immediate beginning of meaningful negotiations with all forces involved in this conflict. We want out of the war in Vietnam!
“We echo the observation of Democratic Senator George McGovern who said: ‘We seem bent upon saving the Vietnamese…even if we have to kill them and demolish their country to do it. I do not intend to remain silent in the face of…a policy of madness.
“We will, also, no longer commit the crime of silence. we endorse this statement of Republican senator Mark Hatfield, who said of this war: ‘…the freedom to stand opposed to the government’s policy…is not a privilege that can be withdrawn when the boat begins to rock. This freedom is the inherent…right of a people in a democracy.
“We once took pride in the domestic accomplishment of the Democratic Party. But, today, our cities and our urban and rural poor are deprived of funds while a Democratic President spends billions for destruction abroad. Today, therefore, our concern for our country and for humanity must outweigh and rigid discipline.
“Mr. President, we advise you and those on every level of government that , from this day on, our campaign funds, our energies and our votes go to those–and only those–who work for an end to the war in Vietnam.”
/s/ Dissenting Democrats, Robert Vaughn, National Chairman; Norman Frankel, M.D., N.Y. Chairman
RTR Quote for 27 November: RUDYARD KIPLING, Tomlinson
“Once I ha’ laughed at the poet of Love and
twice at the grip of the Grave,
And thrice I ha’ patted my God on the head
that men might call me brave.”
Lest we forget… Bear