RIPPLE SALVO… #570… “Ad Urges Johnson to Shun 1968 Race as Vietnam Peace Move”… but first…

Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED SEVENTY of a day-by-day look at the world and the war in Vietnam fifty years ago…

27 September 1967: HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a windy Wednesday with rain in the big city air…

FALL IN AMERICA 1967: Page 9: “Soldiers From Dissolved Unit Sought”... “The Pentagon is looking for 66 soldiers stationed at Fort Ord, California who are unaccounted for since the unit was dissolved 13 months ago. The men just walked out.”… Page 13: “320 Vow To Help Draft Resistors–Some Plan Disobedience to Challenge the Government”... “A group of 320 professional writers, ministers and other professionals have signed a statement pledging to raise funds to aid youths who resist the draft and avoid the war…  ‘The war in Vietnam outrages the deepest moral and religious sense of a growing number of young men. Entitled ‘A Call to Resist Legitimate Authority’.. Dr. Linus Pauling, Right. Reverend James Pike, Poet Robert Lowell, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Susan Sontag and Alan Ginsburg are among the 320 sponsors of the anti-war initiative who have signed the pledge.”… Page 1: “School Conferees agree–Union to Vote Tomorrow–Classes Likely This week–Terms In Writing–Union President Shanker Calls Terms Fantastically Good–School Board Acts Today”… Page 1: ” Riot Deaths July 24 Traced to Police–Two Policemen Are Called By Grand Jury in Killing of 2 east Harlem Residents.”…   

VIETNAM: Page 1: “JOHNSON ASSAILED IN SENATE BY SENATOR CLIFFORD CASE FOR WAR CONDUCT–REPUBLICAN CHARGES CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE ON ‘MISUSE’ OF GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION”... “Senator Clifford Case of New Jersey provoked an acerbic Senate debate on Vietnam policy today with an outspoken attack o President Johnson’s handling of the war… Mr. Johnson has acted in a highly irresponsible manner in using the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to justify the Administration’s deepening involvement in Vietnam. In the process, he said, the President has not only ‘squandered his credibility’ but also undermined the mutual trust and confidence between Congress and the Executive Branch.”… Page 8: “Hanoi Rules Out Goldberg Offer–U.S. Peace Proposal in U.N. Called a Trick Containing No Change in Terms”… “North Vietnam today rejected as a new American trick’ the peace proposal placed before the U.N. General Assembly last week by Arthur J. Goldberg, senior American representative and delegate to the U.N…. Harold Brown of Britain supports the U.S. peace effort and assails Hanoi. Hanoi has failed to grasp the many opportunities to negotiate ‘that have been offered and remain open. This is a tragic failure.’ “…  Page 8: “1,000 Rounds of Enemy Fire Hit Marine Camp–2 Killed and 202 Wounded by barrage at Conthien”…”…only 50 hurt seriously enough to require evacuation. Since September 1, sixty-three Marines have been killed and 987 wounded…questioning the wisdom of continuing to hold the outpost. One artillery officer said: ‘They know where we are and we don’t know where they are. That is the size of it.’ Conthien at 520-feet gives a clear view of possible invasion routes.”… Page 9: “U.S. U.S. Scores Hanoi on POW Films–Voices Concern That Foe Has Role in trafficking”... “…might be trafficing movie films of captured American prisoners of war for propaganda purposes… East German film agency is marketing several hours of film footage of captured American airman at an asking price of $500,000.”… NYT, 28 Sept, Page 1: “…a United States spokesman said that American casualties dropped last week reflecting a general lack of major fighting. During the week, 128 Americans were killed and 1,434 wounded, compared with 236 killed and 1,774 wounded the week before. Most of the casualties in the last week have resulted from the intense shelling of the Conthien outpost. The new figures raise American losses to 13,493 killed and 84,877 wounded, by unofficial count, since the United States began to take an active part in the war in 1961. South Vietnamese Army casualties last week were 96 killed and 380 wounded.”….

27 SEPTEMBER 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (28 Sept reporting 27 Sept ops) Page 1: “MIGs and U.S. JETS CLASH”... “United States planes fought nine times with MIG fighters near Hanoi yesterday. In the second day of air clashes, swarms of MIG’s, including five of the newest model MIG-21’s exchanged air-to-air missiles with Air Force Phantom jets 38 miles northeast of the North Vietnamese capital. A United States military spokesman said that there was no damage on either side. Today Navy pilots from carrier Coral Sea attacked the Haiphong railroad and highway bridge, the sixth strike against the bridge this month. The bridge is one mile from the center of the port city, is Haiphong’s only remaining major link with the rest of North Vietnam.

“Air Force fighter-bombers attacked the Hongai explosives storage area 28 miles northeast of Haiphong. The pilots said that clouds and heavy antiaircraft fire prevented an assessment of damage. Other Air Force pilots concentrated on North Vietnamese artillery positions in the demilitarized zone. Six mortar positions, one recoilless-rifle position and five field-artillery pieces were reported destroyed. Navy pilots from the carrier Coral Sea struck bunkers and supply storage areas in the demilitarized zone. They reported that 12 bunkers had been destroyed.

“A Marine A-4 Skyhawk jet was shot down in the demilitarized zone, the 685th United States plane lost in North Vietnam. A spokesman said that the pilot bailed out over the South China Sea and was picked up by a rescue helicopter. The air action came as the Marine outpost at Conthien, two miles south of the buffer zone, received its lightest shelling in a month. North Vietnamese gunners struck the outpost with 87 rounds of artillery fire killing two Marines and wounding two.”…

Page 4: “AIR DEFENSES BUILT UP IN HANOI–ENEMY EXPECTS U.S. PLANES TO RESUME RAIDS ON CAPITAL”..Hanoi, North Vietnam, Sept. 28 (Agence France-Presse). “Hanoi’s antiaircraft and civil defenses have been greatly strengthened in the last few weeks to prepare the capital in case the United States bombings like those mounted against Haiphong. Since American planes broke off raids more than a month ago, the city’s antiaircraft batteries have received new guns. The missile units, judging from the readiness with which they now launch projectiles have been reinforced. Barrage balloon defenses have been extended. Militia and defense groups have been supplied with new and better weapons.

“Increasingly, they are changing from rifles and sub-machine guns to heavier machine guns, automatic rifles and light artillery pieces. Training with the new weapons has been stepped up. groups of young men and women in working clothes, can frequently be seen going to weapons practice grounds in the suburb. Their targets are models of United States aircraft made from the metal of airplanes. The rifles have been given to new recruits, who are often youngsters.

“Strenuous efforts are being made to improve civil defense. Instructions have gone out to fire-fighting and rescue teams to be ready to operate under difficult circumstances. Security forces have been told that all citizens must move into shelters as soon as the sirens sound. The lull in bombing has led to some public laxity. The authorities, estimating that two more shelter spaces per person are necessary, have begun a shelter-building campaign with the slogan ‘The shelter is your second home.’ In the suburb of Gialam, on the left bank of the Red River 64,254 shelters, 48,409 of them for one-person, were  built-in one week, according to officials. This gives Gialam an average of 3.9 shelter places per head, well above the official goal of 3.”…

“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 27 September 1967…

(1) MAJOR GERALD I. ELLIS, USMC was flying an A-4E of the VMA-311 Tomcats and MAG-12 out of Chu Lai on a strike mission on an antiaircraft gun position in the DMZ and was hit as he was rolling in. MAJOR ELLIS was able to fly the damaged aircraft six miles to sea before having to eject. He was rescued by an Air Force helicopter….

(2) A Navy US-2C of the VC-5 Checkertails with a crew of four was en route to USS Hornet on a logistics run when it lost oil pressure to one engine with subsequent loss of the engine. The aircraft was unable to maintain altitude on one engine and was forced to ditch. The crew was rescued.

RIPPLE SALVO… #570… Every once in a while I run across a full page ad in the New York Times, circa the 60s, that is different. Here’s one bought and paid for ($7,800) suggesting LBJ sacrifice himself for the good of the Democratic party… first the short article on the ad found in the NYT, 26 Sept. Page 30: “Ad Urges Johnson to Shun 1968 Race as Vietnam Peace Move”… “A well known clothing manufacturer in a full page advertisement in the Times asks President Johnson not to seek renomination in hopes that a successor could end the war in Vietnam. Harry Roth of Beverly Hills says in his open letter to the President…’You want to do something nice?” … don’t run… The ad… the text of the “Open Letter to the President of the United States”…..

Sir,

Everyone wants to do a good job and be remembered for it long after he is gone. This is true of a President, a businessman, or a Secretary. In the case of a President, the good job is doing everything and anything he believes best for the good of the country and he must be willing to sacrifice everything… his life, if necessary… to achieve this goal. You, sir, admirable demonstrate that every time you appear in public.

I agree with Eric Sevareid that, “were it not for the creeping calamity of the Vietnam war” you would stand revealed to everyone as one of the most vigorously humanitarian Presidents America has had…

But, unfortunately, you inherited this war and have since been caught in a web of circumstances. You must have considered and rejected many solutions. The hard truth is that there is no possible way that a man who has been forced to shoulder the blame for the whole mess can gracefully (for the good of the country) make peace in Vietnam.

Yet, since an honorable peace is the overriding issue, we must entertain the single alternative which your own heart and mind have surely struggled with. You must give additional proof of your deep humanity and by an act of genuine greatness, provide the conditions that can make peace possible. No ordinary man could be expected to make this sacrifice — to ask the delegates at the next convention to nominate someone other than you to run for President on the Democratic ticket.

It is a heartbreaking solution for a man like yourself, but you will have the immense gratification of knowing that you have brought the country and the world safely out of this terrible dilemma and will be remembered sofor alltime. We will, once again, be an admired nation instead of a hated one.

I would respectfully suggest Senator Fulbright, who has been consistently positive in his positions, as the right man to succeed you. He is an honest, mature statesman, well regarded internationally. But perhaps there are others, better known to you, whom you consider more qualified.

Anyone you choose will, I am sure, with your backing, win the election and be able to make an honorable and lasting peace for our country.

I promise my personal and financial support. Mrs. Roth and I will liquidate some personal assets and pledge $50,000 this year and $50,000 next year to help nominate and elect your successor. I am sure my friends, business associates, and acquaintances will help, too. What will count most is the support of the millions who will march along with you.  Warmly, /s/ Harry Roth

You might say it worked… six months later LBJ followed the Roth suggestion…

RTR QUOTE for 27 September: PASCAL: “The heart has reasons of which reason has no knowledge.”

Lest we forget…          Bear