RIPPLE SALVO… #240… “MY TRIP TO VIETNAM”… but first…

Good Morning: Day TWO HUNDRED FORTY of a return to the “Central Blue” over North Vietnam 1966-68…

30 OCTOBER 1966: HOME FRONT HEADLINES from the New York Times…On a sunny and fair Friday where the Jets play smash mouth football…

Page 1: “Red China A-Bomb Borne By Guided Missile Exploded On Test Target”…Communist China announced today that it had exploded on target a nuclear weapon carried by a guided missile. Peking gave no details of either the extent of the explosion or the distance the missile had travelled in the test. A communique issued by Hsinhua, the Communist Chinese Press Agency said: ‘On October 27, 1966 China successfully conducted over its own territory a guided missile nuclear weapon test. The guided missile flew normally and the nuclear warhead accurately hit the target at the appointed distance effecting a nuclear explosion.’ The test, fourth in a series of nuclear explosions begun just over two years ago marked a giant Chinese stride forward toward operational nuclear capability. With each of its last two tests Peking has progressed faster than was generally predicted.” … Page 1: “Range of Chinese Missile Put At 400 Miles”…”The United States has preliminary indications about 400 miles and that it carried an atomic warhead of the size dropped on Hiroshima during World War II. The global instrument network that monitored the Chinese explosion gave no immediate confirmation of the Chinese that the warhead had been carried by a missile before detonation on target. The explosion took place in the vicinity of Lob Nor, the Chinese test site and apparently had a yield of 20 kilotons.”…

Page 1: “3 Laotian Military Forces In a State Of Ferment”…”The Royal Laotian Air Force began yesterday an airlift of troops from Southern Laos to repulse 200 pro-Communist troops who have taken a strategic town over-looking the Mekong River. The airlift comes at a time when the country’s three military elements–the pro-Communist Pathet Lao and their North Vietnamese allies, the neutralists, and the right wing royal army. Heavier truck traffic emanating from North Vietnam has begun to access routes through Laos into South Vietnam now that the monsoon rains are past. The Pathet Lao taking of the strategic town of Ban Lat Hane this week is considered a first step in stepping up attacks to capitalize on the dry weather and size rice that will be harvested next month. From Ban Lat Lao the Pathet Lao can disrupt river traffic into Luang Prabang. The Royal Laotian Air Force has been given back most of the aircraft flown to Thailand in the pilot revolt last week and will be needed to fight the Pathet Lao.”…

Page 16: “Billy Graham Planning To Visit Vietnam Soon”… “Billy Graham said he intended to go to Vietnam soon at the invitation of General William Westmoreland. Mr. Graham, who has just ended a ‘Crusade for Christ’ appearance in Berlin, said the sole purpose of his visit would be to preach the Gospel to American soldiers there. He said he would in no way comment on the war in Vietnam or on the way it was being conducted.”... Page 17: “South Vietnamese Casualties For Week are Highest of War”…”South Vietnamese troops suffered their highest combat casualties of the year during the week ended October 22. The losses were 339 killed, 623 wounded and 89 missing. United States troop strength is at 336,000 and casualties for the week were 64 killed, 396 wounded and 15 missing.”…1966 Mercedes 230SL selling for $6,185…”There must be a limit, but on a dry road, we never found it.”

Page 1: “President Terms G.I. Mission Vital”…”President Johnson resumed his tour of Asia today by starting a state visit to Thailand but his only public comment was devoted to a dramatization of his visit to the American supply base at Cam Ranh Bay in South Vietnam. Shortly after the President’s arrival in Bangkok…the White House distributed the text of Mr. Johnson’s speech, which he recorded in Manila this morning for broadcast in the United States. The speech broke no new policy ground. It was an appeal to patriotic emotions, presenting the war in Vietnam as a ‘contest as far reaching and as vital as any we have ever waged.’…” … (LBJ remarks at Ripple Salvo below).

28 October 1966… The President’s Daily Brief… CIS (TS sanitized) Vietnam: A knowledgeable Polish official at the UN says that Warsaw will soon send a party delegation to Vietnam as part of a continuing effort to persuade Hanoi to negotiate. When asked if the recent visits to Hanoi by a number of East European delegations should be viewed as a competitive effort or as part of a master plan, the Pole replied neither.; they result from a common agreement among the East Europeans and the Soviets that this is the best way to go…the Polish official said he will provide more information when available… (Marigold)… North Vietnam: An appraisal of the bombing of North Vietnam through 11 October concluded that although air strikes against transport facilities continued at a high rate, the over-all capability of the transport system to movge supplies to and within North Vietnam seems to have improved. This has been accomplished largely by expansion of rail and road networks and increased transport on the inland and coastal waterways. The campaign agqainst North Vietnamese POL continues to chip away at the country’s storge capacity, but there is no evidence of actual shortage…

28 October 1966…Not a single word on air operations over North Vietnam in the NYT…”Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) there were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 28 October 1966….ooohrah

RIPPLE SALVO… #240… LBJ REPORT ON TRIP TO VISIT SOUTH VIETNAM AND THE TROOPS … (NYT 28 OCT 1966, page 16)…  I quote…

My fellow Americans. I am speaking to you this morning from Manila only a few hours after my visit to Vietnam. I went there to visit our men at our base at Cam Ranh Bay. Many of them only recently had come in from the battlefield. Some were in field dress carrying their packs and rifles. All of them were inspiring. You knew that courage was no stranger to these men. And as I decorated five of them for extraordinary bravery in battle, I realized over again how much we owe them. How many times we have called on young men like these to serve our country, and not once–not once–have they failed us. Those men have pledged their lives. I pledged in return, and on your behalf, for I was there as your representative–I pledged that we will not fail them. 

The struggle in Vietnam becomes very real when you stand among men who have tasted its agony and experienced its horror. No commander in Chief could meet face to face with these soldiers without asking himself: What is it they are doing here? What does it mean–the sacrifice and valor of the very young and the very best?…For there can be no sense in fighting and suffering if our purpose is unclear and if we are unsure of what we want to achieve.

As I passed among their ranks, I thought of all the battlefields in this century where Americans have fought: Belleau Wood and the Argonne, the Solomons and Bastogne, the Pusan Perimeter and the 38th Parallel in Korea.

They fought–and tens of thousands of them died–for the same cause that brought the men I saw at Cam Ranh Bay to a place called South Vietnam.

They are here to keep aggression from succeeding.

They are here to keep the one nation from taking over another by force.

They are there to help people who do not want to have an ideology pushed down their throats and imposed upon them.

They are there because somewhere and at some place, the free nations of the world must say again to the militant disciples of Asian Communism: this far and no further.

The time is now and the place is Vietnam.

And the men I saw this week at Cam Ranh Bay–as their buddies know throughout Vietnam–that they are on the front line of a contest as far reaching and as vital as any we have ever waged.

We are not alone there.

Five other nations of the Pacific and Asian regions have joined with the United States to help the Republic of Vietnam turn back the terrorist and defeat aggression. Other nations are providing food and medicine and other resources for a people who have already suffered too long and too much.

We declare these Goals of Freedom for Vietnam. First, to be free from aggression. Second, to conquer hunger, illiteracy and disease. Third, to seek reconciliation and peace throughout the area. And fourth, to build a region of security, order and peace. To these goals we have committed the lives of our men and the wealth of our nations.

Yet so long as men try to take by violence what is not theirs by right, they must be resisted–and Cam Ranh Bay must continue to supply the men I saw today with the weapons they need to resist it.

I thank God for the courage of these men. I thank God for the unity of the free nations which are standing up to terror. And I pray to God that our adversary may soon decide that he cannot succeed in what he is attempting and that he will then renounce the use of force in Vietnam. Then–and only then–can we get on full time with the job we are anxious to do. In all this I ask for the understanding and support and the prayers of our countrymen. Thank you.    unquote

LEST WE FORGET…       Bear               ……….  –30–  ……….