RIPPLE SALVO… #394… ESCALATE THE WAR=CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED NINETY-FOUR of a return to the 1000-day Operation Rolling Thunder of the 1960s…
3 APRIL 1967… HOME TOWN HEAD LINES from The New York Times on cloudy, threatening Monday in NYC…
Page 1: “Firepower of U.S. Takes Heavy Toll in 2 Days of Combat”… “American air strikes and artillery bombardments were credited with having killed 80-per cent of the enemy soldiers who fell in two days of bloody fighting in the jungles northwest of Saigon. Most of the 591 enemy dead counted so far were killed when American troops repulsed a reinforced regiment of about 2,500 men that attacked before dawn yesterday. American losses in the massive attacks and in a 4-hour battle the day before in the same area were 10 killed and 64 wounded. The fighting took place in the area known as Zone C near the Cambodian border. In the two days 170 fighter-bombers dropped tons of high explosive bombs, fragmentation bombs and napalm. artillery was firing almost continuously and involved five or six batteries and up to 36 guns delivering barrages at once.”... Page 5: :Vietcong Show Signs of Strain in a Delta Province”... “Intelligence sources said today that the Vietcong political structure was in serious difficulty in an important province in the Mekong Delta. The difficulties are reflected in the morale of the mid-level civilian organizers–cadres–who are considered the backbone of the Vietcong structure.”… Page 7: “North’s Coastline Bombarded”... “The United States Command reported today the bombardment of the coast of North Vietnam by five American warships in the biggest naval assault in a single day. The vessels pounded coastal defenses and points along the supply line to the South and were carried out where weather limited air attacks in the North. Participating ships: Providence, Turner Joy, Waddell, Cunningham, and Duncan.”… Page 9: “Thant Three-Point Plan Spurred by Hanoi” saying ‘the plan did not proceed from the realities of the present situation in Vietnam.’ “
Page 5: “Thais Say Drive Checks Guerrillas in Northeast”… “Highly placed Government sources said today that a three-month-old security plan for key villages had apparently checked the growth of the Hanoi-backed insurgency in Thailand’s troubled Northeast. The plan was worked out after a year of trial and error by the Communist Suppression Operations Command…Starting January 1 the Thais chose 10 priority areas as sympathetic to or controlled by bands of Communist United Patriotic Front of Thailand. Into each of these villages went a permanent garrison–a mixed squad of policemen and Volunteer Defense Corps militia. ‘The guerrillas have had to clear out because most villages are neutral,’ said a Thai planner. The object of the village plan: fill a government vacuum at the local level, provide permanent security, win people over through civic action, and cut guerrillas off from their prime source of recruits and supplies. The garrisons are backed up by Thai Army units trained by U.S. Special Forces.”... Page 2: “Throngs Demand Mao’s Foes Ouster”... “Hundreds of thousands of Chinese demonstrated in the streets of Peking today against Liu Shao-chi, the head of state, following the appearance of an article in the official Communist press calling for his dismissal. similar demonstrations were reported in Shanghai and other cities.”…
Page 18: “Rifle Club assailed By Kennedy for Opposing Curbs”… “Senator Edward Kennedy charged today that the National Rifle Association which has 810,000 members had reacted with ‘a negative response’ to the ‘clear and compelling need’ for legislation to control the sale and movement of guns in the United States…’Such passage is now the will of the nation,’ said Kennedy.”… Page 21: “South’s School Desegregation Up Sharply in Year”... “Sixteen per cent of the three million Negro students in the South are now attending desegregated schools the Southern Education Reporting Service said today. The pace of desegregation is up sharply over last year when only 6-per cent of the regions Negro students attended schools with white youngsters.”…
3 APRIL 1967… The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized) COMMUNIST CHINA: Signs that Liu Shao-chi is about to be formally brought down may well mean that the cultural revolution is entering an advanced stage. Liu–number two-man in the party until last August and still chief of state–was a target of a giant all-day rally in Peking yesterday. This came immediately after People’s Daily demanded that the “handful of counterrevolutionary revisionists”must be overthrown and that the”top party person in authority taking the capitalist road”–an unmistakable reference to Liu– must be removed. This could come tomorrow when the next “down with Liu is scheduled…. SOUTH VIETNAM: Elections of village councils were held yesterday in about one-third of the 1,000 constituencies scheduled to elect councils this month. According to early reports, the voting was carried on without serious interference by the Vietcong. ..voter turnout was heavy–about 80-percent of the registered electorate. This is comparable to that recorded during the election of delegates for the Constituent assembly last year… CUBA: Castro’s running feud with the pro-Moscow Communist parties of Latin America is entering the stage of public recriminations. The dispute revolves around whether to use “armed struggle” tactics in Latin America; Castro says that guerrilla warfare is a must, but the pro-Moscow parties favor more peaceful “popular front” maneuvers… the Soviets are increasingly upset…
3 APRIL 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (4 Apr reporting 3 Apr ops) Page 5: “In raids against North Vietnam yesterday Navy bombers from aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin attacked oil storage areas, trucks, highways in the area of Vinh, a major coastal city. Air Force jets from Thailand bases ranged along the western and southern parts of North Vietnam striking truck convoys near Dienbienphu and Mugia Pass and at storage areas in the Donghoi area. (Bear#51mk82RPIIbenthuy)…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 3 April 1967.
RIPPLE SALVO… #394… NYT (2 April 1967)
Page 1: “DR KING TO WEIGH CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IF WAR INTENSIFIES”...
John Herbers of the New York Times interviewed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Zions Baptist Church in New York while the Reverend was attending a conference of the Southern Conference of Christian Churches and filed this story…
Herbers: “The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said today that if the United States continued to step-up the war in Vietnam, civil disobedience might be necessary as a form of protest. The civil rights leader emphasized that he was not advocating civil disobedience at this time. But he said: ‘If our nation insists on escalating the war and if we don’t see any changes it may be necessary to engage in civil disobedience to further arouse the conscience of the nation and make it clear that we feel this is hurting our country.’…”…
Herbers quotes King:
“There are at least three reasons why I felt compelled to take a stronger stand against the war in Vietnam. First, I feel this war is playing havoc with our domestic destinies. As long as the war in Vietnam goes on the more difficult it will be to implement the programs that will deal with the economic and social programs that Negro people confront in our country and poor people generally. So in a real sense, the Great Society has been shot down on the battlefields of Vietnam. I feel it is necessary to take a stand against it or at least arouse the conscience of the nation against it so that at least we can move more and more toward a negotiated settlement of that terrible conflict.
“There is another reason why I feel compelled at this time to take a stand against the war and that is that the constant escalation of the war in Vietnam can lead to a grand war with China and in a full world war that could mean the annihilation of the human race. And I think that those of us who are concerned about the survival of mankind, those who feel and know that mankind should survive must take a stand against this war because it is more than just a local war on Asian soil. It is a contest that affects the whole world and makes possible, at least brings into being, the possibility of the destruction of all mankind.
“The other reason is, I have preached non-violence in the movement, in our country, and I think it is very consistent for me to follow a nonviolent approach to international affairs. It would be very inconsistent for me to teach and preach nonviolence in this situation and then applaud violence when thousands and thousands of people, both adults and children, are being maimed and killed in this war, so that I still live by the principle, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’
“And it is out of this moral commitment to dignity and the worth of human personality that I feel it is necessary to stand up against the war in Vietnam…. Individuals in the civil rights movement should join in peace demonstrations.”… end article…
Humble Host: IMHO this was a momentous event in the history of our country. LBJ failed to respond to King’s declared intentions and watched while King built a coalition of anti-war/pro-civil rights/pro-social justice/anti-draft/conscientious objectors/Black Power/left-wing media groups, and progressives — i.e., organized the community– and took to the streets and media to “arouse the conscience of the nation against the Vietnam war.”
Humble Opinion 2: Our nation is witnessing a reprise of 1967. A coalition of similar opposition to our elected government has formed and awaits a leader –a pied piper– to assume command and issue marching orders… Who will it be?…
CAG’s QUOTES for April 3: GENERAL NATHANIEL GREENE: “I have been obliged to practice that by finesse which I dare not attempt by force.”… PATTON: “Who ever saw a dirty soldier with a medal?”
Lest we forget… Bear