RIPPLE SALVO… #304… BOMBING OF CIVILIANS: REPORTS, REACTIONS AND RESPONSES… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED FOUR of looking back fifty years to a Twentieth Century “Charge of the Light Brigade”…
3 January 1967… THE SALISBURY VISIT TO NORTH VIETNAM as reported in the New York Times (29 December 1966 — 3 January 1967)
I. THE REPORTS: Salisbury for the New York Times… “Villagers Tell of Raids in the North”…” Phatdiem: A cock’s crow and the bark of a village dog brought the new year in to this rich delta land of Ninh Binh province 75 miles south of Hanoi, and at 6 AM the iron toll of church bells called the faithful to early mass. Phatdiem is a complex of Roman Catholic villages lying six miles from the Gulf of Tonkin…This complex of villagers southeast of Ninhbinh and Namdinh…provincial centers on a railroad have attracted great attention from the Seventh Fleet…according to Phatdiem residents, Seventh Fleet bombers frequently come in low over the coastline and flying westward bomb and strafe Phatdiem. Sometimes the residents say the planes come in from the west and bomb and strafe. The map suggests that bombers might be on runs to Ninbinh and Namdinh if they cross over Phatdiem…”… “Hanoi: The Mood is Defiant”… “The spirit of Hanoi as the year 1967 comes in seems to this American observer to be one of grit your teeth and prepare for the worst. The Vietnamese have been told by ‘Uncle Ho’, as they familiarly call President Ho Chi Minh, that they must expect Hanoi’s destruction and Haiphong, as well. Based on step-by-step escalation of American bombing attacks, it is exceedingly rare to find a Hanoi resident who does not expect full-scale saturation bombing long before 1967 is over…Whereas 1966 began with hopes for either a diplomatic or military break, 1967 begins with little prospect for anything but a long, costly, and frustrating war… The cost of the war (for the US) in 1966 — $20 billion over ‘normal’ defense costs — turned out to be twice what was budgeted at the start of the year.”… “Hanoi Propaganda Stresses Tradition: War Against Odds”… “The Vietnamese fighting tradition, a tradition of struggle against long odds, of unyielding battle against foreign enemies, is the focal point of North Vietnam’s central internal propaganda. It is carried into every aspect of daily life. At a concert presented in a chilly converted movie house last night, 12 of 14 song and dance numbers celebrated heroic feats of individual Vietnamese against Americans. In each case the Vietnamese won against overwhelming odds.”… “New Capital City Planned by Hanoi”… “Hanoi officials say they have blueprints for a complete new capital to be built after the war on a site already selected not far from the present capital. The new capital is being planned on the assumption that sooner of later Hanoi will be destroyed in the war. President Ho Chi Minh has warned the country that it must be prepared to face the destruction of Hanoi and it’s port of Haiphong, as well as all other cities or towns of any size.”… “Attacks On North Disrupt Economy”…”But Hanoi feels able to continue the war. The North Vietnamese agree that the conflict in Vietnam is a rough affair for them. Every official interviewed stressed the difficulties, handicaps and hardships that must be overcome to carry on in the face of American bombing. A colossal number of man hours must be devoted to the transport of goods and supplies, to the repair of bombed railroads, highways and bridges, and to dispersal of goods, people and industries to the countryside.”… NYT, 30 Dec, Page 1: Large Picture (4 cols, 8″ deep): Caption: “Destruction in Hanoi”…”Phuc Tan Street in the Hoankiln quarter of Hanoi is near the western approach to the Paul Doumer Bridge, an area reportedly hit by U.S. bombs two weeks ago. According to the North Vietnamese authorities 300 houses in the general area were destroyed, 4 civilians killed and 10 wounded by the raid.”…
II. THE REACTION:… “Russell Tribunal Sends Seven to Hanoi on Inspection Tour”…”Bertrand Russell has sent a seven man team to Hanoi to investigate bomb damage in Hanoi. Any evidence of bombing of civilian areas in North Vietnam would be used at the ‘trial’ of President Johnson and other United States leaders.”…“Hanoi Dispatches Hailed at Vatican”…”The Vatican newspaper…praised today as ‘a service of truth’ the dispatches by Harrison E. Salisbury…reporting on United States air raids in and around Hanoi…In a front page editorial it branded President Johnson, the Pentagon and most of the Italian press as liars for having long denied the data reported in the New York Times (by Salisbury) dispatches from Hanoi.” …”Criticism Of U.S. In Britain”…”Headlines such as ‘U.S. Admits Air Raids are Killing Civilians’ marked the British press reaction to American disclosures of bombing damage in North Vietnam. The Sun of London said a Defense Department statement in the Pentagon considered itself justified in killing civilians while striking military objectives. If this is true a new and more horrifying stage has been reached in this hideous war,’ the Sun said. ‘In the name of humanity and of the British people–who know what bombing means–Harold Wilson must warn President Johnson that Britain cannot support the bombing policy.’ “… “Student Leaders Warn President of Doubts on War”…”Student leaders from 100 colleges and universities have signed an open letter to President Johnson expressing their doubts about United States involvement in the war in Vietnam. All of the signers are either student body presidents or campus paper editors. Noting apparent contradictions between American statements and actions in the war, the students wrote: ‘Unless this conflict can be eased, the United States will find some of its most loyal and courageous young people choosing to go to jail rather than bear their country’s arms.’..they refer to their contemporaries as ‘people devoted to the Constitution, to the democratic process, and to law and order as were their fathers and brothers who served willingly in two World Wars and Korea’… The contemporaries are deeply troubled about the posture of their government in South Vietnam. There are many who are deeply troubled for every one has spoken in dissent. The goal of the letter is to ‘encourage a frank discussion of some of the problems raised by the American role in the war. If such a discussion clarified american objectives in Vietnam it might help to reverse the drift., which is now from confusion toward disaffection. There is an increasing confusion about both our basic purpose and our tactics, and there is increasing fear that the course now being pursued may lead us irrevocably to a major war in Asia– a war which many feel could not be won without recourse to nuclear weapons, if then. The student urged that the New Year’s truce be extended by ‘defacto restraint’ on both sides, even if no formal agreement is reached…A growing sense– reinforced by Mr. Harrison Salisbury’s recent reports from Hanoi– that too often there is a wide disparity between American statements about Vietnam and American actions there. The students letter grew out of a debate at the annual congress of the National Student Association last summer on the campus of the University of Illinois.”…
III. THE RESPONSE:… “Johnson Believes Targets Are Military”…”President Johnson was described today as satisfied that the bombing of North Vietnam by American planes had been directed only at military targets, as ordered. without saying what actually might have been hit in various raids the White House asserted that no civilian targets had been approved by Mr. Johnson and that his orders had been obeyed.”… “Bombing Of The North: U.S. Officers Assert It Has Proved Effective, Restrained and Essential”…”The bombing of North Vietnam has been both effective and restrained, military officials in the Pentagon said yesterday. High ranking officers in all services in Washington and the Vietnam area– are virtually unanimous in their belief that the bombing is an essential part of United States strategy, that it has put a ceiling on the volume of enemy supplies flowing into South Vietnam, and that it is reducing American casualties. Admiral David L. MacDonald, Chief of Naval Operations, said recently after a visit to Vietnam that there was no doubt that the attacks on the North had ‘saved the lives of an awful lot of soldiers and marines on the ground in South Vietnam.’ Privately, Pentagon sources agree with reports from North Vietnam that civilian residential districts have been hit in the raids and that an undetermined number of North Vietnamese have been killed and wounded, but that estimates have been grossly exaggerated.”… and this…
NYT, 29 Dec, Page 2: “A Flier Disputes Report on Raids: Navy Man Calls Dispatch on Namdinh Unbelievable”… “The Commanding Officer of a naval attack squadron recently returned from six months of carrier based raids on North Vietnam yesterday disputed several points in the dispatches from Hanoi of Harrison Salisbury. ‘I am not questioning Mr. Salisbury’s honesty, but I found his story about Namdinh unbelievable,’ said Commander Robert C. Mandeville, Commanding Officer of VA-65, a squadron of A-6 Intruder jets. ‘He is describing what he’s seen on the ground. I guess we are looking at it from different points of view.’ Commander Mandeville said the city was a bombing target because it was a transportation route to and from Hanoi and Haiphong with a fuel depot on a delta east of town and a rail yard west of town. He said the target was a large transshipment area on the banks of the Dao river. He said the textile plant, which Salisbury said had been bombed 19 times was not a target. Commander Mandeville said that the anti-aircraft defenses around the city were ‘extremely heavy and included missiles, as well as standard batteries, indicating the city was tactically important (a military target). Salisbury had reported the damage to the city had been accomplished using MK-84 bombs. Commander Mandeville said that the 2000-pound bombs were used only for structures like bridges because several smaller bombs were more effective elsewhere. He scoffed at the suggestion that Namdinh had been a target for the Seventh Fleet because it was only 20 miles inland. ‘Nobody wanted to go into that place, it was ringed with fire.’ He added that he did not believe that the bombing raids were meant to intimidate the civilian populace or to demonstrate the potential of American firepower. ‘I have never known of a target being assigned in North Vietnam that was not of tactical military value,’ he commented.”… oohrah….
THE QUOTES for 3 January: “Aptitude for maneuver is the supreme skill in a general, it is the most useful and rarest of gifts by which genius is estimatd.”…NAPOLEON… “All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty.:…PATTON
Lest we forget… Bear -30-