RIPPLE SALVO… #331… HOME FROM A 20-25 JAN 1967 VISIT TO VIETNAM… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED THIRTY-ONE of a non-stop review of the 1000-day air war with North Vietnam fifty years ago…
30 JANUARY 1967… The NYT HEADLINES and lead stories at home in the states… On a cloudy and cold Monday in New York City…
Page 1: “Explosions In U.S. and Canada Rock Yugoslav Offices”…”A coordinated series of explosions ripped open the front of the Yugoslav chancery here in D.C. before dawn this morning and damaged Yugoslav diplomatic properties in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Ottawa and Toronto. No one in the diplomatic missions was injured in the attacks, which Yugoslav diplomats and United States authorities ascribed to political terrorists. Secretary of State Dean Rusk was spending the weekend in Williamsburg and the State Department issued a formal statement calling the bombings ‘outrageous and senseless acts that can only be condemned by the American people.’ American authorities declined to speculate on the motivation for the bombings, which struck every Yugoslav diplomatic mission in the U.S. and Canada except the consulate in Pittsburg.”… Page 1: “Error In Vietnam Kills 31 Civilians”… “Thirty-one Vietnamese civilians were killed and 38 wounded during an attack by American helicopters and patrol boats in the Mekong Delta. More than 40 American servicemen gave blood to the wounded after they were evacuated to a hospital. The attack took place Friday night and early Saturday morning near the village of Phuhuh in Phong-dinh province about 90-miles southwest of Saigon. Although details of the attack near the delta village were fragmentary, it appears that a ‘firefly’ flight of three army helicopters observed about 200 sampans crossing the Bassa River in violation of a curfew. a firefly flight, used for night operations is equipped with a powerful search light and two guns. The circling helicopters were fired on from the sampans and the river bank. they returned fire… About the same time, the patrol boats joined the attack and machine guns and rocket launchers…The village said there were Vietcong in the area and they were crossing the river to reach the Army outpost…”… Page 1: “Greatest Apollo Damage Found in Lifeline to Cabin”… “While investigators continue to seek the cause of the fatal Apollo 1 blast, an inspection of the fire–blackened spacecraft showed today that the greatest damage seemed to have occurred where the electrical lifeline from the launching pad entered the cabin…the cockpit was a shell…rites for astronauts to be televised today at Cape Kennedy…” Page 4: “Anti-Maoists Are Reported Encircled in Sinkiang”… “Army units loyal to Mao Tse-tung have encircled dissident forces in Sinkiang in Western China…posters told of the spread of clashes… with dozens killed…”…
Page 28: New York Times Editorial: “The Chances for Vietnam”…”The opening today of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on the global responsibilities of the United States will offer another opportunity to air the most crucial of all American foreign policies, that of the war in Vietnam. Senator Fulbright, who will be in charge, will undoubtedly use the occasion to emphasize special concern with what he has labeled ‘the arrogance of power’ on the part of the United States in Southeast Asia. This effective catch phrase of the Senator’s contains an implied warning that the United States cannot be the policeman to the world, and cannot safely or sensibly go on escalating the frustrating war in Vietnam. Neither side in fact, can hope to see an end to hostilities or peace negotiations so long as both sides stand pat on the present unacceptable position…. No program yet offered is sure-fire or can guarantee an acceptable peace, but they all have one feature in common: that the way to peace is not by more bombing, more troops, more battles, more killing, more destruction.”…
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…EXRTAORDINARY HEROISM… LIEUTENANT COLONEL JAMES R. HOPKINS, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE, AIR FORCE CROSS…
The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the AIR FORCE CROSS to JAMES R. HOPKINS, LIEUTENANT COLONEL, United States Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force while serving a COMMANDING OFFICER, 469th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Korat Royal Thai air Base, Thailand, SEVENTH Air Force, in action in Southeast Asia on 29 June 1966. On that date, COLONEL HOPKINS was Mission Commander of a large strike force of F-105 Thunderchiefs tasked with destroying a large petroleum, oil, and lubricant storage area near Hanoi, North Vietnam. Despite adverse weather and the most deadly and accurate anti-aircraft fire ever encountered over North Vietnam, including surface-to-air missiles, he led his force in totally destroying this vital military target. Through his extraordinary heroism, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness in the face of hostile forces, LIEUTENANT COLONEL HOPKINS reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force. ooohrah…
30 January 1967… Operation Rolling Thunder…New York Times (31 Jan reporting 30 Jan ops) Page 2: “United States pilots reported heavy ground fire in raids Sunday on Thai Nguyen railroad yard 35 miles north of Hanoi, the North Vietnamese capital. Other planes struck at cargo barges along the Ca River for the second day in a row. In raids over the North yesterday (Mon) heavy fog and clouds limited the number of strikes. Carrier based Navy pilots reported destroying two cargo vessels 20 miles south of the port city of Haiphong. Other Navy fliers attacked targets in the Thanh Hoa area. American planes flew 73 missions, about half the usual number… A delayed report of the loss of two United States planes over North Vietnam raised to 469 the number of aircraft downed over North Vietnam. The planes had gone down out of sight of the enemy and for this reason the location and time of the two losses could not be disclosed.”…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft downed in Southeast asia on 30 January 1967…
(1) MAJOR W.E. THURMAN was flying an F-105D of the 469th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat on a strike mission in Southern Laos near the Thai border when hit by ground fire. MAJOR THURMAN headed northwest toward home base but had to eject about 35 miles short of home. He was rescued to fly and fight again…
RIPPLE SALVO… #331… “A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT’S CONSULTANT, GENERAL MAXWELL TAYLOR TO PRESIDENT JOHNSON dated Januaray 30,1967… I quote:
“I have just returned from a ten-day trip to Southeast Asia for the purpose of updating my acquaintance with the area after an absence of a year and a half and of doing work related to the President’s Foreign Intelligence advisory Board. In the five days spent in South Viet-Nam. I talked to our principal officials and visited our major headquarters.
“As a general observation, I would say that, since I left Viet-Nam, there has been dramatic progress in resolving many of the serious problems which I knew, particularly those which, in the past, arose from lack of sufficient military resources to cope with the main Viet Cong threat or derived from the chronic political instability which marked the period from the fall of Diem to the advent of the present Ky Government. In the enclosure, I have endeavored to tabulate briefly some of the most notable forms of progress which came to my attention.
“Inevitably, in attacking tough problems, we either solve some incompletely or create new ones. Thus, any observer of the Viet-Nam scene, impressed though he is with the visible advances made, to give a balanced report must take note of the many residual problems. This I have tried to do in the second part of the enclosure.
” No report is complete without a recommendation. Mine is that your responsible officials beset to work at once to produce plans to deal with these residual problems with a view to obtaining maximum results in 1967. Rather than depend on ad hoc task forces or individual initiatives, I would suggest assigning this task to Senior Inter-departmental Group (with the membership adjusted as required) which was set up last year by NASM-341 to do precisely this kind of work directing and coordinating complex governmental activities overseas. In attacking these problems, we should try to create the atmosphere of a victory drive to dispel any tendency to apathy at home and to exploit the growing confidence which one senses in Viet-Nam. Sincerely Yours, Maxwell D. Taylor… ” end quote…
The attachment to this memo is titled: “Memorandum for Record: Viet-Nam Visit, January 20-25, 1967… is at….
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d30
The MFR is a six-page account well worth reading, but here is a short cut– the part that concerns Rolling Thunder…I quote:
“Bombing of the North. There is no doubt in the minds of U.S. representatives in South Viet-Nam as to the effectiveness and essentiality of the bombing campaign in the north. They are convinced that it impedes infiltration and imposes an ever increasing burden on the economy and government of North Viet-Nam. The big question among the U.S. military is how to intensify the air campaign and increase its contribution to an early settlement. they are convinced that there are still untouched targets which, if struck, would add materially to the effectiveness of the present program. Such targets include key elements of the North Vietnamese power system (such as the Hanoi transformer); steel, cement and chemical plants supporting the war effort; untouched components of the transportation system (locks on the inland waterways and railroad yards); and,in high priority, the port of Haiphong. Our commanders believe that if allowed to attack a target system restricted only to avoid significant civilian casualties, they could achieve greater results than now in a shorter time with fewer airplane losses.”
General Taylor concluded his MFR by posing several questions that needed answers in order to “eliminate uncertainties.” The first question of five was the one that applied to Rolling Thunder: “What price should we exact for the cessation of bombing in the North?”
Here is the concluding paragraph:
“There is an overall problem which is the critical one–how to make 1967 the year of victory in Viet-Nam. There is a fair chance to do so but it will require a maximum, simultaneous effort across the whole range of U.S./GVN activities. We must do better in our ground operations in the south, raise the level of the air operations in the north, inaugurate a constitutional president, hold the line against inflation and show significant progress in RD in the principal areas of population. If we can do these things in Viet-Nam while conducting ourselves at home in such a way that, regardless of pressures, the U.S. will not change its course. I have the feeling that the Vietnamese situation may change drastically for the better by the end of 1967.”…
Two interesting footnotes: (1) LBJ saw and read this report as evidenced by his initial L on the memo… (2) This MFR was discussed at the next day –Tuesday– luncheon meeting…
CAG’s QUOTES FOR 30 January: GENERAL OMAR BRADLEY: “The nation today needs men who think in terms of service to their country and not in terms of their country’s debt to them.”… PATTON: “The whole damned world is going communist.”…
Lest we forget… Bear