RIPPLE SALVO… #696… “SPECTERS OF DIEN BIEN PHU HAD DANCED BEFORE THE EYES OF THE AMERICANS. From intelligence analysts to Westmoreland to the President of the United States, memories of General Navarre and France’s Vietnamese Waterloo preoccupied U.S. thoughts. President Johnson requested the US Joint Chiefs of Staff to outline for him just how Westmoreland would hold Khesanh.” Humble host posted State Department historical documents over the weekend that included conversations between the President, the JCS and General Wheeler that emphasized the point, the President told the Chairman in no uncertain words, “I don’t want any damn Dien Bien Phu.”… Not to worry, Mr. President, “Operation Niagara” is your insurance policy… but first…
Good Morning: Day SIX HUNDRED NINETY-SIX immersed in and remembering the events and heroic human performances of the air war with North Vietnam called Rolling Thunder that was fought fifty years ago…
30 JANUARY 1968… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a rainy Tuesday on the Hudson…
GROUND WAR: Page 1: “VIETCONG ATTACK SEVEN CITIES; ALLIES CALL OFF TET TRUCE–ROCKETS DESTROY 6 PLANES AT DANANG–SOME PRISONERS FREED”… “Vietcong raiders drove into the center of seven major Vietnamese cities early today, burning Government buildings, freeing prisoners from provincial jails and blasting military installations and airfields with rockets and mortars. The Surprise thrusts, which were accompanied by scores of attacks on smaller centers, came only hours after the allied forces canceled their 36-hour cease-fire for the lunar new year in the five northern provinces because of the massive South Vietnamese build-up there. Today was the first day of the new year. As word of the attacks flooded into American headquarters this morning, the high command abruptly called off the cease-fire for the rest of South Vietnam as well in the name of President Thieu. American sources said the bombing pause over the heart of North Vietnam was not affected. the heaviest attack took place at Danang, the second largest city in the city and the base area for military operations along the demilitarized zone. (See rest of Danang air base story under Operation Rolling Thunder below)… Pitched battles were reported still in progress in the streets of Danang this morning with hurriedly mobilized military police and Vietnamese rangers engaging the enemy. The other raids in the unprecedented show of Vietcong strength were carried out against Nhatrang and Quinhon, on the coast, 190 and 290 miles northeast of Saigon…and against the cities of Banmethuot, Pleiku and Kontum in the Central Highlands…. American sources seemed dismayed by the success of the closely coordinated attacks. they apparently caught the South Vietnamese forces off guard… A spokesman said, ‘This isn’t infiltration, this is an invasion.’ “… Page 2: “Saigon Marks Tet But Without G.I.s–Loss of Customers Makes Day Gloomy”… Page 3: “PENTAGON LISTS AMERICANS KILLED IN VIETNAM COMBAT”… “Pentagon identified today 80 United States servicemen killed in action in Vietnam…”…
PUEBLO INCIDENT: Page 1: “U.S. SEES DELAY IN MOVES TO FREE CREW OF PUEBLO–RECONCILED TO 2 TO 3 WEEK WAIT FOR THEIR RELEASE–SHIP MAY TAKE LONGER”… “The United States appeared reconciled today to the likelihood that the diplomatic efforts to free the 83-man crew of the intelligence shop Pueblo, held by North Korea, would take at least two to three weeks”… “At the United Nations, the United States was prepared to discuss all aspects of the Korean issue with North Korea provided the men aboard the Pueblo were not held as hostages during the talks.”… Page 10: “Dirksen Warns On Appeasement On Pueblo as Other Senate Republicans Call For Inquiry”… Page 8: “Problems Beset North Koreans–Ship Seizure Linked to Difficulties”…
Page 1: “RECORD $186-BILLION BUDGET IS PRESENTED BY JOHNSON–Tax Rise Required, He Says–$120-Billion Deficit–This Would Be Cut To $8-Billion By Passage Of 10% Surcharge”… Page 1: “Congress Cool To Budget–Mahon Backs Tax Rise”… Page 1: “Defense Figure $3-Billion Higher–But Johnson Indicates That The Proposed $79.8 Billion May Be Insufficient”… Page 1: “Dr. Spock, Coffin And Three Others Arraigned On Charges of Conspiring To Aid Draft Evaders”...”4,000 here cheer Spock and Ferber, decry war and draft policies.”… Page 9: “Colleges Attack New Draft Rules–See Graduate Student Drain–Pentagon Also Critical”… Page 46: “Almost All Negro Track Stars Are Likely To Boycott New York Athletic Club Meet”…
30 January 1968… The President’s Daily CIA Brief … NORTH KOREA: There have been few new developments overnight. Pyongyang has made no official comment on the Pueblo for 24 hours, although the North Koreans are broadcasting statements or support from other Communist countries…. SOUTH VIETNAM: Sharp fighting reportedly continues in the cities of Pleiku, Kontum, Da Nang, and Nha Trang. Information is sketchy on what is happening around the other cities and bases hit by the well-coordinated and unprecedented Communist offensive.... NORTH VIETNAM: Hanoi asks U.S. peace activist to receive freed U.S. pilots. Dave Dellinger, editor of the magazine Liberation, issued a statement in Boston yesterday saying he had been asked by Hanoi to send a representative to North Vietnam for ‘discussion and reception’ of the three pilots the North Vietnamese claimed on 27 January would be released. Dellinger, who has been involved in antiwar activity in the U.S. and who has twice traveled to North Vietnam, was involved in the release of three U.S. prisoners by the Viet Cong in Cambodia last November. This is the first indication that Hanoi has taken any steps toward arranging the actual release of the three pilots…
State Department, Office of Historian, Historical Document, Volume 29, Part 1, Korea… Document 248. of Tuesday, 30 January 1968: Notes on Meeting of the “Tuesday Luncheon” (or Foreign Affairs Luncheon– Pueblo replaces “Targets in North Vietnam” in the agenda). The President and his men muster: the President asks the hard questions and chews-on awaiting answers. Example: President to General Wheeler, CJCS: “To what do you attribute the confession of Captain Bucher, General Wheeler?” Read at:…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v29p1/d248
30 January 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times… No coverage of ops north of DMZ… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) “The North Vietnamese units assigned to attack the bases at Da Nang and Pleiku are thought to have mis-timed their assault, which was launched 24 hours before the main offensive. No aircraft were lost at Pleiku but three Phantoms and an Intruder were destroyed at Da Nang and another 25 aircraft were damaged. Around 40- 122mm rockets were fired at the base during the attack.”… F-4s were lost by 366th TFS (1) and VMFA-122 (2) in addition to an A-6 Intruder of VMA(AW)-242….
LIGHT ATTACK TAILHOOKER COMMANDER CLIFF RUTHRAUFF just happened to be on deck at Danang on the night of 29-30 January 1968 and has a story to tell:
“50 years ago today and there we were, returning to the USS Kitty Hawk from the second mission of the day, when an F-4 Phantom ran into the catwalk on the carrier and fouled the deck. Can’t go home tonight, so my wingman and I diverted to Danang AFB. After landing and fussing with the duty officer (an Air Force Major) looking for a bunk, the Marines stepped up and took us in for the night. What a night.
“About this time, all hell broke loose. The VC or the NVN army were shooting 122mm rockets into the base with great success. They hit several aircraft and the base ammo magazine which took up most of the real estate between the duel runways. Besides all sorts of normal ordnance, the magazine was loaded with magnesium flares which lit up the night, bright as day. What a fire!!
“After spending the night in a bunker, things calmed down a little bit. There were burnt out aircraft, smouldering around the base, but our beautiful A-4 Skyhawks were OK… It was time to go back-ship…
“No one seemed to know the status of the base or the runway, and no one seemed to give a damn about us Navy pukes. The tower was unmanned, and no one seemed to be in charge. about this time it was mid-morning and time for the ship to start operating again. We found some Marines to give us a start and we taxied out to the runway (You could hear the 20mm cooking off). We took off without a clearance, and got the hell out of Dodge.
“For a week or so, pilots that flew those two A-4s complained of getting mosquito bites… “
THANKS, Cliff…
Hey, NAVCAD (34-55) Joe Homer, USMC, Silver Star, is this the ramp event where you ran around saving airplanes and troops?…
RIPPLE SALVO… #696… OPERATION NIAGARA– The difference between Khesanh and Dien Bien Phu… IMHO…Reference: Tet 1968: Understanding the Surprise by Ronnie Ford… I quote…
“…(T)he similarities between Dien Bien Phu and Khe Sanh were few and far between. Khe Sanh was not isolated as was the tiny French landing strip. Dien Bien Phu was 300 kilometers by air from the French resupply bases in Hanoi. Khe Sanh was more easily resupplied at a half hour’s flight time from Danang. The French had run short on aircraft and had to be resupplied by unmarked American resupply planes. The American forces at Khe Sanh were constantly resupplied by US transport aircraft and helicopters. Terrain at Dien Bien Phu had favored the Viet Minh. The French outpost had been in a valley, surrounded by peaks from which the Communists had rained down artillery fire on the besieged Frenchmen. Khe Sanh was on a plateau, and some hills surrounding the fire base were occupied by US forces’
“People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) Colonel Nghiem Tuc affirmed in 1984 that the Khe Sanh was never intended to be another Dien Bien Phu. The Viet Minh attacked the French at Dien Bien Phu after seven years of war had worn the French down, and both sides had known the battle would be a catalyst. In 1968, on the other hand, the Communists knew that the US was at its peak in military power. To have another Dien Bien Phu at that time was ‘impossible.’
“The North Vietnamese would have taken Khe Sanh just as they had taken Lang Vei, had the situation presented itself. Westmoreland made sure that it did not. The PAVN force assembled at Khe Sanh drew a lot more than just Westmoreland’s attention.
“During the night and before dawn on 21 January 1968, the 325th and the 304th PAVN divisions attacked 6,000 defenders at Khe Sanh with ground assaults against hilltop outposts and a massive artillery barrage that destroyed a large ammunition dump, damaged several helicopters, and put large craters in the runway. This was the peak of the PAVN active deception. The anticipated bigger assault never came. the reason is that the American response was devastating. soon 15,000 combat and 50,000 US support troops were committed to the Khe Sanh effort. The B-52s spearheaded the American firepower assisting the besieged Marines in OPERATION NIAGARA.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Niagara
“American B-52 bombers flew from Guam, Thailand, and Okinawa. Fighter-bombers came from the 1st Marine Air Wing, the 7th Air Force, the Strategic Air Command, the US Navy Task Force 77, and from the South Vietnamese Air Force. Twenty kilotons of explosives fell on Hiroshima. 108 kilotons of bombs were dropped defending Khe Sanh. And these bombs, computer-guided from within the Marine position, were directed with such accuracy onto the PAVN forces that they were being employed to within 200-yards of the Marine firebase. Operation Niagara lasted from 21 January until 31 March 1968.”…
In the 60 days of the battle and Operation Niagara the United States flew 24,654 sorties, including 2,548 by B-52s, delivering 98,721 tons of bombs — 59,542 by the Buffs — on the North Vietnamese troops surrounding Khe Sanh. Every day for 60 days, 42 B-52 sorties and 350 TacAir fighter-bomber sorties raining down bombs on bad guys. Humble Host can only wonder what the result of this effort directed at the Red River Valley with the same intensity in 1967-68 would have produced…
Rolling Thunder ops takes a backseat to Niagara for this 60-day period… RTR posts will include both…
RTR Quote for 30 January: DON OBERDORFER, Knight News: “Tet is a lesson that there is a danger in the rush to judgement before important pieces of the puzzle can be identified or put back together again.”
Gee, too bad Walter Cronkite ignored this lesson…
Lest we forget… Bear