RIPPLE SALVO…#122… THE LOGIC OF ESCALATION… but first…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-TWO of remembering the great sacrifices of American warrior fifty years ago in SE Asia…
30 JUNE 1966…ON THE HOME FRONT…New York Times….A fair and hot Thursday on Broadway…
Page 1: “US EXTENDING BOMBING RAIDS TO HANOI AND HAIPHONG OUTSKIRTS CITES REDS DISPERSAL OF FUEL”… Big headlines for the NYT and more than half of page 1 carried the story, including pictures, one of which is McNamara with his pointer… “United States bombers struck close to the heart of Hanoi and Haiphong today (29th) in raids that military informants say had damaged the gasoline and oil supplies of North Vietnam severely. The raids marked a change from restrictions that had kept American planes well away from the two major cities since they began hitting the north in February 1965. It also marked an important escalation of the United States effort against the North Vietnamese backed guerrillas in South Vietnam. Whether the restriction will now be further altered to allow raids on manufacturing plants, military airfields and other targets around Hanoi and Haip0hong was unclear, but some targets would soon be hit. The decision like that to carry out today’s raids, must be made in Washington. Navy A-4 and A-6 jet fighter-bombers attacked a large tank farm for petroleum products at the very edge of Haiphong, two miles northwest of the center of the city. The complex which represents 40-per cent of the fuel storage capacity of North Vietnam and 95-per cent of the facilities for unloading tanker ships, was 80-per cent destroyed, according to preliminary reports by returning pilots. Air Force F-105 jet fighter-bombers struck another large tank farm 3 1/2 miles from the center of Hanoi that contained 20-per cent of the nation’s storage facilities. The pilots estimated that they had destroyed 90-per cent of the target area. Haiphong, the port for Hanoi is about 60-miles east of the capital.
Page 1: “The United States command made it clear that it had staged the raids because previously restricted air action had failed to deal with the major problem of North Vietnamese infiltration of troops and supplies to the Vietcong. The Hanoi radio claimed seven United States planes shot down near Haiphong and four near Hanoi. Such reports have been exaggerated and there was no reason to doubt the accuracy of an American statement that said only one plane, an F-105 had been lost.”… Page 14: “Some In Pentagon Now Expect Still Further Escalation Of War”… “Senior generals and admirals recognize that in a war of limited objectives, political considerations often stand in the way of military ones. But they are mindful that most of the steps they haave urged on the President Through the Vietnam War have been implemented in time.” Mining and closing the Haiphong harbor, however, remains off limits due to concern that to do so will bring a direct confrontation with the Soviets.
Page 1: “McNamara Gives Reasons For The Raids”… The Secretary cited the increased infiltration rate of NVN troops and equipment into South Vietnam and the increasing efforts of the North Vietnamese to camouflage, disperse and hide their POL storage and distribution system from the U.S. reconnaissance effort to target them as principle reasons for the POL raids. He said: “The United States will continue a policy of military restraint hitting only military targets. The American objectives remain the same: we will not destroy the communist government, destroy of damage civilian structures, and we will not make South Vietnam a military ally on a permanent basis.” … Page 1: “Wilson Deplores Latest Attack”… “Prime Minister Wilson reaffirmed British support of the United States policy in Vietnam today but declared that ‘we disassociate ourselves from the American bombing of oil storage installations at Hanoi and Haiphong.’ He also said: “We have made it clear on several occasions that we could not support an extension of the bombing of that sort.”… U Thant at the United Nations expressed “deep regret” that the United States had chosen to expand the war.
Page 1: “Bombing Evokes Criticism and Praise In Both Parties”…” On Capitol Hill today President Johnson’s decision to bomb oil depots at Hanoi and Haiphong was regretted, praised, denounced and accepted with reservations. The reaction cut across party lines.” Mike Mansfield: “I think it indicates a new stage in the war. I think it will bring a greater amount of aid from the Soviet Union and Peking.” Richard Russell: “I approve of it. It seems to me we have exhausted every effort to arrive at negotiations. Any further delay in drying up the sources of supply for the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese troops in the south could only increase the casualty lists of American dead and wounded.”
Page 14:”Psychological Targets”… “With the air strikes at Hanoi and Haiphong the Johnson Administration hopes to inflict great psychological as well as military damage on North Vietnam. Besides knocking out vital fuel supplies to impede the Communist war effort it seeks to demonstrate that Hanoi cannot count on any significant help from Moscow or Peking against ever more pressure applied in an ever more versatile manner. The growing impatience of the American electorate has troubled the Shite House in recent months. As his popularity rating has dropped in the opinion polls, Mr. Johnson has insisted that the opposition is greater among those who want him to take more severe military measures than those who want him to withdraw from the conflict.” … Page 14:”HoChiMinh Asserts Struggle Will Go On Despite Escalation”…The North Vietnamese leader called the American raids “indiscriminate bombing and strafing of residential and economic areas the caused human ands material loss of his people.” Also: “At present, United States imperialists are frenziedly expanding their aggressive war in Vietnam and are perpetrating many crimes of the utmost barbarism in an attempt to subdue the Vietnamese people. However, the people of our country are determined to fight against the United States aggressors and win back the independence and unity of our fatherland.”
30 JUNE 1966…ROLLING THUNDER OPERATIONS…NYT (1 July reporting 30 June ops) Page 1: “3 More Oil Storage Sites Are Raided By U.S. Planes”… Charles Mohr writes: “American bombers hit three more fuel storage areas in the Hanoi area today following the raid yesterday on the two major North Vietnamese storage facilities for gasoline and oil on the outskirts of Hanoi and Haiphong. The follow-up raids, aimed at smaller facilities, were intended to increase North Vietnam’s fuel problems. Navy jets struck the Bacgiang storage center 25 miles northeast of Hanoi, which can store 6000 metric tons of fuel, or 4-per cent of the national storage capacity. Returning pilots said they saw ‘billowing smoke and immense fireballs.'” They added that fire extended throughout the area and smoke could be seen 70 miles away.’ Air Force jet bombers struck the Viet tre storage area on the banks of the Red River 25 miles northwest of Hanoi containing 8 main storage tanks. The pilots dropped 1000-pound bombs but reported no specific damage assessment except to report the smoke and several secondary explosions. Other Air Force planes struck the Nguyen Khe area 7 1/2 miles north of Hanoi destroying 4 large and 5 small storage tanks. Other Navy aircraft attacked a ground control intercept center that included three mobile radar sites used to guide SA-2 SAMs and MIGs. The target was near Kep, 38 miles northeast of Hanoi. Pilots reported that all three mobile sites were ‘obliterated.'”.
“Vietnam: Air Losses” Page 64: One aircraft downed..
(1) CAPTAIN R.K. NIERSTE was flying an F-105D of the 388thTFW out of Korat on a strike on the POL site at Nguyen Khe, 7 miles from Hanoi, when hit by AAA. CAPTAIN NIERSTE was able to fly the Thunderchief 200 miles before the aircraft was unflyable and he was forced to eject over Laos where he was rescued by an Air Force helicopter…
RIPPLE SALVO… #122 (in row without a miss)… oohrah for Mighty Thunder!!! Four months into the archives, 24 months to go…Remembering Rolling Thunder (and the legions of brave airmen who carried the war to the heartland of the enemy)
“THE LOGIC OF ESCALATION”…If your strategy going in is “gradualism,” escalation is a given. Here is an Op Ed that attempts to explain what the President’s approach to the war with North Vietnam was all about on 30 June 1966, in the opinion of the New York Times…
“President Johnson has now taken one of the longest and gravest steps in the inexorable escalation of the Vietnam War. The bombing of the oil storage tanks on the edge of Hanoi and Haiphong was foreseen and virtually foretold by President Johnson himself the other day when he said to newspapermen that ‘we must continue to raise the cost of aggression at its sources’–meaning, North Vietnam.
“The bombing of the oil tanks is not likely to put an end to the war. It is not likely to inflict any irreparable damages to the North Vietnamese economy or the continued prosecution of the war. But it is one more step–and one carrying grave risks–suggesting that the United
States now believes it must achieve its political aims in Vietnam through a military victory.
“Secretary McNamara indicated yesterday that since the conflict has become a ‘quasi-conventional’ war, the enemy must be treated as a nation at war and not as guerrillas. It stood to reason that many North Vietnam civilians lost their lives yesterday since bombs and exploding oil tanks are not so exclusively accurate as to blow up in a vacuum of kill only soldiers. As the British government statement of regret and disassociation noted, the bombs touched on the populated areas of Hanoi and Haiphong.
“It is conceded that the United States is technically fighting a limited war, as Mr. Johnson calls it. The Americans could use infinitely more power and cause complete destruction. But this euphemistic method of describing America’s limited aims hides the fact that the United States is making it more difficult than ever to induce Hanoi and the Vietcong to give up their objectives, more difficult to establish conditions where negotiations might be possible, as Senator Mansfield pointed out yesterday.
“Each step in American escalation of the war has failed of its purpose. Secretary McNamara said yesterday that after all the escalation North Vietnamese units in South Vietnam have increased by more than 100% since the end of 1965. The logic is inescapable. It will be necessary to take further steps–perhaps bomb the jet airfields of Hanoi and Haiphong, bomb the factories making war material, bomb Haiphong harbor and close it to traffic.
“The United States is now apparently committing itself to fight as long as necessary and at whatever cost until it has won a so called ‘victory.’ Since this country is far and away the most powerful nation in all history, and since Vietnam is small and weak, it is logical that by continuing to escalate the war the United States will win. But win what? A destroyed nation and a shattered people.”
A few words from your Humble Host… On 29 June 1966 McNamara and America took a long and grave step in the execution of our “strategy of gradualism” by belatedly adding the enemy’s POL storage and distribution system to the Alpha Strike list of targets. Creeping up on your enemy, or limited war, is the path to defeat. History tells us so. Sadly, our country no longer has the RESOLVE to do what is necessary to win a war– destroy the will of the enemy to resist. The piecemeal application of power, and concurrent choice to try to win without killing, as was the priority in our Vietnam experience, doom a war fighting enterprise from the start. War is a killing business and the application of the Principles of War is required. Our National Security Advisors are prancing unicorns, who I doubt can name and define the those axioms of the art of war. Nor can two generations, and possible three generations of Americans, who have no idea of what it takes to protect our national interests and our way of life. Freedom is not free is a truism denied. Our people are now led to believe that the requirements for the defense of our freedom DOES NOT require POWER, POSITION, and RESOLVE. They are led to believe we can win without “destroying the will (RESOLVE) of the enemy to resist.” They are led to believe that the first priority of our nation is taking care of “the environment.” They are not taught that the first priority of a nation is survival, or that our survival as a Democratic Republic requires POWER, POSITION and RESOLVE. They are unaware that our leaders have frittered away our base of POWER (military, economic, and political). They are unaware or don’t care, that our nation has opted to cut our ability to deploy and POSITION forward with enough power to be dominant. In other words, we no longer have the ability to be in position outside our hemisphere to be dominant against an increasing number of nations who are now able to counter anything, on their home court, that we can deploy and sustain for as long as it would take for us to “win,” RESOLVE.
History is the teacher and our people have been playing hookey for the last twenty years. A painful period of catch-up is dawning. Our war in Vietnam is a goldmine of instruction on the art of war. So is the Vietnam Wall on the Mall in Washington, and the names of 58,000 thereon, who were killed fighting in a war that was misguided from start to finish. Would that these fallen warriors did not die in vain, and that the lessons of Vietnam, including the risk of piecemeal application of power, gradualism, could find their way into the White House War Room, and the hearts and minds of all Americans…
One final thought…and a prayer… God bless and keep a great fighter pilot and leader of men who lies in an ICU this night and is hanging on…Rear Admiral Paul “Punchy” Gilchrist… now there’s guy who can tell a story!.. Hang in there Admiral…
Lest we forget….. Bear ………. –30– ……….