RIPPLE SALVO… #969… THE DECISION HAD BEEN MADE: THE BOMBING OF NORTH VIETNAM–OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER–WILL END. All that remained to be done was to work out the details of when and how. And, oh, by the way, get South Vietnam’s Thieu on board with the plan. As Secretary of Defense pointed out in his autobiography, Thieu was stalling: …he refused “to participate in any talks with Hanoi prior to election day. He said he needed a week between cessation and the talk. He would give us a formal answer later that evening (30-Oct-68), but it seemed clear what that answer would be. Hoping for a Nixon victory, Thieu would stall.”…Seven short, easy reading State Department Historical Documents detail how LBJ and the Wise Men got to the finish line with Thieu in tow… but first…
Good Morning… Day NINE HUNDRED SIXTY-NINE of remembering the events and men of Operation Rolling Thunder. My covenant with myself is on the home stretch. More than 1,000 posts are in the RTR archives and the days of Rolling Thunder are down to two. My daily posts will cease with the cessation of RT on 1 November. After a two week break, or so, to get reorganized, RTR will return as a weekly post. Content will cover: THE WAR and the sustained sacrifice of American fighting mens’ lives in a losing cause; the events and men of COMMANDO HUNT, the shift of the “war against trucks” to Laos from “the panhandle” of NVN; and, salvos of Bear scatophilia as the urge strikes… Concurrently, the body of work now archived under RTR will be edited, expanded and indexed. Access for posts by the public, including the legions of old warriors from the skies of North Vietnam watching sunsets for excitement and exercise, will remain available…
HEAD LINES from The New York Times on Wednesday, 30 October 1968…
THE WAR: Page 12: “B-52s STEP UP BOMBING OF FOE IN TAYNINH AREA–Strike 22 Times In Four Days Of Enemy Concentration–Purpose of North Vietnamese Build-Up Still Unclear”… “…most of the strikes have been in the northeast corner of Tayninh Province, about 50 miles from Saigon and about 10 miles from the Cambodian border (and enemy sanctuary). Four days ago a United States base camp in that area was attacked by more than 500 enemy soldiers. They were repulsed, leaving behind about 100 dead….Elements of at least four North Vietnamese divisions appear to be involved. Some of the enemy troops are believed to be gathering in Cambodia, which wraps around much of Tayninh Province…. many top military officials here doubt that the enemy, in the next several weeks, can successfully mount another general sustained offensive. But the possibility is never ruled out.”…. Page 12: “THE NEW JERSEY ATTACKS IN DMZ”… “The battleship New Jersey, for the second time in a week, has turned its 16-inch guns on the demilitarized zone and w, with other warships and planes, delivered one of the heaviest blows in a month…the action began yesterday when B-52s and Marine fighter-bombers attacked the North Vietnamese half of the zone. They came under intense ground fire.”…
PEACE: Page 1: “GENERAL ABRAMS FLIES IN SECRETLY–SEES JOHNSON ON VIETNAM–They Apparently Discuss Military Solution and Peace Talks In Paris–Hanoi Delay in Replying Seen as Bid For Gains as U.S. Election Nears”… “Usually informed diplomats said today that North Vietnam had been seeking an advantage by pressuring President Johnson as close as possible to the Presidential election before giving a final answer to American proposals for bombing halt. The diplomats reported that the United States had secretly presented several variations of its package proposal in the last month… no satisfactory response yet. Some diplomats have concluded that Hanoi has been deliberately delaying without cutting off the secret bargaining…. Page 1: “THIEU IS FORMING NEGOTIATING TEAM FOR PARIS PARLEY–Step Follows Saigon Accord With U.S. On Formula To Seat Rival Delegations”…
HEAD LINES: Page 1: “HAPPY HUMPHREY WOOS LABOR VOTE–Hails McCarthy’s Backing On Tour In Pennsylvania–Some Crowds Small”… Page 1: “McCARTHY BACKS HUMPHREY RACE–His Plans Vague–Senator Says He Won’t Run as Democrat In enate In ’70 or President in ’72–He Rebukes The Party–Bids Undecided Supporters Vote For Nominee–Cites Opposition To Nixon”… Page 22: “RISING VOTER CONFIDENCE IN DEMOCRATS IS FOUND–Gallup Poll Registers Cut In G.O.P. Lead On Ability To Handle Major Issues”… Page 1: “HOW SPIES STOLE ALLIED SIDEWINDER MISSILE AND SENT IT TO SOVIET”…
30 OCTOBER 1968…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (31 Oct reporting 30 Oct ops) Page 8: “Jets Bomb North Again”… “Amid worldwide speculation that their missions over North Vietnam soon would end, United States jets struck again today at the enemy’s supply lines in the southern panhandle”… VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 30 October 1968. An RF-4C of the 432nd TRW out of Udorn crashed in Thailand as a consequence of engine failure. The crew of two ejected and were rescued…
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES (KIA/MIA/POW) ON THE FOUR 30 OCTOBER DATES FOR THE FOUR YEARS OF THE OPERATIONS OVER NORTH VIETNAM…
1965, 1966, and 1968… NONE…
1967… CAPTAIN HUGH MICHAEL FANNING, USMC… (KIA)… and… CAPTAIN STEPHEN JAY KOTT, USMC… (KIA)… The report of their final flight to bomb the Canal des Rapides Bridge near Hanoi is archived at RTR for 30 October 1967, Ripple Salvo #603. It appears that the remains of both MAJOR FANNING and MAJOR KOTT were returned to the Unite States and both are resting in peace in their homeland. MAJOR FANNING rests at Rose Hill Burial Park in Oklahoma City, and MAJOR KOTT rests in Arlington National Cemetery… The path of MAJOR FANNING to his final resting place was unique and is a story told in the national press over many years…see https://www.pownetwork.org/bios/f/f002.htm
RIPPLE SALVO… #969… 30 OCT WITH CLIFFORD and LBJ, the cessation of Rolling Thunder on final… From COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT, Secretary of Defense CLARK CLIFFORD’s autobiography pages 590-92… I quote…
“October 30. Bunker’s latest report was waiting when I arrived in the office.delivered a strong message to Thieu, who had replied ’emotionally and disjointedly.’ However, when one stripped away the rhetoric, Thieu’s answer amounted to a refusal to prticip[ate in any talk with Hanoi prior to Election Day. He said he needed a week between cessation and the first talk. He would give us formal answer lter that evening, but it seemed clear what that answer would be. Hoping for a Nixon victory, Thieu would stall.
“Nonetheless, to my astonishment, Bunker still held out hope. If Thieu did not agree to our position in Paris, Bunker recommended we go ahead with the cesstion of the bombing on October 31, but agree to a one-week delay for the first meeting in Paris. It was the first time Bunker had recommended a break, even a small one, with Saigon.
“I was reviewing this telegram and the discouraging developments of the previous 24 hours with the 8:30 Group when the telephone rng–it was the President. By custom, my staff left the room while the President and I talked. The President, bone-tired the previous evening, had awakened refreshed. I hd no idea what had moved him, but he seemed to have had a significant change of heart about the negotiations. He asked me to return at once to the White House. ‘We have to act, with or without Saigon,’ he said. ‘Let’s start all over again, and see if a different approach will give us some sort of result.’ I thought–or did I hope?–that there was a new determination in his voice.
“The meeting stated with more desultory talk about Saigon’s problems. Rusk criticized Harriman’s brusque manner in a recent meeting with Saigon’s repreentative in Paris. I began to wonder what had made the President sound so decisive only an hour earlier. Finally, I burst out, in language I had not used before in the Cabinet Roo: ‘Saigon’s whole approach is delay. This latest message is thoroughly insulting. In fact, is is horseshit!’
“After my outburst, the President took over. ‘Tell Bunker we are ready to go tonight,’ he said to Rusk. We would stop the bombing on the following day, October 31, and schedule the first plenary meeting for Wednesday, November 6, the day after the election. This would leave us, as he put it, ‘a hundred and sixty-eight hours until next Wednesday’ to persuade Saigon to send someone to Pairs, as Bunker had suggested.
“We met again in the Cabinet Room at 4 p.m. With the decision to stop the bombing finally made, we focused, at long last, on such important details as logistics, notifying congress nd our allies, and the handling of the press. The President said he wanted to announce the complete cessation of the bombing to the nation the following day, October 31.
“Near the end of the meeting, the President said something that I found utterly remarkable after the incredibly difficult year we had gone through: “There are two things that caused me to make my decision. One was the constant harassing and persuasive and eloquent argument of a fellow named Clifford…. The second thing is General Abrams saying here in this room what the other generals said to me–that the bombing halt does not hurt our men and really helps them.’
“Because he was coming down with a cold and was concerned that his voice was going to get hoarse, he wanted to tape his speech announcing a complete bombing halt a full day in advance. At the time of the taping, the speech could not answer two big questions. Would the Saigon government come to the peace talks in Paris? And when would those talks start. The President said he would tape an ending the following day and set the broadcast for 8 P.M. October 31.”…End quote…
Humble Host recommends a perusal of the seven State Department historical documents concerning the cessation of Rolling Thunder archived with 30 October 1968 dates. These documents fit in and around the prose of Clark Clifford in the excerpt quoted above. Start reading at Document 151, a telegram from Rusk to Bunker that does not mince words. “Get Thieu on board.” 151 is a Five Star document and is followed by six more interesting reads that will hold your attention. After accessing and reading 151, access 152 by mousing the faint carrot in the right margin… Start at…
Doc 151 https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d151
RTR Quote for 30 October: GENERAL CURTIS LeMAY, The World at War: “I’ll tell you what war is all about, you have got to kill people, and when you’ve killed enough they stop fighting.”…
Lest we forget… Bear