RIPPLE SALVO… #729… ON SUNDAY, 3 MARCH 1968 JAMES RESTON WROTE: “…In the ‘briefing room’ at (Admiral) Sharp’s headquarters here above Pearl Harbor great emphasis is put on the aerial photographs of the enemy’s supplies at the port of Haiphong. The latest of these show four Soviet freighters at dockside and vast supplies piled up at a mall leading from the waterfront into the city. More than that, the supplies are also stored in the open along the residential streets radiating out from the port into the city…”… but first…
Good Morning: Day and blog SEVEN HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE of 1,000 daily posts to retell the ROLLING THUNDER STORY from the perspective of fifty years later and remember the great Americans who fought that fight for our country…
HEAD LINES from The New York Times on Monday, 4 MARCH 1968…
GROUND WAR & KHESANH: “48 U.S. SOLDIERS KILLED IN AMBUSH ON EDGE OF SAIGON–28 In Unit of 25th Division Wounded Near Airport–Enemy Dead Put At 20–Foes Build-up Goes On–Reported Troop Movement Spurs Fresh Speculation About Assault On Capital”… “…fewer than half the company’s 150 soldiers escaped unscathed…the ambush, one of the worst in the war, occurred Saturday. Most of the American casualties came in an eight-minute burst of fire from machine guns, automatic rifles, mortars and rocket launchers. Mines were also detonated. Allied intelligence officers believe that 8,000 to 10,000 enemy troops have been moving within 15 miles of Saigon. There is growing speculation that these intend to make a second major assault on the south Vietnamese capital. At Danang 380 miles to the north, enemy rockets fell early this morning on the Marine air base at Marble Mountain. A spokesman said that 25 rockets had exploded on the base, one of them hitting the naval hospital, wounding five patients and two Navy medical corpsmen… in the Central Highlands 15 enemy mortar rounds were fired at Camp Radcliffe with no damage… American military spokesmen said today that Marine forces in the Conthien area killed 157 North Vietnamese soldiers in two battles near the demilitarized zone yesterday (3 March). One battle, four miles north of Conthien left 138 dead, and 21 enemy soldiers were reported killed in a battle two miles to the east.”… Page 3: “Khesanh Marines On Guard For Enemy” (Pix of Marines listening to drilling below)…
Page 4: “SORENSEN VIEWS U.S. AS CAUGHT IN A SIX-SIDED BOX IN VIETNAM”… “Theodore C. Sorensen, advisor and aide to President John F. Kennedy, yesterday likened the Administration’s involvement in Vietnam to a ‘six-sided box we did not intend to make and cannot seem to break. Our worldwide military primacy cannot produce a victory, and our worldwide political primacy cannot permit a withdrawal. We are unable to transfer our will to the South Vietnamese and unable to break the will of the North Vietnamese. Any serious escalation would risk Chinese or Soviet intervention, and any serious negotiation would risk a Communist South Vietnam.’ Mr. Sorensen was one of four speakers in a debate on the Stephen Wise Free Synogogue…and was attended by 1,000 persons. In making recommendations designed to ameliorate the conflict, Mr. Sorensen said that the United States should restrict effort and commitment ‘to emphasize the protection of south Vietnamese civilians instead of assaults on enemy forces. He also urged more effort to avoid the destruction of the ‘country and culture we are there to save.’ “… HUMBLE HOST notes: The “Six Sided Box” of Sorensen is an apt description of our current foreign policy in our relations with North Korea and Iran…
Page 1: “7 MAYORS UPHOLD REPORT ON RIOTS; SEEK MORE FUNDS ASSERT OTHERS MUST PAY–Lindsay Expects Trouble Unless Congress Pays”… Page 1: “:Two Negro Areas In City Face Cut In Poverty Funds”… Page 1: “14 Business Chiefs Appeal To Senate For Open Housing–Assert On Eve of 4th Vote O Closure; That Law Is Urgently Needed Now–Long Neglect Is Cited–Leaders, One of Them On Riot Panel, Point To Concern Over Cities Problems”… Page 22: “Law Enforcement Men To Outnumber Protesters At March of Poor This Month In Capital”… Page 7: “Johnson Takes Whole Day Off In Puerto Rico”… Page 16: “College Students Drum Up Votes For McCarthy–500 Volunteers Canvas In New Hampshire Towns–Out-of-Staters Working On Weekends For Primary”…
4 MARCH 1968… The President’s Daily Brief (on his return from a day of golf in Puerto Rico) SOUTH VIETNAM: Renewed offensive operations by allied forces in several sections of South Vietnam have resulted in sharp clashes with the enemy. Major actions initiated by enemy forces yesterday were confined to a rocket attack on several sections of the Danang military complex. Reports from Khesanh show that Communist forces are continuing to tunnel and test perimeter defenses under cover of artillery fire...LAOS: Although Communist forces have made no major gains in a week of heavy fighting, a significant threat to Lao government forces persists in widely separated areas of the country. Government forces at Saravane and Attopeu are virtually encircled, and a new wave of attacks can be expected in the near future. They probably could not hold out against a concerted enemy thrust. The offensive of the North Vietnamese in the panhandle (Southern Laos) is closely related to their effort in South Vietnam. It has resulted in an expansion and consolidation of their defenses and control of the infiltration corridor and has succeeded in tying down a substantial number of government troops to static defense….
4 MARCH 1968: “Special Daily Report on North Vietnam for the President’s Eyes Only”… Notes on the Situation: Conditions in Hanoi: “A traveler who left Hanoi says there was no evidence that the people of the capital lacked food. Workers were fed at mobile kitchens set up along the streets of the city. Workers in a given block received food at that block’s kitchen. The traveler had experienced no serious shortage of power to run an air conditioner… the North Vietnamese Government takes advantage of the suspension of US air operations in the Hanoi area during arrival and departure of the International Control Commission flights (at Gia Lam) to move heavy transport in and out of the city… He had observed that traffic was always much heavier in the city during the periods encompassing the arrival and departure of the ICC flights…Concerning the effects of US Bombing, the traveler believed that the bombing as now conducted is not too disruptive of civilian life. Any aircraft over the city results in an alarm being sounded, with everyone seeking shelter regardless of whether bombs are dropped. The alerts are usually of short duration, however, and as shelters are close to places of work, the workers lose little time from their jobs. The traveler received the impression that the people of Hanoi have become inured to the present hardships and accept their difficult existence with little complaint. He said that almost all children and many women have been evacuated; men greatly outnumbered women in the city….
STATE DEPARTMENT, Office of Historian, Historical Documents, Foreign Relations, 1964-68 Vietnam, Volume 6: Three documents dated 4 March 1968 are referenced and highly recommended for perusal. While the President was playing golf his “brain trust” led by his new Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford was brainstorming trust with the charge by the President to resolve the issues of more troops for Westmoreland, who was requesting 205,000 more than the approved 525,000 for the ground war in South Vietnam, and the future of Operation Rolling Thunder, the bombing of North Vietnam. Document 102 is an information memorandum from Walt Rostow to his boss, the President, to summarize what the “Braintrust” and Secretary of Defense Clifford had been doing in his absence. It is a short heads-up delivered to the President a few hours before his meeting with “A Bunch Of Guys Sitting Around A Table” (BOGSAT). Document 103 is a draft memorandum for the President that provides the details of General Westmoreland’s request… Document 104 is the “Notes from the 5:33 P.M. to 7:20 P.M. meeting in the White House that brought the President, Vice President, Clifford, Rusk, Wheeler, Helms, General Taylor, Rostow, Nitze, and Christian, Watson and Johnson from the White House Staff together for a decision meeting on troop levels and Rolling Thunder — the bombing of the north. Very interesting and historic conversation (7 pages). With regard to Rolling Thunder: no decision, but less rather than the same or more was the direction the conversation was going (“a partial bombing halt”) and as the muster broke up the President told Secretary Rusk “Really get your horses on that (partial bombing halt, i.e. limit the bombing to the panhandle”).” Read these Historical Documents at:
Document 102: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d102
Document 103: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d103
Document 104: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d104
4 MARCH 1968…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (5 Mar reporting 4 Mar ops) Page 1: “In North Vietnam, American pilots flew 68 missions. Navy (A-6 Intruder) pilots reported a ‘good radar run with all bombs on the target’ at a cargo transfer point and storage complex on the Red River 1.8 miles downstream from the center of Hanoi. (HUMBLE HOST suggests another viewing of the movie of Stephen Coonts’ “Flight of the Intruder” for a sense of what the Intruder mission was all about…stark realism… great stuff)…
From Howie Plunkett’s compilation “34 TFS/F-105 History” and the LGEN Sam Armstrong “log of 100 Missions”: 04-Mar-68 “The four pilots of ‘Scuba’ flight from the 34 TFS bombed a target in the southern part of Northern Vietnam…This was Major Armstrong’s 79th combat mission.” From his log: “We were first alerted that we would be going to Pack IV but were diverted before we could brief. We finally wound up going all of the way to the Gulf to refuel and coming back to drop our bombs via Combat Sky Spot in the southern extremity of North Vietnam.”…
RIPPLE SALVO… #729… James Reston writing in the 3 March 1968 Sunday New York Times, page 12E: I quote…
HONOLULU: THE VIEW FROM PEARL HARBOR…
Honolulu--The pressure is obviously rising here at U.S. Pacific Command for more men and more bombing targets in Vietnam. Admiral U.S. Grant Sharp now has over a million men under his command in the entire Pacific area, but the estimates here call for a substantial increase to regain the initiative in Southeast Asia.
In the “briefing room” at Sharp’s headquarters here above Pearl Harbor great emphasis is put on the aerial photographs of the enemy’s supplies at the port of Haiphong. The latest show four Soviet freighters at dockside and vast mounds of supplies piled up along a mall leading from the waterfront into the city.
SHIPS AND CIVILIANS
More than that, the supplies are also stored in the open along the residential streets radiating from the port and a visitor here is left in no doubt about what the military want to do about this target. They want to blow it into the water, regardless of the risks of hitting the Soviet ships or the civilian population. Officers here with memories of the attack on Pearl Harbor are not inclined to underestimate the enemy. They stress that the latest Communist offensive on the cities of South Vietnam did not achieve all its objectives, but they expect much more pressure before the northeast monsoon weather lifts at the end of March.
Nobody here is talking about the great allied “victories” in the battle for the cities, or praising the performance of the South Vietnamese, or interpreting the enemy offensive as a “last gasp” gamble. Officers note the enemy casualties–over 42,000 killed in 32 days– but they also note the psychological and physical losses on our side, the serious disruption of food distribution in the ‘South and the problem of an additional 450,000 refugees in the last few weeks.
The enemy strategy, as officers here see it is to draw our troops into remote areas with their main units, leaving the Vietcong guerrillas free to attack the cities. Countering this, they believe, will require more men and more freedom to hit Haiphong, now the source of 75 per cent of the enemy’s supplies.
THE MOSCOW ARSENAL
Honolulu is tougher on Moscow as the principal arsenal of North Vietnam and the Vietcong than Washington. The estimate here is that the Soviet Union has more than doubled its shipments to Haiphong in the last two years. “We are now facing the most formidable antiaircraft defense Americans have ever seen,” one officer here remarked, “and although we are flying 600 sorties a day, the supplies keep moving south.”
Sharp’s mission in Honolulu indicates the vast scope of U.S. activities in the Pacific. He is responsible for “approximately 85 million square miles extending from the West Coast of the Americas into the Indian Ocean, and from the Aleutian Islands to the area of the South Pole. He is charged with defending “the United States against attacks to the Pacific Ocean area, and to support and advance U.S. national policies and interests throughout the Pacific, Far East and Southeast Asian areas. This mission includes assistance to the countries of Asia in preventing the advance of Communism throughout the area.
The million men assigned to Sharp to carry out the mission operate under unified commands in In Vietnam. Thailand, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Honolulu with other forces in the Philippines, the Ryukyu Islands and Mariana-Bosin Islands and Australia. A fleet of 250 ships is now delivering 600,000 tons of supplies every month to the Saigon command alone, and still the cry here is for more men and more supplies and more freedom to use air power on Haiphong.
Moreover, officers here seem confident that the trend of policy in Washington is going their way. There were no tears in this command when Secretary of Defense McNamara left the Pentagon. “He was never really for the bombing of the North,” one officer observed. More important, President Johnson is now regarded here as coming over to a military solution of the war, playing down the talk of negotiation, and beginning to deal with what is called here “the realities of the military situation.”
DEFENSE OF THE PACIFIC
Incidentally, there is very little confidence here that the allies will be able or willing to contribute much to the defense of the Pacific for many years to come, or that the South Vietnamese will be able to secure their country even after “victory” with a substantial U.S. military force in Saigon.
Thus, the outlook from Pearl Harbor now is for airpower, more targets, and the hope here is that Washington will face up to the fact that it is in a major war and provide the power and policy to see it through.”… End quote…
RTR Quote for 4 March: GENERAL STONEWALL JACKSON: “Tell them this affair must hang in suspense no longer; sweep the field with the bayonets.”…
Lest we forget… Bear