RIPPLE SALVO… #217… CHARLES MOHR… “THE WINNER GETS NOTHING”… but first…
Good Morning: Day TWO HUNDRED SEVENTEEN of a return to the ’60s and the air war over North Vietnam…
4 OCTOBER 1966… PAGE ONE NEWS AT HOME–NEW YORK TIMES… A fair Tuesday with a chance of showers in the Big Apple…
Page 1: “GOP Will Press Racial Disorder As Election Issue”…”Republican leaders said today they found the race issue to be of increasing concern to citizens and moved to give it more prominence in the current political races. In a related development, the House Committee on Un-American Activities announced that it would conduct an investigation into the role of subversive elements in the riots that occurred in many American cities in recent months. The race issue in various forms has been a factor in many political races this year but in most instances it has simmered beneath the surface. Many candidates have avoided mentioning it in their campaign speeches for a variety of reasons. Today the Republican Coordinating Committee received the results of a poll conducted by the Republican National Committee on the sentiment and opinions of voters on various issues…58 per cent of persons questioned considered civil rights to be one of the most important domestic problems…This was an increase from 44 per cent in a June poll.”… Page 1: “Officials Expect A Budget Balance In Last Half of ’66″…”The inflow of government revenues has been so strong that top officials now expect an almost exact balance between income and outgo in the last half of 1966 despite rising war costs.”…
Page 1: “Soviet Announces New Pact for Aid To Hanoi’s Regime”…”The Soviet Union announced the conclusion of a broad new aid agreement with North Vietnam today, using the occasion to rebut China’s charge that Moscow was half-hearted in support of the Vietnamese communists. ‘The Soviet Union and other Socialist countries will not leave the Vietnamese people in trouble,’ said Soviet Deputy Premier Vladimir Novikov. ‘This has been seen and felt by the aggressors, let them have no illusions on that score.’ Tass, the official press agency, said the aid program included both economic and military aid for ‘coordinating the defense potential of North Vietnam.’ No figures or further details were announced to show the kind of aid to be supplied or its scope…In Washington, officials said the United States had evidence that Soviet advisors in North Vietnam might at times be helping to operate the country’s air defenses.” …
Page 1: “75,000 More GIs Going To Vietnam”…”About 75,000 more Army troops are scheduled to be sent to Vietnam by next spring. A supplemental defense appropriation of about $10billion to help pay for the increased expenses of the war is to be requested after the November elections. Military and Congressional sources believe that the Vietnamese war will approach another turning point between November and February when the new session of Congress is convened…To survey the situation in South Vietnam Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara is planning a six day fact finding visit, his first in almost a year. Mr. McNamara will leave on Saturday.”… Page 1: “Men 26-34 Called For Draft Tests”…”A Selective Service System spokesman said tonight that immediate physical and mental examinations had been ordered for about 70,000 men from ages 26 through 34 who were still liable for military service…the system has no plans to put any of the men in uniform even if they pass the examinations…the men affected may be single or married but are still without children…”… Page 6: “U.S. Troops Report Killing 271 As Battle In Mountain Goes On”…”Enemy deaths climbed to 271 as troops of the First Cavalry Division (Air Mobile) continued fighting through the night in the valley and the eawstern slopes of the Phucat mountains about 305 miles northeast of Saigon. They first spotted an entire enemy battalion–300 to 500 men–sunday morning and killed more than 170 in two brief, fierce struggles in an ‘Operation Irving.’…”…
4 October 1966…The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized)…South Vietnam: What started out as an internal squabble in one of Ky.s ministries has blossomed into a major issue with some southerners in the cabinet on the verge of quitting because of heavy handedness by northerners who control the national police. If Ky intervenes quickly, the issue may be papered over. However, if some southern cabinet members do resign, the problem will undowubtedly spill over into the constituent assembly and impair the delicate relationships there…
4 OCTOBER 1966… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NYT (6 Oct reporting ops on 4 Oct)… Page 3: “Foul weather limited the air offensive yesterday against North Vietnam, but American air squadrons carried out 125 missions. Enemy vessels and storage points bore the brunt of the attacks. Pilots reported the destruction or damage of 75 barges, junks or ferries and more than 50 buildings in staging and supply areas. The United States command announced the loss of one plane, the 392nd shot down over North Vietnam . The pilot of the Navy A-4 Skyhawk was listed as missing. Hanoi radio said he had been captured. North Vietnam said another plane was shot down today.”… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) Page 76: One fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 4 October 1966…
(1) LCDR JOHN DOUGLAS BURNS was flying an A-4C of the VA-22 ‘Fighting Red Cocks’ embarked in USS CORAL SEA on an armed reconnaissance (road recce) of Highway 1 about 10 miles north of Thanh Hoa when his aircraft was hit by ground fire as his flight of four maneuvered to evade a surface-to-air missile below 2000-feet. LCDR BURNS’ Skyhawk burst into flames and he was forced to eject before he could reach the relative safety of the Gulf. LCDR BURNS was immediately captured and was a POW until released in March 1973.
RIPPLE SALVO… #217… “In Vietnam, The Winner Sometimes Takes Nothing,” a report by Charles Mohr from the NYT of 3 October 1966, that paints a vivid picture of the grind that was the Vietnam War… I quote…
For every spectacular military operation in Vietnam there are 10 or more unspectacular missions. One of those ‘commonplace’ operations took place today 35 miles northwest of Saigon, 2 1/2 miles from the little town of Taniuyen on the Saigon River. In one sense, the United States and South Vietnam won by accomplishing a fairly important and difficult feat. In still another sense–one very familiar in Vietnam–no one won.
The mission involved two battalions of South Vietnamese riflemen and two battalions of American infantrymen, 12 tanks, and a troop of armored personnel carriers–about 1,750 men in all. This does not include the Air Force who pounded the objective area for more than an hour with heavy bombs and napalm, and the artillerymen of four batteries who shelled it for even longer. At the end of the day there was no proof that any Vietcong at all had been killed. But at least it was determined that some of them were there because in the afternoon they detonated home made bombs that killed and wounded some Americans. In the morning a small number of South Vietnamese had been killed by an artillery shell intended for the enemy. The American troops were from First Brigade of the First Infantry division, the Big Red One. The brigade is commanded by Colonel Sidney Berry, a former military aide to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.
The plan was simple. On August 21 the South Vietnamese stumbled on two well fortified Vietcong base camps. Today, October 2, the allies came back in force. The raiders found several extensive camps but no Vietcong. The abandoned camps were circled with deep trenches and protected by tunnels and spacious bunkers. Field kitchens and picnic tables had been constructed. There was a deep water well. Using hundreds of pounds of demolition compound, an effort was made to destroy the camp…The infantrymen noted wryly that only two bombs had struck the camps, and the artillery had missed completely…By dark the infantrymen had withdrawn leaving the Vietcong a great deal of digging to do if they choose to restore the camps…. unquote…
There is nothing glamorous about war… even the easy days like this “unspectacular and commonplace” foray to meet an enemy long gone, left good men dead and wounded… and all for naught…
Lest we forget… Bear ………. –30– ……….