RIPPLE SALVO… #914…EBB TIDE: “the tide at ebb; a period of decline”… “JOHNSON FEELS THE LIMITS OF HIS POWER” by Neil Sheehan: “AUSTIN, TEX.,–IF PRESIDENT JOHNSON WAS THE FOOTBALL COACH CALLING THE PLAYS AT THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION LAST WEEK, HE WAS A COACH SO UNPOPULAR WITH MUCH OF HIS TEAM AND MANY OF THE FANS THAT HE DIDN’T DARE GO TO THE BALL GAME. Rather than displaying the efficacy of Johnson’s power and influence as titular head of his party, the events in Chicago seemed to reveal the limits of his power and the extent to which it has been weakened over the past four years…. Continued below… but first…
GOOD MORNING…Day NINE HUNDRED FOURTEEN of a remembrance of an air war fought in the skies of North Vietnam 50 years ago…
HEAD LINES from The New York Times on Wednesday, 4 September 1968…
THE WAR: Page 13: “NOVEMBER DRAFT CALL LOWEST IN 3 1/2 YEARS”… “The lowest draft call in three and a half years was issued today by the Pentagon. The manpower request for 10,000 men next November was the lowest since March, 1965, when 7,900 men were inducted in a pre-Vietnam buildup. All 10,000 inductees will be assigned to the Army.”… Page 15: “ENEMY GUNNERS SHELL NHATRANG–Attack Part Of Harassing Actions In The Country”… “Enemy demolitions teams and gunners continued their harassing action against civilian and military targets in South Vietnam during the night and late yesterday afternoon. One civilian was killed and 20 were wounded early this morning when Nhatrang, 200 miles northeast of Saigon came under a heavy mortar barrage. United States military personnel were among the injured…. Throughout the country, meantime action has been growing increasingly light and sporadic, in contrast with a week ago when there was action in all of South Vietnam. This morning’s communique, for example, described only one significant action in the last 24 hours. Nineteen enemy soldiers were killed when they tried to ambush an American armored column moving down a road 12 miles east of Tayninh. The ambush was sprung from both sides of the road by a well dug-in force.However, the heavier American firepower quickly forced the enemy to withdraw. United States losses were one killed and 34 wounded.”…
PEACE TALKS: STATE DEPARTMENT. Office of the Historian. Historical Documents… Document 3. Notes of Meeting is a summary of a 4 Sept 68 Tuesday Lunch Bunch meeting (no Rolling Thunder targeting at this one) with SecState telling the little group about his trip to Paris, and General Wheeler and Secretary Clifford have a few words on how the war is going…Very short memo…Document 4 is a summary of the 590th meeting of the National Security Council late afternoon of 4 Sept. What and how the brain trust around the President is thinking… read at..
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d3
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v07/d4
Page 1: PRAGUE EXPECTING SOVIET AND WARSAW PACT TROOPS PULLOUT IN CITIES LATER THIS WEEK–Second Stage of Troop Shift Due–Russian Guards Are Taken Off key Buildings–First Phase Near End–Czech Reform Leader Silk Quits–Press Agency And Radio Resume”… Page 1: “Moscow Denounces Hajek, Czech Aide”… Page 2: “MANY PRAGUE CITIZENS SEEKING FOREIGN VISAS–Some Are Planning Vacations But are Unsure About Their Return home”… Page 6: “SOVIET ANGRILY SPURNS U.S. VIEW THAT BALANCE OF POWER IS UPSET”… Page 19: “Casualties In Iranian Quake Likely To Exceed 30,000″…
Page 1: “DALEY DEMANDS TELEVISION TIME TO DEFEND CHICAGO POLICE–TELLS THREE NETWORKS HE WANTS TO BALANCE A ONE-SIDED PORTRAYAL OF EVENTS SURROUNDING DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION–Business Sees A Setback–Chicago Convention Bureau Threatens Legal Action On Cancelled Meetings”… Page 1: “WALLACE PRESSES VOTERS TO ENROLL–Aims national TV Appeal At Those Unregistered For Lack of Clear Choice”… Page 1: “NIXON PAYS CALL ON CARDINAL COOKE–Aides Woo Ethnic Groups”… Page 32: “McCARTHY BARS AN INDEPENDENT CAMPAIGN–Will Not Permit Use of His Name–Stand On Iowa Race Would Rule Out New York Bid”… Page 32: “LINDSAY INTENDS TO VISIT 6 STATES IN NEXT MONTH TO HELP OUT NIXON”…
4 SEPTEMBER 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (5 Sept reporting 4 Sept ops) … Page 12: “A navy spokesman said a spotter plane discovered 40 supply boat heading south below Vinh and transmitted the information to USS Turner Joy. The spokesman said the Turner Joy fired on the vessels and reported having sunk 30 50-foot barges and four larger ones. American pilots attacking North Vietnam flew 121 multi-aircraft missions against supply lines, anti-aircraft positions and troop concentrations. No planes were reported to have been lost.”… VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES (Chris Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 4 September 1968…
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES (KIA/MIA/POW) ON THE FOUR 4 SEPTEMBER DATES OF THE FOUR YEARS OF THE OPERATION OVER NORTH VIETNAM WHERE THE GUNS, MISSILES AND MIGS WERE…
1968… NONE…
1967… MAJOR CARL DEAN MILLER, USAF… (KIA)… and… 1LT THOMAS PATTERSON HANSON, USAF… (KIA) .. (Refer to RTR for 4-Sept-67 and Ripple Salvo #547)…
1966… 1LT RAYMOND PAUL SALZARULO, USAF… (KIA)… and… 1LT JOHN HERBERT NASMYTH, USAF… (POW)… and … 1LT RONALD GLENN BLISS, USAF… (POW)… and… 1LT THOMAS MITCHELL McNISH, USAF… (POW)… (Refer to RTR for 4-Sept-66 and Ripple Salvo #187)…
1965… TWO AIRCRAFT and three intrepid aviators LOST, not previously recorded in this website…
(1) CAPTAIN JAMES ALVIN BRANCH and 1LT EUGENE MILLARD JEWELL were flying an F-4C of the 47th TFS and 15th TFW out of Ubon as part of a Rolling Thunder strike on a JCS target 50 miles south of Thanh Hoa and went down at the target. The aircraft was probably hit by ground fire in the diving attack and the aircraft went in before the two aviators could eject. No parachutes were seen or beeper heard and SAR was unable to raise the two souls. The men were placed in the category of Missing in Action. The Defense Intelligence Agency further refined the MIA category according to other intelligence and placed CAPTAIN BRANCH in Category 1– “reserved for men on whom it was certain the enemy had knowledge, such a prisoners of war.” 1LT JEWELL was placed in category 2–“generally included men involved in loss incidents with others who were known to be captured or who were last in populous regions when the enemy would more likely know their fates.” In 1994 the remains of CAPTAIN BRANCH were returned and identified and his status was changed to Killed in Action… CAPTAIN JEWELL (promoted while MIA) remains “Unaccounted For”… Left behind on the battlefield where he fell… but remembered here on the 53rd anniversary olf his last flight…
(2) LTJG EDWARD BRENDAN SHAW was flying an A-1H of the VA-1165 Boomers embarked in USS CORAL SEA and went down while attacking barge in the Dong Gia Hoi River about 35 miles south of Vinh. He was not seen to eject from his aircraft and no one in the area sighted him or heard from him. A subsequent SAR effort failed to locate any wreckage or sign of LTJG SHAW. He perished “in plain sight.”… And he remains unaccounted for after 53 years. He rests in peace where he fell in the service of his country…he died fighting… and is remembered with respect… Glory gained (LTJG SHAW participated in a SAR effort to recover an Air Force pilot down in North Vietnam on 17 May 1965. He located the pilot, rendezvoused with rescue helicopters and provided them protective air cover while guiding them to the scene,. He made repeated strafing and rocket attacks on enemy forces closing in on the downed Air Force pilot while the helicopters were completing the mission.” For his extraordinary heroism and airmanship LTJG SHAW was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross…OOhrah…) Duty done…
RIPPLE SALVO… #914… JOHNSON FEELS THE LIMITS OF HIS POWER (NYT, 1-Sept-68, Sect. E-1, Neil Sheehan) Cont…..
VIETNAM FALLOUT…
“The convention displayed more starkly than ever before the dimension Johnson has created within the Democratic party with his Vietnam war policy, the degree to which the consensus he had briefly established after his election in 1964 has now been fragmented. Johnson could not control the acrimonious debate over his war policy and he could not control the actions of his dissidents.
“The limits of the Presidents power also appeared evident where his allies were concerned. It is very doubtful that Johnson approved of the strong-arm tactics Mayor Richard J. Daley used against the antiwar demonstrators and the crudeness of the Mayor’s maneuvers within the convention hall, such as packing the galleries with his wardheelers. But the President had agreed to the convention taking place within Daley’s bailiwick, Administration sources noted, and so the Mayor had to be allowed the latitude which this implied.
POLITICAL COST…
“The result was that the traditional political process and style and the older establishment within the Democratic party, of which Johnson is such a prominent member, shared deeply in the Mayor’s discredit. The pro-Administration forces had clearly won a victory at the convention. Johnson dictated the Vietnam platform plans to the extent that it fully reflected his war policy as he had desired. His chosen successor, Vice President Humphrey, gained the nomination. But the victory was achieved at a political cost which made it impossible for the President to appear and hold up Humphrey’s hand in triumph. A speech was prepared, the Presidential planes were readied to fly Johnson from his Texas ranch to Chicago, and Mayor Daley had arranged a birthday party on Tuesday in the International Amphitheater where the convention was being held to celebrate the President’s 60th birthday.
“On this and the final two sessions of the convention which followed, however, Johnson said he could not attend. He would have had to subject himself, as President of the United States with all that his office implies, to the boos and catcalls of Senator Eugene McCarthy’s supporters in the convention hall. He would have had to shake hands with Mayor Daley and thus acquire before the television cameras some of the unpleasant aura that is now associated with the Mayor’s burly figure.
MANIPULATION DENIED…
“While it was not possible to determine the exact extent to which the President influenced the individual events in Chicago, White House sources maintain that he did not want to do so, they say, and he did not need to. Representative Hale Boggs of Louisiana, who carried the day for the President in the Vietnam platform plank fight, had been fully briefed by Johnson on what was acceptable. Senator Donald Inouye of Hawaii, the keynote speaker praised the President’s policies, and Representative Carl Albert of Oklahoma, the convention chairman, knew what the President wanted. ‘They all knew what the President’ wishes were,’ one source said, ‘and it was up to them to get things done. He didn’t have to tell them how to do it.’
SENSE OF RESIGNATION…
“The President did not personally answer telephone calls from major Democratic leaders at his ranch, these sources say, because he was afraid he would be accused of trying to manipulate the convention. Other sources say, however, that Representative Albert and other Democratic leaders kept in touch with Johnson through his aides and sought his advice at key points. Johnson gave the impression last week of a President who was slowly slipping out of the mainstream of American politics as his term draws to a close. At an impromptu press conference on his birthday, he reminisced about past conventions and spoke with a sense of resignation about the problems of succession.”… End quote…
RTR quote for 4 September: THOMAS FULLER: “The ebb will fetch off what the tide brings in.”…
Lest we forget… Bear