RIPPLE SALVO…#128…STIFLE YOURSELF…but first…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-EIGHT of an old warrior’s review of his war… Rolling Thunder…
6 JULY 1966…ON THE HOMEFRONT…NYT…A comfortable 85-degrees, finally but a few Wednesday showers likely…
Page 1: “China’s Reaction Bolsters U.S. View It Won’t Fight”… “Peking’s carefully worded reaction to the bombing in Hanoi and Haiphong has reinforced the administrations calculation that China will not directly intervene in the war at this stage. The calculation was supported by nearly all of President Johnson’s principal advisors before he ordered the attacks on the fuel depots at Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital, and Haiphong, its major port. Even those who most feared a Chinese military involvement last year and those who opposed the resumption of bombing last February find little reason to challenge that judgment now… Page 1: “Johnson Decries Allied Criticism Of U.S. Bombing“…”President Johnson said today that he was disappointed with the criticisms by a few allies of the United States air strikes against fuel dumps near Hanoi and Haiphong. The President at a news conference at his ranch near here (Johnson City, Texas 5 July) did not name the allies. The principal critics have been Prime Minister Wilson of England and President DeGaulle of France. The President indicated that he had ‘little patience with allies who were not involved in the struggle in Vietnam’ yet voiced criticism of the way in which the United States is waging the war. He added: ‘It was difficult for me to understand the response of some nations that is not involved but a few years ago when their own security was at stake and they wanted us to furnish American troops, not to be understanding in what we are trying to do to help others maintain their independence now.’ “
Page 2: “Holt Says U.S. Actions Protect All Non-Red Asia”… “Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt endorsed yesterday the United States display of strength in Vietnam calling it a military necessity for the security of other Asian nations threatened by communism. ‘There have been amazingly positive developments as a result of American presence in South Vietnam, but much of it has gone unnoticed. The United States has not turned its back on 1.5 billion people east of Suez.'”
Page 1: “Wilkins Says Black Power Leads Only to Black Death”…”Roy Wilkins, executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People denounced the concept of black power tonight as black racism that could only lead Negroes to a ‘black death’ in a speech at the annual NAACP Conference in Los Angeles. “If non-violence is reinterpreted to mean instant retaliation in cases adjudged by aggrieved persons to have been grossly unjust, this policy could produce in extreme situations, lynchings, or in better sounding phraseology, private vigilante behavior. Moreover, in attempting to substitute for derelict law enforcement machinery, the policy entails the risk of a broader more indiscriminate crackdown on law enforcement officers under the ready made excuse of restoring law and order. No matter how endlessly they try to explain it, the term ‘black power’ means anti-white power. In a racially pluralistic society the concept, the formation, and the exercise of an ethnically tagged power means opposition to other ethnic powers.’“… Page 1: “President Points to Racial Actions”… ‘President Johnson, confronted with rising racial tension in many of the nation’s cities, stressed today the steps being taken to alleviate the sources of the tension. Although the President did not explicitly urge patience, he clearly indicated that he was sympathetic to Negro aspirations and wished that extremists on both sides of the racial issue would ‘quiet down.’ The President strongly indicated he did not think that the new battle cry of militant Negroes–black power–would lead to constructive results. ‘We are not interested in black power and are not interested in white power, but we are interested in American democratic power, with a small d.’…”We can’t do it all overnight. We are much too late. But we have done more in the last 24-months than has been done in any 24 month period to face up to these conditions of health and education and poverty and discrimination.”
6 July 1966…President’s Daily Brief’ … CIA (TS sanitized)…South Vietnam: General Thi, former commander of I Corps was arrested last night. Premier Ky says this is standard practice during a military investigation and the will probably not be a court martial. Ambassador Lodge, however, is skeptical and believes that the arrest could have fortunate repercussions. Instead of quietly packing the general off to exile, Ky has made another flashy move–one that runs the risk of reopening old wounds that are difficult to heal….North Vietnam: The French press correspondent in Hanoi claims that DeGaulle’s envoy Jean Sainteny, is getting VIP treatment in the North Vietnames4e capital. Sainteny is said to have received by both Ho Chi Minh and Pham Van Dong for long talks on two successive days without interpreters. The atmosphere for the Frenchman is described as cordial. If these long talks have, in fact, taken place, it would indeed be unusual. While Ho frequently recieves high ranking Westerners, he usually sees them only briefly in the course of their talks with his subordinates. DeGualle’s emissary last winter Jean Chauvel, was not received at all. .. (redacted)… the trip is being billed as a private visit to renew old friendships…There is still no information available on the Sainteny talks, but we do have a summary of an interview which Ho gave a Russian correspondent.
In this interview, published today in a Soviet weekly, Ho took a standard hard line, saying, “The American imperialists now resemble a gang of robbers who forced their way into a house, sacked it, killed some of the inhabitants, pointed a pistol at the heart of the master, and offer, now let us talk of peace. The American imperialists unleashed a war against our republic, which is a little country The war is therefore difficult for us, but we did not falter and we will not falter.” We are uncertain whether this interview was given before of after the initial bombing of the North Vietnamese POL facilities.
6 JULY 1966…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…NYT (7 July reporting 6 July ops)…Page 12: “U.S. Planes Evade Heavy Missile Fire”… “North Vietnamese defenders launched an unusually large number of surface-to-air missiles at attacking American airplanes yesterday (6th), a United States military spokesman said today. None of the 16 missiles hit a target. During a two and a half hour period Air Force pilots on raids against missile sites and other targets observed missiles from at least six sites. One flight of F-105 Thunderchiefs was under fire three times. The raids were concentrated in an area northwest of Hanoi along the Red River rail and road route that leads to Kunming in Communist China. Informed sources suggested that the enemy had brought additional mobile missile launchers into the Hanoi area as a result of the American attacks on fuel facilities there and near Haiphong. Far more United States planes have been downed by conventional anti-aircraft barrages than by advanced missiles. In part this is traceable to inexperienced North Vietnamese crews, but military analysts here also credit United States tactics, refined during the thousands of hours of aerial combat and electronic countermeasures. the countermeasures which are designed to confuse the guidance systems of the missiles, are among the most closely guarded secrets of the Vietnam War. Frank D. Horuzzi, a 30- year old Air Force captain from Agawam, Massachusetts, who pilots an F-4C Phantom, said after he returned from a strike in the North: ‘It looks like the North Vietnamese have concentrated all their SAMS in the Red River Valley.’ The Thunderchief pilots on a special antimissile mission waited until they spotted the puff of cottony white smoke that accompanies a missile launch. Then they rolled in on the first target while missiles whizzed past them, and fired rockets and 20mm cannon fire at the site. Three other sites were blasted when they fired SAMs. Pilots reported that they knocked out the radar vans that control the missiles and left several of them ablaze. At one position a great orange fireball erupted as the American planes pulled away. The pilots said they could see ‘chunks of the van flying off and the flames licking at the camouflage netting overhead.’ No missile came within 700-feet of an Air Force aircraft according to pilots of Seventh Air Force headquarters. In the air war over North Vietnam Navy and Air Force pilots flew 106 missions with almost cloudless skies in the region. fighter-bomber pilots continued their attacks on fuel facilities, striking tanks 28miles north and 33 miles northwest of Hanoi. No damage reports available yet. The rail lines to Kunming were reported to have been cut in two places. Experience has demonstrated that North Vietnamese laborers are able to repair the tracks in a matter of hours.’…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) Page 65: four aircraft downed…
(1) CAPTAIN E.L. STANFORD was flying an F-105D of the 388th TFW out of Korat on an armed reconnaissance in the panhandle and attacking railway cars when he it and forced to eject at sea where he was rescued by helicopter.
(2) MAJOR ROOSEVELT HESTLE and CAPTAIN CHARLES ELZY MORGAN were flying an F-105D of the 13th TFS and 388th TFW were flying a Wild Weasel and Iron Hand mission against a SAM site 6 miles west of Thai Nguyen …”as the flight approached the target it came under heavy fire from anti-aircraft guns and SAMs. MAJOR HESTLE and CAPTAIN MORGAN were hit squarely by a round of 57mm and immediately dove into a hill close to the target. No parachutes were seen or beepers heard, and it was assumed that both crew had died instantly.However, some time thereafter a press conference held in Hanoi was shown television and Charles Morgan’s wife recognized her husband on the screen. He was one of the few Negro airmen to be shot down over North Vietnam and had distinct facial scars. However, he as not returned with the POWs in 1973. His remains were returned by the North Vietnamese in 1989.” This was the first Wild Weasel shot down in the air war. The question of whether or not CAPTAIN MORGAN survived the downing and was really seen on TV remains a question for the ages. As the first Wild Weasel EWO he had special knowledge that would have been of high interest to his captors. While there is no question about the returned remains being those of CAPTAIN MORGAN, the mystery is when and where did he die and was he exploited for his EWO expertise… MAJOR HESTLE and CAPTAIN MORGAN were Killed in Action with the enemy in their sights…
(3) CAPTAIN J.R. CRANE of the 602nd ACS and 14th ACW out of Udorn was flying an A-1E RESCAP over Northern Laos and was hit and badly damaged by ground fire 25 miles northwest of Sam Neua. He coaxed his crippled aircraft to within 20 miles of Udorn but had to bail out short of home plate…He was immediately rescued by helicopter… great try…
(4) MAJOR JAMES FAULDS YOUNG of the 20th TRS and 460th TRW out of Tan Son Nhut was flying an RF-101C over North Vietnam when shot down and captured on this day Fifty Years Ago…He survived seven years of honorable POW duty and returned to the United States on 12 February 1973.
RIPPLE SALVO…#128… QUIETING THE CRITICS… Every sports fan knows how to quiet the angry fan base of a losing team– start winning. A writer for the New York Times, Arthur Krock, a loud boo-bird, who was critical of President Johnson’s conduct of the Vietnam War, made his living sniping at the President. He confessed his “plight” (“difficult or delicate position”) in a short essay he wrote on 5 July 1966 that he labeled “Plight of the Vietnam Conflict.”
He laments that with the crowd cheering for the success of the President’s Petroleum Strike Plan, he has to shelve his list of “valid points of contention.” He pulls back and awaits a more opportune time to restart his booing and gnawing on his seven bones of contention … he writes…
“When after a period of delay and doubt while United States battle casualties were accelerating in rate and number, President Johnson ordered the strikes on the petroleum life lines in North Vietnam, he checkmated his critics with the gambit that is always available to the Commander in Chief in the presence of war. President Johnson’s expansion of the war has temporarily reduced to an academic experience the following valid points of critical dissent:
(1) With the dispatch of troops to Vietnam President Kennedy inevitably foreshadowed the unilateral involvement of the U.S. in a ground war in Asia.
(2) President Lyndon B. Johnson maintained his predecessor’s official line that the brunt of the war would be borne by the South Vietnamese. While contradicting this by steadily organizing American armed forces and enlarging their mission.
(3) President Johnson gave repeated assurances that we won’t go north or bomb adjacent to urban masses, both of which we are now doing.
(4) The long asserted primacy of a political instead of a military solution as the basis of policy has been completely reversed.
(5) The burden of proof remains imposed on the decision that Vietnam is a critical and crucial area for making a stand against world-wide communism expansion and aggression in order to protect the security of the United States and the world.
(6) Shortages of military supplies have disproved the official assurance that our resources are ample for meeting worldwide foreign military commitments and the creation of “The Great Society.”
(7) The Administration argues that our commitment to SEATO requires our assistance and participation as an ally of South Vietnam but fails to note that only two other members–Australia and New Zealand–are participating.”
Mr. Krock sees the POL attacks, and especially the attacks within a few miles of downtown Hanoi and the Haiphong piers, as a Presidential “gambit” (“a calculated move”), as if this was a game and the warriors of Rolling Thunder were pawns in that game. He concludes that the President, every President, is ever ready to employ the national war machine to change fan (the public) behavior. Could that be? He writes: “But this record (the seven bones of contention) is obscured and its reckoning is indefinitely deferred in the smoke arising from the shattered environs of Hanoi and Haiphong.”
For the moment, it will be nice to have this boobird voluntarily move to a back bench–at least temporarily. But I look forward to tracking him and his fellow critics commentary and love affair with the seven bones of contention, that will never go way, in the coming hundreds of my daily reports on Operation Rolling Thunder. Maybe he’s right–Maybe President’s do employ armed forces to get the crowd cheering and quiet his/her critics??
Lest we forget…. Bear ………. –30– ……….