RIPPLE SALVO… #488… VIETNAM(1967)McNAMARA: “We need a new strategy to turn stalemate into success.”…50 YEARS LATER…AFGHANISTAN(2017)McCAIN: “We need a new strategy to turn stalemate into success.”…but first…
Good Afternoon: Day FOUR HUNDRED EIGHTY-EIGHT of a look back at the air war in North Vietnam called Rolling Thunder…
6 JULY 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a sunny, mild Thursday in Yankee Stadium…
MIDDLE EAST: “U.N. Urged To Try Again for Accord on Mideast Issue–Sweden Calls for Further Efforts by Assembly Which Recesses Until 12 July–Soviet defeat assayed–Israelis Pleased by Failure to Ask For Withdrawal–Cairo Denounces West”… “Sweden suggested today that the General Assembly make a further attempt to agree on a resolution that would endorse the cease-fire in the Middle-East and authorize Secretary General Thant to appoint a representation to deal with area governments and all their problems.”... Page 1: “Moscow Apparently Bars Armed Role in Mideast”…”Leonid I. Brezhnev, the Soviet Communist party leader apparently ruled out today any intervention by Soviet armed forces to compel Israel withdrawal from Arab territories…declared that the Soviet Union would pursue a ‘political struggle’ against Israel on behalf of Syria, the United Arab Republic and other Arab nations.”… Page 2: “Resistance to British in Aden Crumbles”... Page 14: “White House Still Hopeful of Settlement in Mid-East Crisis”…
Page 1: “McNamara Reports $914-Million Saved”...”Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara asserted today that the Department of Defense cost reduction program realized savings of nearly $1-Billion during the fiscal year just ended…Secretary McNamara then departed for Vietnam to consult with General Westmoreland and United States commanders there… (strategy and troop levels)... Page 1: “Educators Bid U.S. Drop Reins On Aid”… “Two commissions of the National Education Association have called for an end to restrictions on Federal financial aid to public schools and recommended that the aid be distributed to the states for use as they see fit….Current Federal control of aid grants results in indirect and powerful Federal control of education.”… Page 1: “CORE Eliminates ‘Multiracial’ In Describing Its Membership”...”…and took a major step in becoming an organization for Negroes only. It had already severed its ties with the civil rights movement. Director Floyd McKissick said CORE doesn’t exclude whites, just lets the world know the direction that the Congress of Racial Equality is going.”
Page 3: “Queen Elizabeth Wraps Up Week-Long Visit to Ottawa, Canada and EXPO ’67″… Page 11:”U.S. To Test A-37 Ground Attack Arms in 3-4 Years”… Page 14: “Proxmire Opposes Tax Increase Now.”… Page 14: “Cassius Clay Given 10 Days On Traffic Charge in Miami”… Page 16: “Drug Use in Navy Found on Increase”…One-hundred eighty-seven discharged ‘other-than-honorable’ conditions for use of drugs. 12 Bad Conduct Discharges. LSD use increasing.”…Page 20: “Cincinnati Police Get Riot Orders”… Page 20″Jackie Robinson Warns Buffalo of Need to Keep Job Promises to Negro Youth”…
Sports: National League All-Star Outfield: Roberto Clemente, Hank Aaron, and Lou Brock. Willie Mays #4…
ON THE FRONT: Page 1: “Marines Recover Ambush Victims–35 Bodies Are Found Near Buffer Zone in Vietnam–U.S. Losses in Clash at 85”... The marines finally recovered their dead today, 35 members of the Third Platoon of B company of the Ninth Marine Regiment about mile northeast of Conthien. It appeared that 85 men had been killed nd 170 wounded, perhaps the heaviest American casualties in a small unit action in the war so far. The bodies lay where they fell, cut down by North Vietnamese mortar and machine gun fire. There was no enemy opposition to the recovery patrol. During the night the enemy had slipped away, perhaps across the DMZ back to North Vietnam…. The clash: “A patrol of two companies, about 250 men, were ambushed in an area that had been quiet in recent weeks. A force of 500 North Vietnamese surrounded and annihilated Company B which was strung out on the trail. Company A was able to form a perimeter and defend. B Company, 3rd Platoon was annihilated in 30 minutes. wounded marines were shot by North Vietnamese soldiers as they lay wounded and helpless.”
6 JULY 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times: no coverage of air war in North Vietnam…”Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) there were three fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 6 July 1967…
(1) MAJOR KENNETH RAYMOND HUGHES and 1LT MELVIN POLLACK were flying an F-4C of the 480th TFS and 366th TFW out of Danang on a wing strike on the Huong Vi railroad yard five miles from Kep on the northeast rail line to China. They were pulling off from their dive attack on the target and were hit by anti-aircraft fire requiring an ejection in the target area. They were captured and interned as POWs for the duration of the war. 1LT POLLACK was on his 28th mission and MAJOR HUGHES was on his second tour and was downed on his 564th mission, 106 over the North. They both returned in Operation Homecoming on 4 March 1973.
(2) MAJOR RALPH E. BRUBAKER, USMC was flying an A-4E of the VMA-311 Tomcats and MAG-12 out of Chu Lai on a night anti-SAM Ironhand mission just north of the DMZ. Major Brubaker knew he was under fire from the SAM site and had started a spit-S maneuver (at night) to try to evade the SA-2 at about 12,000-feet which severely damaged the A-4’s tail. Major Brubaker ejected just within the DMZ and landed in a small field, dislocating his knee. He spent the night in a bomb crater and was almost bombed by a Marine A-6 on a TPQ-10 mission. Brubaker contacted the Intruder crew on his emergency radio who called in the SAR forces for a rescue attempt at dawn the following day. The SAR rescue helicopter was hit four times when it landed to pick up the injured pilot.”…
(3) An F-105D of the 354th TFS and 355th TFW out of Tkhli crashed after an engine failure. The pilot ejected and survived.
RIPPLE SALVO… #488… Part I of a “Remarkable Coincidence”… On 4 July 2017 two Senators McCain and Graham were in a CODEL that visited Afghanistan “to discuss the more than 16-year long war” with government leaders and military officials. They came away saying the United States needs a new strategy to win in Afghanistan. Senator Graham said 8,600 troops “will not get the job done” and more troops are required to “turn stalemate into success.” Not victory, success–whatever that is. Fifty years earlier, on 5 July 1967, Secretary McNamara departed Washington for a three-day visit with General Westmoreland in Vietnam. The subjects: a new strategy and troop levels. Humble Host proposes to take two posts to make a case that the lesson from the Vietnam experience should be factored into the upcoming decisions concerning future operations in Afghanistan. The United States has been “there” before.
Part I: NEW YORK TIMES: 4 JULY 1967…NEIL SHEEHAN:
“MILITARY FRUSTRATION: Some Pentagon Aides Feel objectives in Vietnam Exceed Present U.S. Capabilities”…
“A sense of frustration over the war in Vietnam is growing within the military establishment. Defense Secretary McNamara has encountered this frustration among his senior military advisors here and he will face more of it later this week when he makes his scheduled trip to Vietnam to confer with General William Westmoreland on the general’s request for more troops. The feeling of discouragement is being fueled by belief that the Johnson Administration’s basic policy objective in South Vietnam–the establishment of an independent non-communist, self-sustaining state far exceeds the capability of the military force the civilian leadership is willing to provide to achieve the goal.
“This objective was enumerated in a National Security Council memorandum in August 1964. Despite the complex diplomatic maneuvering since then, the ultimate goal has never been changed.
“To attain the objective the Joint Chiefs of Staff formulated the following military aims in 1964 (August):
*To compel North Vietnam to pay as high a price as possible for its intervention in the South by bombing the North.
**To destroy the bulk of Vietcong guerrillas and the North Vietnamese regulars in the South and force the remnants to withdraw to the North.
***To restore the authority of the Saigon Government in the South Vietnamese countryside through the pacification program.
**** To prevent the Communist Chinese from successfully intervening by proxy in Southeast Asia and defeat it if it intervenes openly.
“Many officers believe that despite the commitment of 466,000 United States troops now in South Vietnam, these objectives are not being attained and the military situation there has developed into a virtual stalemate.
“The reason for this they contend is that significant troops have never been available quickly enough to allow American commanders to fulfill one of the prime concepts of modern warfare–the rapid achievement of superiority over an enemy and the destruction of his organization and fighting spirit through unrelenting military pressure. Initial success must be followed by swiftly to exploit the gains.
“Because of the gradual build-up since summer of 1965, these officers say, the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong guerrillas have been able to increase their own strength simultaneously through infiltration, more intensive recruitment among the peasantry and better organization.
“The number of troops in South Vietnam has risen from 23,000 at the beginning of 1965 to 466,000, but the overall strength of the enemy forces has nearly tripled from an estimated total of 113,000 to approximately 295,000.
“The Administrations contemplated ceiling of 470,000 to 480,000 troops by mid-1968 will be inadequate to break this stalemate.
“Even the two additional divisions Westmoreland has told the Administration he will need by at least mid-1968 to retain the initiative will not be enough to make sufficient progress, officers believe. These additional units would total about 70,000 men and the Administration is very reluctant to provide them.
“The two additional divisions would simply be adequate to prevent the situation from deteriorating any further, the officers believe. General Westmoreland’s headquarters has already reported a slight deterioration in military conditions in the Mekong Delta and in the key provinces on the Central Coast because of insufficient troops to counteract enemy pressures.
“These officers see no way out of the stalemate unless the Administration is willing to order a partial mobilization of the reserves, speed draft calls, and significantly increase war spending to provide rapid reinforcements on the order of about five divisions and supporting units–approximately 150,000 to 170,000 men. Reinforcements on this scale would bring the level of troops in South Vietnam to 630,000 to 650,000.
“General Westmoreland has told Washington that his basic requirement is almost five more divisions or about 150,000 men when supporting units are brought in.
“But the administration, officers point out has consistently been unwilling to meet the request because of the political repercussions that would follow.
“The budget deficit for the fiscal year ended June 30, in which the war cost about $20-billion, amounts to $11-billion, the highest since the recession of 1959.
“The political repercussions of higher Vietnam spending, a reserve call-up, and increased draft calls would probably peak in mid 1968, co-incident with the political convention for the Presidential elections.
“Military officers admit that the political fallout would be frightening, but they are convinced that the Administration should either pay the political price of a partial mobilization to provide the military force necessary to achieve the objective or reduce the goal and negotiate a settlement.
” ‘We cannot continue to fight this war on the cheap,’ one experienced officer said.”…
That was fifty years ago…
BACK TO THE FUTURE? PART II: REMARKABLE COINCIDENCE coming next…
Lest We Forget…. Bear