RIPPLE SALVO… #339… “IT HAS HURT THE ENEMY and IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE NATION’S HAMMER AND ANVIL STRATEGY”…but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED THIRTY-NINE of digging out the rest of a tragic story that went into the history books fifty years ago...
7 FEBRUARY 1967… The day’s HEAD LINES from the New York Times on a very cold and snowy Tuesday in NYC…
Page 1: “Kennedy Sees President”… “Senator Robert Kennedy, back from a world tour, denies bringing peace feelers from Paris…the Senator denied the Newsweek Report that he was a messenger…”…Page 1: “Johnson Outlines $350 Million Plan to Fight Crime”… “Proclaiming public order to be the first business of government President Johnson asked Congress today to authorize an extensive and costly program of federal assistance to stimulate state and local crime control efforts. He proposed a system of grants. The message also included a renewed, urgent request for legislation to limit the sale and shipment of firearms and to license their manufacturers, importers and retailers. Also, ‘a call for a greater exertion to combat narcotics addition and illicit traffic in dangerous drugs.’ He expressed his desire to ban most public and private wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping.”… Page 1: “Rights Drive Lags in Much of South”... “The Civil Rights movement has collapsed in wide areas of the South and is fighting what seems to be a last ditch battle for survival in its few remaining spheres of influence. This is the unmistakable picture in the region now as one tours such Southern states as Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia–states that as recently as six months ago were focal points of civil rights activity. It is difficult now to find a civil rights worker.”... Page 1: “Cassius Clay Defeats Terrell to Retain Title”…”Cassius Clay cruelly battered and cut the eyes of Ernie Terrell, the awkward and thoughtful challenger, for 15 rounds tonight in Houston, to gain a unanimous decision and retain his heavyweight boxing championship. A crowd of 37,321, an indoor record for a fight, saw Clay win.”,,, Page 1: “City gets 3-Inch Snow as Artic Blasts Sweep Midwest and East”…”Bitter cold and snow rolled into the city yesterday…disrupting air and bus travel, and causing hazardous driving conditions…”
Page 1: “Kosygin Arrives For London Visit”...”Aleksei Kosygin of the Soviet Union arrived in Britain today for a week’s visit designed mainly for political discussion. A few hours after his plane landed …he began talks with Prime Minister Wilson, who said their talks will cover all the major problems which involve great anxiety, indeed great danger for the whole of mankind.’…The war in Vietnam is the subject on which British officials would most like the week’s meeting to produce some sign of movement.”… Page 1: “Moscow Ties Put in Doubt by China”…”Communist China put into question today the continuation of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union in light of what is described as an attack on its embassy staff.”… Page 1: “Two Top Mao Foes Reported Ousted”…”President Liu Shao-chi and the Communist party’s secretary general Teng Hsiao-ping have been dismissed from their jobs.”… Page 15: “Carrier Leaves Capetown”… “The aircraft carrier Franklin Delano Roosevelt left today for the United States fourteen hours before her scheduled departure. On her way home after an eight-month deployment to Vietnam, the 3,800 battle weary crewmen were denied shore leave during the four day fuel and provision replenishment because of South Africa’s apartheid–complete racial separation.” (Humble Host corrects yesterday’s post–I had FDR on the way TO Yankee Station vice home)…
7 February 1967… The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized) COMMUNIST CHINA: Mao and his followers still face important opposition in the army, while posters seen in Peking yesterday claim “there is no end t sporadic bloody clashes.” We think these “clashes” are mainly street riots and demonstrations; no hard evidence of troops exchanging fire anywhere in China has yet appeared. The Maoists may be trying to bring the army around by dealing brutally with military leaders who have incurred their disfavor. Posters say that the head of the army purge group–who was abruptly sacked in January–was dragged out before a rally of soldiers Sunday…SINO-SOVIET RELATIONS: Anti-Soviet demonstrations in Peking–now in the 13th day–look more and more like an effort to force the Russians our of China entirely. soviet diplomats there are in a state of virtual siege. Moscow is plainly hard pressed to maintain its pose of restraint…
7 FEBRUARY 1967… U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT Office of the Historian… On this date President Johnson sent a personal letter to Ho Chi Minh…”I am writing to you in the hope that the conflict in Vietnam can be brought to an end…” The letter is a must read IMHO for those of who retain an interest in and questions about the bombing of North Vietnam, especially those who lost a family member in the Vietnam War… Here is how far LBJ was willing to go for peace on this day in February 1967 to get the North Vietnamese to sit down at the same table to talk…
“With these problems in mind, I am prepared to move even further towards an ending of hostilities than your Government has propose in either public statements or through private diplomatic channels. I am prepared to order a cessation of bombing against your country and the stopping of further augmentation of US forces in South Viet-Nam as soon as I am assured that infiltration into South Viet-Nam by land and by sea has stopped. These acts of restraint on both sides would, I believe, make it possible for us to conduct serious discussions heading toward an early peace.” The entire letter is at:
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d40
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM…CAPTAIN DAREL DEAN LEETUN, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE… AIR FORCE CROSS…
“The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the AIR FORCE CROSS (Posthumously) to DAREL DEAN LEETUN, CAPTAIN, U.S. Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an opposing armed force as Pilot of an F-105 aircraft of the 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 388th Tactical Fighter Wing, Korat Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand, SEVENTH Air Force, in action against the Cao Nung Highway Bridge in North Vietnam on 17 September 1966. On that date, CAPTAIN LEETUN led a flight of F-105 Thunderchiefs against a heavily defended high priority target near Hanoi. Undaunted by intense and accurate flak, deadly surface-to-air missiles, and hostile MiGs, CAPTAIN LEETUN led his flight through this fierce environment to the crucial target. On the bomb run, CAPTAIN LEETUN’s Thunderchief was hit by hostile fire, becoming a flaming torch and nearly uncontrollable; however, CAPTAIN LEETUN remained in formation and delivered his high-explosive ordnance directly on target. After bomb release, CAPTAIN LEETUN’s plane went out of control and was seen to crash approximately 10 miles from the target area. Through his extraordinary heroism, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness in the face of hostile forces, CAPTAIN LEETUN reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.
Among CAPTAIN LEETUN’s combat awards: the Air Force Cross, Distinguished Flying Cross (3), Purple Heart and the Air Medal (10)…. oohrah…
(Note: the Cao Nung railroad and highway bridge is located 17 miles northeast of Kep.)
7 February 1967… Operation Rolling Thunder…New York Times…No coverage of the air war over North Vietnam…”Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft losses in Southeast Asia on 7 Febuary 1967, on the eve of a four day stand-down for the lunar New Year truce…
RIPPLE SALVO… #339… On Monday, 6 February 1967 The New York Times posted the following editorial comment:
“WHAT HAS BOMBING ACCOMPLISHED”…
“The effectiveness may be subject to debate among civilians in Washington, but the military are unanimous that the bombing of North Vietnam represents an essential part of the nation’s hammer and anvil strategy. The bombing of the North is essentially what is called an interdiction campaign directed primarily against the enemy’s supply lines and communications. This type of campaign required constant and repeated, unending attacks on bridges, roads, rail roads and so on. Its effects are slow but in time become cumulative if at the same time the enemy ground forces in South Vietnam are forced to use up their supplies.
“The search and destroy operations by United States ground troops in South Vietnam which have penetrated into Vietcong sanctuaries and supply bases which have forced the enemy actions–sometimes against his will– are viewed one jaw of the strategic vise that is squeezing the enemy.
“The other jaw is the interdiction campaign. This campaign has set a ceiling–not on the number of men who can infiltrate from the North–but on the supplies moving into the South.
“The military believes the best proof of this is that the main force, hard core units of the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese in South Vietnam were reduced to an operation level of about one day of combat per battalion per month in November, December and January compared with a level three times higher a year ago.
“Put in its simplest form, United States military leaders almost unanimously believe that the bombing of North Vietnam and Laos is hurting the enemy and saving American lives. They say a worldwide political and psychological effort by Hanoi to discredit and force a stop to the bombing has started and they regard this as indicative of the severe effects the air war campaign is having upon North Vietnam’s war making potential.”
Humble Host comment: The enemy adjusted their tempo of operations to match the flow of men and supplies that were available to support their combat operations. The enemy just fell back, fought only when he could, and accepted a long war strategy. Of course, fewer American troops would be killed in the short term, but in the long term, fighting a long war, we wound up with 58,000 killed. At the point where it was concluded that we could slow, but not stop the flow of men and material to support the enemy in the South, our “gradual escalation/interdiction campaign” became a failure. IMHO the same situation is ongoing in Afghanistan and Iraq…
We, in the United States, are slow learners and apparently content with perpetual limited commitments to our wars over a long period vice a maximum commitment for a very short period… and doomed to no-win outcomes… The contrast of dragged out Vietnam and slam-bang Desert Storm provides a history lesson that has been and continues to be ignored…
CAG’s QUOTES for 7 February: CLAUSEWITZ: “War is an act of violence pushed to its utmost bounds.”… PATTON: “Do your damnedest always.” … (This is a diary entry made by George Patton when he was 12.)
Lest we forget…. Bear