RIPPLE SALVO… #671… Could the pattern of military escalation that has accompanied diplomatic failures be the reason progress toward resolution of the war has been nil?… but first…
Good Morning…Day SIX HUNDRED SEVENTY-ONE of a return to the bloody skies of North Vietnam fifty years ago…
7 JANUARY 1968… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a Sunday full of snow and cold air…
Page 1: GROUND WAR: 20 G.I.s ARE KILLED AS FOE INTENSIFIES VIETNAM FIGHTING–NORTH VIETNAMESE ATTACKING ISOLATED ARTILLERY BASE IN QUENON WOUND 64–24 ENEMY BODIES FOUND–A Regimental Headquarters of Saigon’s Forces Partly Overrun Near Capital”... “North Vietnamese infantrymen swept out of the hills overlooking the Queson Valley in northern South Vietnam again last night, killing 20 American soldiers and wounding 64 in a three-hour attack on an isolated artillery base. Patrols that combed the approaches to the base, which are fortified with rows of barbed wire and sandbags, reported they had found 24 enemy bodies after the engagement. The Vietcong and North Vietnamese , apparently carrying out orders to intensify the fighting, made sharp attacks in various areas and were reported to have suffered heavy casualties in several….West of Bienhoa in the rubber plantations near the town of Bengat, the First Infantry Division reported having killed 58 enemy soldiers in a three-hour battle this morning...four American soldiers were killed and 10 wounded, six of whom had to be evacuated…In Tayninh Province, about 60 miles northwest of Saigon, sharp contacts continued. The opposing forces there are the United States 25th Division and the 271st and 272nd Vietcong Regiments, which are reported to have suffered crippling casualties in several engagements during the last several days… Yesterday three American helicopters were destroyed by machine-gun fire and one was reported down today, with one man killed and eight wounded.… Farther North in Binhlong Province, 68 miles from Saigon, machine gunners cut down 38 enemy soldiers in an encounter this morning. Two American soldiers were killed and two wounded...“…Page 2: “Foe Builds Force On Cambodian Line–Up To 10,000 Are Supplied Across Border”… Page 3: “Special Bulldozer Blades Strip Vietnam Jungle–Rome Plows Are Praised For Revealing Sanctuaries and Halting Ambushes”… Page 3: “War Defoliation Studied in Report–Pentagon Told Little Harm to Ecology Will Result.”…
Page 1; India Hints Shift In Cambodia Issue–Readiness for Leading Role In Inspection Indicated If Bowles Talks Succeed”… Page 1: “Humphrey In Africa Pledges U.S. Will Promote Poor Lands Trade”… Page 1: “McCarthy Draws 12% of Vote In Poll–Gallup Test Election Finds Johnson Winning–Nixon Next and Wallace Last”… Page 1: “McCarthy Backed By Johnson Foes At Meeting Here–Unanimous Support Is given By New York State Group–Senator McCarthy Presses Rusk to Resign”… Page 1: “Johnson Weighs Export Rebates and Import Levies–Congress May get Proposal to Return Tax to Makers of Goods Sold Abroad–Goal Is to Aid Dollar–toll On Imports Equivalent to Tariff Rise, Is Allowed By International Rules”… Page 5: “Two New Helicopters Going Into Action–High Vietnam Officers See Craft Make Mock Attack–AH-IG Huey Cobra and OH-6A”…
Page 6: “Draft Resistance Group Weighs School Strike To Protest Spock Indictment”… Page 28: “Johnson Down On the Ranch Works Hard on Budget”… Page 44. “Romney Planning No New Strategy–Aides Concede Campaign Has Gone Badly So Far”… Page 45: “Reagan to Begin 2nd Year In Office–Problems Force California Governor On Two Fronts”... “…problems as governor matched by many, many imponderables as candidate for GOP presidential nomination.”… Page 54: “Negroes Gaining In South Carolina Drive–Their Registration Exceeds Whites in 6 Counties”…
7 JANUARY 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (8 Jan reporting 7 Jan ops)… Page 1: “In North Vietnam, Air Force pilots spotted a train with 30 boxcars on the northeastern rail line between the Langgiai and Langson railroad yards. The pilots reported that their bombed struck along the line of boxcars, but damage reports were unavailable. The attack was 15 miles south of the Chinese border. American pilots attacking in the Hanoi area reported direct hits on a surface-to-air missile site. One missile, they said, went along the ground out of control and a second after rising a few feet, fell back on the site where it detonated. A United States spokesman said that the pilots believed the explosion destroyed the site. Air Force pilots also bombed the Baggiang railroad yard and storage area farther south in the panhandle, the narrow southern section of the country. The pilots reported that their bombs set off 39 fires and touched off eight explosions.”…
“Vietnam: Air Losses”(Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 7/8 January 1968…
(1) MAJOR D.P. WRIGHT was flying an F-100D of the 612th TFS and 37th TFW out of Phu Cat providing close air support near Ha Tan, 15 miles southwest of Danang when hit by ground fire as he rolled in for his second pass on a group of Vietcong. The aircraft was hit in the fuselage and became unflyable requiring MAJOR WRIGHT to eject about 10 miles east of Danang where he was rescued by helicopter…
(2) CAPTAIN HALLIE WILLIAM SMITH and 1LT CHARLES LAWRENCE BIFOLCHI were flying an RF-4C of the 16th TRS and 460th TRW out of Tan Son Nhut on a night photographic mission in the area around Dak To in Kontum Province and failed to return from the mission. It is presumed they were shot down… The remains of 1LT BIFOLCHI were recovered and returned in 1993 and identified 14 April 2006… The fate of CAPTAIN SMITH remains unknown, 50 years after he and 1LT BIFOLCHI made their last flight… left behind but remembered with somber thoughts of his family who continue to wait…
RIPPLE SALVO… #671…. NYT, 5 Jan, Page 28: “ESCALATION vs. NEGOTIATION”…
“Eighteen months ago, a group of university professors published a book entitled ‘The Politics of Escalation,’ in which they suggested the possibility that United States escalation of the military conflict in Vietnam had repeatedly frustrated attempts to achieve a political settlement. They presented case studies on nine critical periods in the years 1963 to 1966 which, they said, indicated ‘a pattern of United States military escalation in the context of Vietnamese or international pressures for negotiation.
“Although their arguments were persuasive, the authors themselves admitted their evidence was not conclusive. The disturbing questions they raised, however persist and are relevant in the context of the latest diplomatic and military developments in Vietnam.
“Within the past few weeks, both the National Liberation Front and the Government of North Vietnam have taken initiatives which suggest a possible desire to negotiate. Within the past few days there have been indications of possible serious new escalation of the war, involving an alleged American air attack on a Russian ship in Haiphong harbor and United States air attacks on roads and bridges only nine miles from the China border. Both of these incidents, if indeed they occurred, involve air actions in areas which would be off-limits without express approval of the White House.
“It may be that neither the peace overtures nor the air actions–if indeed they occurred–will prove to represent substantive changes in policy. It may be that they bear no relation to each other. Nevertheless, in view of the frustrated peace hopes of the past and of the pattern of military escalation that has appeared to accompany at least some of these diplomatic failures, there is cause for concern. This is surely a moment for the United States to hold the war tightly within existing limits, avoiding all possible provocative new actions at least until whatever new possibilities for negotiations exist can be fully explored.”…
RTR Quote for 7 January: SENECA: “Fame has no necessary conjunction with praise: it may exist without the breath of a word: it is a recognition of excellence which must be felt but need not be spoken. Even the envious must feel it: feel it, and hate it, in silence.”
Lest we forget…. Bear