RIPPLE SALVO… #367… LET THE ENEMY HIDE IN PLAIN SIGHT... but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED SIXTY-SEVEN of a review of a war fought following a “strategy of defeat.”…
7 MARCH 1967… HEAD LINES and LEADS from The New York Times on a snowy Tuesday in the Empire State…
Page 1: “Johnson Plans Draft by Lottery With 19-Year Olds Called First”...”Would Cut Deferments Sharply”… “He intends to establish by January 1, 1969 a kind of lottery that would determine which young men were drafted for military service. By the same date, and possibly sooner, the President intended to decree by Executive Order: (1) That 19-year old men to be the first exposed to the random call-up each year along with older men whose deferments had expired; (2) That deferments for all graduate students except those preparing for medical, dental and ministry be abolished; and, (3) That all deferments for men in so-called essential occupations be abolished, and that deferments in other categories be tightened and made uniform. In addition, in no case will college students be allowed to pile deferments on deferments.”… Page 1: “Criticism Voiced; Some Democrats Seek a Change in Laws to Bar Random Choices”… “Democratic leaders of the House Armed Services Committee said today they will attempt to block President Johnson’s decision to create a lottery system for drafting young men. Mendell Rivers (Committee Chairman): “We will work to pass legislation that will block the President’s attempt to set up a lottery. I suspect we will change the law.”… Page 1: “U.S. Ranking Low in Math Teaching”... “American public schools have been found to rank low in an international comparison of pupil’s achievement in mathematics, and Japanese schools to be doing the best over-all job in that field. U.S. lagged only slightly behind Scottish, English and French students.”…
Page 1: “Kosygin Declares U.S. Step-Up Spurs More Aid to Hanoi”... “Premier Aleksei Kosygin declared today that United States escalation of the Vietnamese war would bring retaliatory increases in communist aid to North Vietnam. The Soviet leader denounced Washington’s rejection of an unconditional halt in the United States bombing raids. Hanoi’s gesture of January 28 was described by Premier Kosygin as ‘an extremely important peace initiative’…’The United States did not avail itself of this opportunity. On the contrary, trying to camouflage its aggressive intentions, it has hastened to set forth ultimatums that were absolutely unacceptable to the Vietnamese.’ “… Page 1: “Chou En-lai said to Take the Helm in Communist China”…”East European sources said today that Premier Chou En-lai assisted by a small working group had assumed control of China’s governmental Communist party and military affairs, as well as the guidance of the Cultural Revolution. Mao and his group remain as militant and intransigent as ever.”… Page 1: “Lodge Reported to be Seeking to Leave Post in Vietnam...asked to be relieved in the spring or in early summer.”…Page 1: “Hoffa Goes to Jail”…after losing a crucial court appeal in his 10-year battle to stay out of prison. He will be imprisoned in the Federal penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania to serve an eight-year sentence.”…
Page 1: “U.S. To Arm Observer Aircraft in Vietnam”… “The Pentagon has decided to provide new planes armed with machine guns and rockets for the few hundred Air Force pilots in Vietnam who now fly unarmed reconnaissance missions over guerrilla positions. These Forward Air Controllers are…spending hours each day winging low over jungles, marshes and mountains looking for signs of enemy activity. The twin-engine Cessna Super Skymaster will be modified to change this uneven situation.”... Page 15: The Little Box...“The Department of Defense announced that 77 American servicemen have been Killed in Action.”…. (Follows report of 36 KIA three days ago)…
7 March 1967…The President’s Daily Brief (TS sanitized) SOUTH VIETNAM: Ky seems to be stepping up his behind-the-scenes campaign for the presidency (the rest is still classified). Saigon continues to inspire student demonstrations. Monday night’s parades added Senator Fulbright to the list of “irresponsible pacifists” like De Gaulle. The parades–which have been staged almost nightly for man than a week are adding to the general pre-election ferment in Saigon. One result has been to set the local rumor mill humming. The US Embassy warns that we can expect some sensational and baseless stories out of Saigon in the coming days….
7 MARCH 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (8 March 1967 reporting 7 Mar ops) Page 3: “Flying through overcast skies Navy A-6 Intruder pilots attacked the Thanh Hoa railroad yard and the Loi Dong fuel depot six miles northwest of Haiphong. The American raids were the closest to the major North Vietnamese port in several weeks. There was no assessment of damage.”… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft losses in Southeast Asia on 7 March 1967… A bad day on USS Ticonderoga…
(1) LT S.N. YOUNG was flying an A-4E of the “World Famous Golden Dragons,” VA-192 embarked in USS Ticonderoga, and participating in a strike on a flak site in Steel Tiger and encountered light flak. On the return to the carrier a wingman noted battle damage to LT YOUNG’s Skyhawk. Approaching the carrier the aircraft flamed out and on a restart attempt burst on fire. LT YOUNG ejected and was recovered to fly and fight another day, week, months….
(2) LT ROBERT LESTER MILLER was flying an F-8E of the VF-191 Satan’s Kittens embarked in USS Ticonderoga on a barrier combat air patrol (BARCAP) over North Vietnam and returning to the ship when he suffered a gyro failure in IFR conditions. It is assumed he became disoriented and crashed 55 miles off the coast east of Thanh Hoa. LT MILLER is carried as Killed in Action. He perished on this day fifty years ago and remains where he fell. A pause here, to remember a fallen warrior…
RIPPLE SALVO… #367… A few thoughts on the “American Way of War.”... “War is a killing business.” Unfortunately, American leadership has a soft spot for human life, even the lives of the people who are trying to kill us. Harry Truman understood and accepted his responsibility to protect American lives even at the expense of lives in the heartland of the enemy, whether they be civilians contributing to the enemy’s fighting spirit and where-with-all from the home front, or troops in uniform. The air war in North Vietnam was fought by laying down a set of rules, and enforcing/abiding by them, that precluded any chance of winning. From my perspective, it wasn’t the rings around Hanoi and Haiphong or the buffer to preclude violating the Chinese border, it was the granting of sanctuary status to every little town on the map. North Vietnam hop, skipped and jumped their trucks and troops from one little town to the next at night, hiding their troops and trucks in the peaceful little towns during the day. And the guns, and the missiles. If there was a church or pagoda or cathedral (such as that in Vinh), it was a daytime hideout for the southbound enemy. Everybody knew it. Yet we stood back and put killing the enemy where he lives out-of-bounds. The trade-off?–the troops a and trucks survived in numbers good enough to allow the war of attrition, including tens of thousands of American fighting men, to go on for eight years. Here is a New York Times column by Neil Sheehan on the problem of enemy sanctuaries…
NYT, 8 March 1967, Pages 1 and 2: “Foe Is Said to Use Haven Near China”... “North Vietnam is using a restricted zone about 25 miles deep along the Chinese border as a daytime sanctuary for truck convoys…American aircraft are prohibited from bombing within the zone without permission from Washington. The restriction is intended to avoid the diplomatic and political consequences of intrusion into Chinese airspace…Except for reconnaissance aircraft on assigned surveillance missions. American pilots are normally cautioned against flying within the 25-30 mile prohibited border zone unless there is a necessity to do so…Trucks are also being sheltered in North Vietnamese cities during the day, apparently because American pilots are restricted in any attacks in populated areas. Two cities mentioned by authorities are Thanh Hoa, 80 miles south of Hanoi, and Vinh, about 165 miles south of Hanoi, the capital city…Aerial reconnaissance photographs show hundreds of trucks loaded with supplies lined up along the roads within a zone along the Chinese border during the day. the trucks bring supplies from China to North Vietnam(and then funnel through North Vietnam to South Vietnam). Except for the restricted areas around the cities of Hanoi and Haiphong (and the border area near China), which pilots may bomb only with advance permission. Air Force and Navy commanders are relatively free to order strikes against specific military targets within smaller population centers. these include bridges, major supply depots, barracks, rail yards and truck parks. Pilots also have considerable discretion in deciding to strike conventional antiaircraft guns or missile batteries within towns that are endangering their own or accompanying aircraft. But pilots are restricted from freely bombing groups of trucks or small supply dumps they happen to sight within the towns. But the pilots are pleased with President Johnson’s recent decision to remove some of the restrictions on the war against North Vietnam by allowing attacks on more thermal power plants, aerial mining of rivers and naval shelling of coastal installations. One senior military official was asked whether he favored bombing the trucks parked within towns during the day. He said: ‘We would kill a lot of civilians if we did that.’…” end quote…
When the enemy’s civilians are more precious than your own warriors, stay home. War is a killing business, and if you and your people don’t have the stomach for the realities of brutal wars that require that the will of the enemy to resist be destroyed, then war-fighting should never be undertaken.
Harry Truman and Winston Churchill understood this.
CAG’s QUOTES for 8 March: SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL: “There is no middle course in war.”... PATTON: “The only way you can win a war is to attack and keep on attacking, and after you have done that, keep on attacking some more.”…
Lest we forget…. Bear…