RIPPLE SALVO… #428… POLITICAL STABILITY IN SOUTH VIETNAM A DREAM?… but first…
Good Morning: Day FOUR HUNDRED TWENTY- EIGHT of a re-examination of a great air battle…
7 MAY 1967… HEADLINES and Leads from The New York Times on a rainy Sunday in New York…
Page 1: “Vance Asks Calm In Debate on War”...”Cyrus R. Vance, Deputy Secretary of Defense sought tonight to calm what he called the ‘heated and intolerant’ extremes of the national debate between the Government and its critics of the Vietnam war. ‘We need, I think, to restore the national sense of balance,’ he told the 90th convention of Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia in Martinsburg. ‘The lines on both sides are too sharply drawn,’ said Mr. Vance. ‘In America today one of the greatest barriers to understanding is the very nature of the dialogue which has developed over the issue of Vietnam. Vietnam has been viewed too often in absolutes of black and white.’ “… Page 1: Hanson Baldwin: “Long delay On Ship Repair is Found To Hamper Navy”…in repairing fleet readiness and effectiveness. The increased tempo of operations incident in the Vietnam ware, the increasing age of many ships, delays in procuring spare parts and material and a serious shortage of trained shipyard workers all contributed to the Navy’s problem. A Senate subcommittee placed the blame for all of this squarely on the Secretary of Defense’s shoulders. It was one of the most severe attacks on the Secretary’s judgement yet voiced.”… Page 1: “Udall Proposes Code For Leasing Oil Shale Lands”... “The Department of Interior proposed regulations today for governing the leasing of Western oil shale lands for research and development. The leasing of 30,000 acres…is the first move toward commercial recovery of oil from what is said to be the world’s largest oil reserve.’…the oil is estimated to be worth $5,000-billion at current market prices (or $25,000 per person living in America)…”…
Page 1: “The New Left Turns to Mood of Violence In Place of Protest”... ” ‘We are working to build a guerrilla force in an urban environment,’ said the national secretary of the left-wing Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Gregory Calvert. ‘We are actively organizing sedition.’… The threat of violence in his words characterizes the current radicalization of the New Left… The New Left wants emphatically to be distinct from the old left–the socialist and Communist movements whose history goes back generations…the spirit of resistance and direct action constitutes the major attitude of the New Left today. Mr. Calvert conceded that SDS had few Negroes. ‘Black Power is absolutely necessary. When we have organized the white radicals we can link up with the Negro radicals.’ “…
Sports: Kentucky Derby winner Proud Clarion, a 30-1 long shot paid $62.20. Arnold Palmer holds a 2-stroke lead on Billy Casper at end of three rounds in Houston…
The Rolling Thunder Rambler Report #3… Another great “There I was story…”
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM…LIEUTENANT COMMANDER DAVID RODNEY MURPHY… THE NAVY CROSS… 12-16 OCTOBER 1966...
“The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the NAVY CROSS to DAVID RODNEY MURPHY, Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy, for EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM in action from 12 through 16 October 1966 while serving in a detachment of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron SIX (HS-6), temporarily embarked in USS INTREPID (CVS-11), flying as Plane Commander of an armored search and rescue helicopter during a series of related rescue missions in support of combat operations in Southeast Asia. Lieutenant Commander MURPHY was vectored to an inland area of North Vietnam on two separate search and rescue flights in valiant attempts to rescue a downed Navy pilot. Although encountering intense enemy fire, he persisted in his determined attempts to locate and rescue the survivor. During the second search, his helicopter, while in a hover, was riddled by enemy automatic-weapons fire which completely disabled one of its engines. Lieutenant Commander MURPHY successfully flew out of range of the enemy’s guns and retired toward the sea where nearing the heavily fortified coastline, a barrage of enemy antiaircraft fire inflicted additional heavy damage to the already crippled helicopter and wounded all personnel. Nonetheless, he and his crew tenaciously nursed their helicopter through the enemy fire toward a United States destroyer. Lieutenant Commander MURPHY skillfully ditched the aircraft in an upright position preventing further injury to all personnel on board. By his outstanding courage, exceptional skill and fearless devotion to duty, he upheld the highest traditions of the Naval Service.”
In addition, here is what Chris Hobson (Vietnam: Air Losses, pg. 77) reported in his account of the incident– an unsuccessful but valiant effort to rescue LT ROBERT DEANE WOODS, VA-25, USS CORAL SEA, who was captured interned and served out the war as a POW…
“Soon after LT Woods hit the ground a Navy Sea King (LCDR Murphy and crew) helicopter made a rescue attempt but was driven off by intense ground fire. The JPRC arranged for a Shining Brass team in Laos to be flown out to the USS INTREPID to attempt a rescue. On the 16th the 12-man team of US Special Forces and Nung commandos was inserted near the WOODs Skyraider crash site by two SH-3s. After about four hours of searching through the jungle the team encountered a patrol of four North Vietnamese soldiers, who they killed. However the jungle was full of NVA so the team had to call for help and the helicopters returned. The men were winched up into the two helicopters under heavy fire and one of the Sea Kings was hit by ground fire and two crewmen and two commandos were wounded. The helicopter engine was badly damaged and LCDR MURPHY had to ditch near the carrier. All the occupants were rescued by a boat from the destroyer USS Henley as the helicopter sank beneath the waves.” (HUMBLE HOST note: The oath “Leave no man behind” could hardly have a more meaningful example of what it means in action than this: “There I was…”.)
7 MAY 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…NEW YORK TIMES (8 May reporting 7 May ops): Page 1: “For a second day clouds and poor weather limited United States air blows over the North to the southern half of the country, the western part of the Dienbienphu area, and the Mugia Pass. Air Force pilots said they had destroyed a rail road bridge near the pass. All-weather A-6 Intruders from the nuclear powered carrier USS Enterprise attacked another railroad bridge and pontoon bridge and dropped the northern span near Thanh Hoa. Other Navy fliers from USS Hancock and USS Bon Homme Richard struck at oil storage areas, rail sidings, and highway bridges around Vinh and Thanh Hoa. Along North Vietnam’s coastline, Navy pilots said they had destroyed or damaged 43 cargo barges and other supply craft.”… (bear#69#70RPIItrucs/IIIbrDPT)
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft losses in Southeast Asia on 7 MAY 1967… oohrah!!!
RIPPLE SALVO… #428… POLITICAL STABILITY... Success in our effort to “save South Vietnam” from Communism, required that, concurrent with defeating the Communists in the jungles, was the requirement to create a stable government where there was none. When a nation goes into another nation, as America is so often eager to do, the beleaguered nation becomes the responsibility of that eager-beaver nation who comes to “help.” From 1963 on, we owned South Vietnam. The paramount first steps toward a stable self-governing South Vietnam were a Constitution and a freely elected leader and democratic government. By May of 1967 the semblance of a Constitution and a freely elected constituent assembly were in place and elections were tracking for September. Problem: among those who wanted to be President of the new South Vietnam were Nguyen Cao Ky and Nguyen Van Thieu… the two most senior military leaders. Only one could run for the top job and only one military type could be at the top-tier of the new government where a balance of military and civilian leaders was required by the new Constitution…
The spirited competition between Ky and Thieu was a grave concern for Ambassador Bunker, General Westmoreland, Secretary of State Rusk and the President. Big headache. Humble Host will keep you posted on “exciting new developments” concerning Ky and Thieu as they unfold… For those who seek greater understanding of this headache here are a pair of documents that were top secret in May 1967 and are unclas now… Document 163 Bunker on scene in Saigon is trying to broker a deal that will keep both Ky and Thieu happy where one is President and the other is not. Ambassador Bunker shares the hot dope with Secretary Rusk and asks for instructions. Rusk is home in Foggybottom and responds to Bunker in Document 164 with a little advice and a new set of questions… the documents:
Doc #163… https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d163
Doc #164… https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d164
Why? you ask, is this part of Operation Rolling Thunder? Easy! Ask yourself, what the Hades were we all hanging our butts out for if the nation we were fighting for wasn’t working at least as hard as we were to achieve the goal of self-government and the defeat of communism in South Vietnam? And ponder this: We are now 15-years in Afghanistan, and in Iraq, and in Syria, Yemen, Somalia and who knows how many other places, asking our service men and women, military and civilian, to lay down their lives to help buy time and opportunity for these nations to survive on their own. Noble cause? Impossible task?… There was no happy ending in South Vietnam. What are the odds of a happy ending in all these other places where we are mired without hope? Nil!!!
CAG’s QUOTES for May 7: GEORGE WASHINGTON: “There is a rank due to the United States among Nations, which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war.”…. PATTON: “History is replete with accounts of military inventions, each heralded by its disciples as the ‘dernier cri,’ the ‘key’ to victory.”…
Lest we forget… Bear