RIPPLE SALVO… #521… LBJ and MAC PREPARE FOR SENATOR JOHN STENNIS… and the Senate hearings of August 1967… but first…
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED TWENTY-ONE of a serious swing-back through the history of Operation Rolling Thunder…
8 AUGUST 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a cloudy and wet Tuesday in the Big Apple…
SUMMER IN AMERICA 1967: Page 25: “Humphrey Warns of Overseas Role–Says U.S., Despite Riots, Must Maintain Position”… “Vice President Humphrey warned today of ‘catastrophe’ if the United States withdrew from its overseas commitments to concentrate on easing racial unrest at home. Speaking to 2,000 persons at a luncheon of American Bar Association in Honolulu, he said, ‘If there is any hope for law and order in the world it is not to fold our tent and leave the battlefield.’…The Vice President disassociated himself from the idea that the United States cannot alleviate urban blight so long as the Vietnam war used funds that might have gone to domestic programs. ‘Checkbook solutions haven’t always worked…Order must be restored. Riots must and will be stopped. Those malicious individuals who spark disorders will be found and suppressed.’ “… Page 25: “Roy Wilkins, NAACP, Says Riots Inquiry Will Offer Interim Report for President’s Commission on Civil Disorders”… Page 1: “2 Policemen Held In Negroes’ Deaths in Detroit”…“…charges stem from finding the bodies of three Negroes on July 26 in a motel about a mile from the scene of major rioting. Police said at the time the three had been killed in a shootout with the police…residents at the motel told a different story…”…Page 1: “Panel Urges U.S. Spur Integration of Pupils In South–Rights Commission Seeks Stricter Guidelines–-Asks For Help of Congress”… “The United States Commission on Civil Rights, critical of the pace of Southern school desegregation, called today for faster, stricter observance of guidelines, more help from congress to enforce the guidelines and one or two changes in the law to speed the process.”…
MIDEAST: Page 1: “Jerusalem Arabs In General Strike To Resist Israel–All Shops and Restaurants in The Formerly Jordan Area Are Shut For Day–Police Patrols Heavy–No Incidents Reported–Taxes As Much As Politics Are Viewed As Motive”… Page 1: “Goldberg Detects Progress Toward A Mideast Accord”… “…said today that there were ‘positive developments toward an eventual Israeli-Arab peace settlement.'”… Page 2: “Poland And The Mideast–Pro-Arab Stand of Warsaw Widens Gulf Between Regime and The People of Poland”… Page 10: “Israelis Accuse Egyptians of Violating Canal Accord”... “…patrol boats in daily use.”… Page 10: “Jordan Appeals to Palestinian Refugees to Go Home.”… Page 1: “Soviets Ask For Base in Yemen–Seek Foothold In South Arabian Peninsula”…
VIETNAM: Page 1: “5 Copters Downed In Saigon Region–U.S. General Is Wounded As Vietcong Ambush Assault Craft in City Outskirts.”… “Vietcong guerrillas shot down five American helicopters today in an ambush…Brigadier General John Freund, who ordered his command helicopter down for a landing on a rescue mission was wounded in the leg when his helicopter was caught in heavy cross-fire during the clash. The ambush occurred in a ‘relatively safe area’ on the banks of the Saigon River four miles from the city and was the closest the fighting has been to Saigon in many months. Seven Vietcong were killed and 3 Americans were killed and 22 injured.”… “Fighting broke out in several other areas of South Vietnam including in the Central Coast province of Quangngai and the Central Highlands where 102 North Vietnamese were killed by South Vietnam Government troops.”…
OF NOTE: Page 5: “After A Year of Purge, China Is Still In Turmoil”… Page 29: “Mooncraft Sends Back Farside Photographs–First Pictures of Scientific Interest Are Excellent”... “Lunar Orbiters begin transmitting a sequence of pictures for use in developing landing sites for Apollo astronauts. Eight possible landing sites pinpointed.”...Page 6: “25th Anniversary of Raid on Dieppe”…”… Memorial Ceremony in Ottawa to mark the day 700 Canadians were killed in the disastrous Canadian commando raid on the German occupied French port.” (75 years ago from 2017)… Page 4: “25th Anniversary of Amphibious Assault On Guadalcanal And Tulagi on 7 August 1942 (75 years ago in 2017)… USMC conducted memorial on the site with 1200 tourists from a British cruise ship Oriana in attendance... oohrah... (Humble Host recalls his Dad taking him to see “Guadalcanal Diary” with William Bendix…)
8 August 1967… The President’s TS Daily CIA Brief: SOUTH VIETNAM: The presidential campaign is off to an unfortunate start, but it is probably not seriously jeopardized. There is no evidence that the Saigon government was deliberately responsible for the fiasco on Sunday that caused civilian candidates to cancel a scheduled campaign tour. Actually, bad weather prevented the government plane carrying the candidates from landing where it was supposed to... NORTH VIETNAM: President Ho Chi Minh has dropped out of public sight for the longest period on record…. SOVIET UNION: Recent satellite photography shows what is probably a new class of torpedo attack submarine under construction. This new craft is about 300 feet long….
AMONG THE BRAVE…..
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM…LIEUTENANT COLONEL JAMES E. McINERNEY, JR., UNITED STATES AIR FORCE… the AIR FORCE CROSS… PAUL DOUMER BRIDGE STRIKE …11 AUGUST 1967…
“The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the AIR FORCE CROSS to JAMES E. McINERNEY, JR., Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Air Force, for EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM in military operations against opposing armed force as a Pilot of an F-105 airplane in the 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 388th Tactical Fighter Wing, Korat Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand, 7th Air Force, in action as leader of a flak suppression flight in action against the Paul Doumer Bridge, a major north-south transportation link on Hanoi’s Red River in North Vietnam, on 11 August 1967. On that day, Colonel McINERNEY suppressed six active surface-to-surface missile sites defending a strategic highway and railroad bridge. Despite concentrated barrages of antiaircraft fire and three missiles directed against his flight, Colonel McINERNEY displayed the highest degree of courageous leadership in destroying two missile sites and forcing the other four into sporadic operation. As a direct result of his actions, the strike force suffered no losses and imposed extensive damage to this vital target. Through his EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness in the face of hostile forces, Lieutenant Colonel McINERNEY reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United Air Force.”
AMONG LCOL McINERNEY’s other combat awards: 3 SILVER STARS; 7 DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSSES; BRONZE STAR; and 18 AIR MEDALS… oohrah…
8 August 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (9 Aug reporting 8 Aug ops)…Page 3: “638th U.S. Plane Lost”... “Another plane was shot down in North Vietnam yesterday and bad weather limited airstrikes to the panhandle. A spokesman said an Air Force Phantom was downed and the two crewmen are missing in action. American pilots flew 167 multi-plane missions, an above average 24-hour day of ops, and aimed at mostly minor targets. The northernmost hit was a storage area 36 miles south of Hanoi. The Loidong storage area 4 miles northwest of Haiphong was attacked as was a truck convoy and railcars in the south of the north. Navy pilots hit the Namdinh army barracks. In other battle damage: 100 trucks were destroyed, roads were cut in 43 places, and 159 fires were started.”…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 8 August 1967…
(1) An A-4C suffered an engine failure on the catapult shot off Constellation and went into the water. The pilot from the VA-146 Blue Diamonds ejected safely and was rescued within minutes of the cat-shot…
(2) The C-1A Tracker logistics aircraft of the USS Hornet suffered an engine failure on a deck launch and settled into the water ahead of the carrier. Five crewmen on board were all able to escape the sinking aircraft and were rescued quickly…
RIPPLE SALVO… #521… SHOWTIME IN THE SENATE HEARING ROOMS…Senator John Stennis, was chairman of the Senate Preparedness Subcommittee and he was a leading Hawk in the Summer of 1967. At his call a ten day parade of witnesses would participate in the search for a path to victory. We all know now, they never did find one. However, one of the positive initial results of the hearings was the reaction of the President and the Secretary of Defense on the eve of Senator Stennis’ group grope on the Hill… The following is from the Pentagon Papers, Senator Gravel edition, page 198… Question: Would it be correct to conclude that Navy and Air Force aviators were used as political pawns in this Washington game of “more or less bombing”…???
“In July 1967 the President had decided against both an escalatory and a de-escalatory option in favor of continuing the prevailing level and intensity of bombing. However, the prospect of having his bombing policy submitted to the harsh scrutiny of the Stennis committee, taking testimony from such unhappy military men as Admiral Sharp, must have forced a re-calculation on the President. It is surely no coincidence that on August 9, the very day the Stennis hearings opened, an addendum to ROLLING THUNDER 57 was issued authorizing an additional sixteen fixed targets and an expansion of armed reconnaissance. Significantly, six of the targets were within the sacred 10-mile Hanoi inner circle. They included the thermal power plant, 3 rail yards, and 2 bridges. Nine targets were located on the northeast rail line in the China buffer zone, the closest one 8 miles from the border. But the power of Congress was not to be denied. Where the military alone had tried unsuccessfully for so long to erode the Hanoi/Haiphong sanctuaries, the pressure implicit in the impending hearings, where military men would be asked to speak their minds to a friendly audience, was enough to succeed–at least for the moment.”…
The next two weeks will be some of the best flying for the entire Rolling Thunder campaign. Unbeknownst to the warriors, however, there was a consideration that was heavy on the minds of the President and Secretary McNamara. It was called Pennsylvania and it was an effort to get Hanoi to talk settlement. Their man Kissinger was working it directly under McNamara’s direction. McNamara had a lot of stock in the initiative. Two previous efforts to find some common ground blew up when the enemy perceived we were using the unfolding opportunity for talks as a cover for escalating the bombing campaign. A third blown effort was to be avoided at all costs.
The following is lifted from Edward Drea’s “McNamara, Clifford, and the Burdens of Vietnam, page 215:
“The approval of the heavier bombing coincident with the Pennsylvania negotiating initiative posed a seeming contradiction that required the administration to do some explaining. Sharp arrived in Washington on August 8 as the lead off witness for the congressional hearings. Johnson ordered the admiral prepped on the political reasons for the general policy of not escalating the bombing, something the administration had never done previously. Sharp thought it obvious that authorization and release of the latest targets on the eve of his testimony was a McNamara maneuver to squelch criticism that the military were being ignored–‘to spike my guns.’ A more willing collaborator was Wheeler, co-opted by a Rostow inspired ’round-up session’ to review and evaluate all available targets and ‘generally get our ducks in a row for the congressional hearings on the subject.’ Wheeler was amenable, having made known that he could better deal with the committee if he could say that he had been fully and personally consulted on all major decisions. Such a statement would head off the argument that target selection had been made by civilians without benefit of military input.”…
It was all about deception and appearances…
RTR QUOTE for 8 August: ABRAHAM LINCOLN: “You can fool some of the people all of the time and all the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
Less we forget… Bear