RIPPLE SALVO… #309… “THE FOUR POINTS”… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED NINE of the historic bombing campaign fought fifty years ago called Rolling Thunder…
8 JANUARY 1967… THE HEAD LINES IN AMERICA from the “Gray Lady” on a cold and cloudy Sunday in New York City…
Page 1: “Red Guard’s Foes Said to Take-Over Nanking in Fights; Peking Wall Posters Report 54 Dead and 900 Hurt in Battles; Tortures are Depicted; Rival Factions Clash; Expectations of a Showdown in Political Struggle”…”Forces opposed to Communist China’s Red Guard movement have taken the eastern Chinese city of Nanking after bloody battles with the Red Guards, dispatches from Peking reported today…army and public security forces loyal to Deputy Premier Tao Chu, the party propaganda chief, who has been dethroned as a counter-revolutionary by the Red Guards had arrestede 6,000 people.”… Page 4: “Soviet Helicopter Pilots Train North Vietnamese Airmen to fly giant 200-miles per hour helicopters capable of carrying 70 men. The MI-6 helicopters that the Soviet Union is sending in quantity to North Vietnam are the largest operational helicopters in existence, capable of lifting 45,000-pounds. This is the first report of Soviet pilots acting as advisors in North Vietnam.”…”Page 1: …”Soviet Affirms Red Unity Drive in Its 50th Anniversary Review”…”The Soviet Communist Party preparing to celebrate this year the 50th anniversary of its seizure of power, proclaimed tonight that the Soviet Union was the leader of ‘world progress’ and the inspirational force behind revolutionary change. In a long statement the party emphasized the inpact of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution on world history and stressed its present role in leading efforts for world Communist unity. ‘The last 50 years have proved the correctness and vitality of Marxism-Leninism and the powerlessness of reformism and socalled social democracy.’ “… Page 1: “New Border Clash With Syria Leaves 2 Israelis Injured”…”Shooting broke out again today along the border between Syria and Israel. It prompted a statement from Premier Levi Eshkol of Israel that ‘we will not tolerate developments likely to impair our sovereignty or the security of our citizens.’ “
Page 1: “Bar Unit Asks End of Electoral College Group: Wants Direct Vote“… “A commission of constitutional experts convened by the American Bar Association recommended today the Electoral College system of electing the President be abolished in favor of election by direct, popular nationwide vote. The proposal, which is expected to have official backing of the 123,000 member bar association when its governing body meets next month is expected to add momentum to a recent shift in Congress toward the direct election idea.”… Page 1: “Bus Terminal at Night: A Derelict’s Haven”…“Anyone who had stood in the Port Authoritys Bus Terminal for the 6 hours ending at 1AM yesterday would have seen it turn slowly but unmistakably into a kind of haunted house. Junkies, panhandlers, homosexuals, drunks, drifters, and small bands of roving youths in their late teens or early twenties gathered and increased by the hour. ‘As it gets later it gets gamier,’ a commuter said. They were scattered so thoroughly on the three pedestrian concourses–the rest rooms, in phone booths, on stairwells, near lockers–that the few policemen on duty could not be where they needed to be at any time….”
8 JANUARY 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times… Page 5: Harrison Salisbury: “Clearing Skies Over the Capital of North Vietnam Bring U.S. Planes”… “When the sun finally broke through Hanoi’s gray skies at noon yesterday (Jan 6) a resident of Thougnhat Hotel nodded and said, ‘We ‘ll be having visitors after lunch.’ He was right. Almost on the dot at 2:30PM … Hanoi’s sirens wailed, the pretty hotel waitresses grabbed their rifles and helmets and the guests filed out into the rear courtyard…” (Humble Host has included this short Salisbury item here to raise the point: why were we so predictable? Surely the Tuesday Lunch Bunch weren’t making the TOT too. Or were they?) …NYT (9 Jan reporting 8 Jan ops) Page 8: “Air Operations over North Vietnam were inhibited by poor weather. Only 57 strike and armed reconnaissance missions were flown.”…”Vietnam: Air Losses”(Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 8 January 1967.”… oohrah…
RIPPLE SALVO… #309… “THE FOUR POINTS”… While we were doing our duty– delivering ordnance on targets in North Vietnam– leather chairs in diplomats digs all over the world were filled with heavy thinkers searching for an answer to the question of the decade: How can we get this war in Vietnam over with? Solving the riddle hung on Ho Chi Minh’s “Four Points.” On 8 January 1967 the New York Times ran a piece by Harrison Salisbury on page 1 that I found useful in understanding the hangup that kept we derring-do Yankee Air Pirates in the patterns over Thanh Hoa, Dong Phong Thong, Hai Duong, Van Dien and parts in between. The Salisbury article belongs in the RTR archives… here ’tis…
“Hanoi Reiterates Its Stand That Four Points Are Basic”… Harrison Salisbury
“So much speculation and excitement were generated in Washington, London and Paris by (Premier) Pham Van Dong’s remarks this week on the war that Hanoi issued an official statement today designed to bring the matter back to earth.
“Pham Van Dong’s Statement: ‘We have our point of view and we have put forward four points, which constitute the basis for the settlement of the Vietnam question. These should not be considered conditions. They are merely truths. The most simple thing is to recognize our sovereignty and independence. It involves only recognizing the points in the Geneva Agreement. The ruling circles of the American Government do not like to accept our four points and particularly the third point. That means they are still introducing themselves into a tunnel. Now what can you do about that? We must come to the four points…The four points stand of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam constitutes the basis of a settlement of the Vietnamese problem.’
“The four point program is as follows: (1) Recognition of the independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Vietnam and the withdrawal of United States forces from the area pending reunification of Vietnam…(2) Respect for the military provisions of the 1954 Geneva Agreement, including those barring foreign forces…(3) Settlement of South Vietnam’s internal affairs by the South Vietnamese in accordance with the program of the National Liberation Front (Vietcong)…. (4) Peaceful reunification of Vietnam by the peoples of North and South without foreign interference.”
Salisbury: “The question of the four points is particularly complex when Premier Dong says they are not conditions that must be accepted prior to peace negotiations, he appears to be speaking quite sincerely. While Hanoi does not insist that they be agreed upon before it will sit down at the conference tabloe, it does insist on a solution based on them. Whether this is a distinction without a difference remains to be seen.
“If the four points were made the agenda of a conference, the West would certainly presume that there would be give and take and that, in effect, the points were negotiable. But this may not be Hanoi’s view at all, especially since the Premier says that the points constitute ‘conditions for a valid settlement’ that can be enforced.
“The speculation and excitement aroused by the interview have been intensified in the opinion of some diplomats in Hanoi, by a widespread failure of the West to realize that Hanoi has said much the same thing several times.
“Whatever the situation, the Premier’s entire statement contained a number of illuminating insights into North Vietnamese thinking, not all of which are readily apparent.”
RIPPLE SALVO, TWO PODS: The Vietnam riddle remained unsolved for another five years, during which the “four points” remained the “conditions for a valid settlement.” The Vietnam war of attrition–ADHERING TO ‘A STRATEGY FOR DEFEAT’– continued unabated until the “big stick” of American power was fearlessly, boldly and powerfully applied to do what it takes to win wars– the application of overwhelming, brutal, killing power. A great example of an exit strategy we know works. And if our policy and decision makers can’t live with brutal killing, then we should stay home. War is a killing business, and wars of attrition are suicide. Nobody wins.
CAG’S QUOTES for 8 January… NAPOLEON: “I may lose a battle, but I shall never lose a minute.”… PATTON: “War is not run on sentiment.”…
Lest we forget… Bear -13-