RIPPLE SALVO… #130… & POWs SPEAK…. but first…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED THIRTY of a 28-month course (History 404) on Operation Rolling Thunder…
8 JULY 1966… ON THE HOME FRONT… New York Times… A mostly hot Friday with lotsa’ sun….
Page 1: “Five Major Airlines Face Shut Down In Strike Today”… “Airlines, railroads and bus lines took emergency measures last night to meet the drastic disruptions of transportation threatened by the strike scheduled for today against five major airlines. American, the only coast-to-coast airline not threatened by the strike, operates 16 daily non-stop flights from New York to California is scrutinizing ways to add flights to its transcontinental schedule and to other major routes during the strike emergency. The strike will effect about 60-per cent of nations air travel. Air lines on strike: Eastern, National, Northwest, United and TWA…. serving 28 cities… a wage dispute, and the strike is on….Page 2: “Governors Support Vietnam Policy, 49-1″…”With only one dissent, the nation’s governors voted tonight to support Americas policy of military defense of South Vietnam. The lone dissenter in the 49-1 vote by state and territorial governors was Mark O. Hatfield, a Republican Oregon Senator.”….Page 2: “Warsaw Pact: Excerpts From Declaration”… Conference Declaration on Vietnam from Bucharest, Rumania… “The dangers involved by the aggressive actions of the United States Government is growing ever more owing to the fact that it is trying to draw its allies into the war in Vietnam also. The United States of America must strictly observe the Geneva Agreements on Vietnam forthwith, formally and unconditionally stop the bombing of its territory, must halt the armed intervention in South Vietnam, withdraw its troops and troops of its satellites from South Vietnam, dismantle all the u.S. military bases and the bases from that country, recognize the National Liberation Front as the only authentic representative of the peoples of South Vietnam, recognize the right of the Vietnamese people to decide their own destiny without foreign interference to solve independently the problem of the peaceful unification of the country.”
Page 2: “Many at U.N. Cool To U.S. Stand On Bombing”… “The United States explanation to the Security Council of the expansion of the air war in Vietnam has met a cold, in some cases even hostile, reception in the United Nation’s Secretariat and among main delegations. The reactions, with its anti-American overtones, emphasizes the difficulty of challenging the standards of judgment on the war that are popular in the international community. Even before the bombing of the targets in the Hanoi-Haiphong area, many here believed that Secretary General U Thant had become the spokesman for those who want the United States to take the first steps toward peace whether there is positive evidence of Hanoi’s willingness to emulate them or not.”… Page 10: “GOP Chief Says 2,434 GIs Died Due To Indecision”…“The House of Representatives Leader Gerald Ford said today that “2,434 Americans had been killed in Vietnam during what he called ‘the past six and one half months interval of indecision.’ … ‘The interval,’ he said, ‘between the time the Republican Coordinating Committee called for stronger measures, including maximum use of airpower against military targets, and President Johnson’s decision to authorize strikes against North Vietnam’s oil storage facilities.”…
8 July 1966… The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized)… NORTH VIETNAM: We now have a report on Saiteny’s visit to Hanoi, albeit second hand from the French ambassador in Laos, with whom Sainteny breakfasted this morning before going on to Cambodia. The Ambassador said the atmosphere of the visit was of the utmost cordially, and that Sainteny did in fact have a lengthy conversations with Ho and Dong. On substance, however, Sainteny was said to be greatly discouraged. All leaders with whom he talked showed an “unshakeable will to resist,” and total lack of interest in a stand down of military operations, ceasefire, or negotiations. He was said to feel that their position may have hardened since the bombing of the POL facilities. Sainteny felt that civilians morale remains high. There was an atmosphere of tension, but he is said to have seen no signs of desperation or panic. Evacuation of Hanoi was proceeding in orderly fashion…COMMUNIST CHINA…Severe flooding in southern China, especially in Kwangtung Province…this province accounts for about 35% of the early rice crop…with wheat areas in the north suffering from drought, the overall picture looks grim unless growing conditions are much above average during the last half of the year.”
8 JULY 1966…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NYT (9 June reporting ops for 8 June)… “U.S. Navy Planes Sink 2 PT Boats”…”United States Navy fighter-bombers sank two North Vietnamese PT boats and heavily damaged two others yesterday in a 3-hour battle 30 miles from Haiphong. Reconnaissance planes found the patrol boats camouflaged and moored near a coastal island in the Gulf of Tonkin. The fliers called in the fighter-bombers when the boats began firing anti-aircraft guns. A-4 Skyhawk and A-6 Intruders diverted from other targets in North Vietnam after leaving USS Constellation, fired at the small boats with radio controlled Bullpup missiles and 5-inch rockets. Other Skyhawks with Bullpups and 250-pound bombs helped pursue the boats fleeing to the island. None of the attacking airplanes were damaged. The engagement was the third in eight days between American fighter-bombers and North Vietnamese patrol boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. The first encounter was on July 1 and the second on July 5… Before yesterday’s MIG encounter Navy fighter-bombers struck for the second time in ten days the fuel storage area two miles northwest of Haiphong…Four flights of A-4 Skyhawks destroyed four storage tanks, probably destroyed four more, and damaged two more. The planes also demolished two pump houses. The 500-pound bombs, rockets and 20mm cannon fire touched off explosions and produced a huge fireball and three columns of smoke rising to 20,000-feet. The target area was a half mile wide and 3/4 of a mile long. Navy F-8 Crusaders attacked anti-aircraft positions around the fuel depot before the bombers swooped in, But one Skyhawk pilot said the target “was pretty well defended. There was flak all the way in and all the way out.” A Skyhawk flown by Lieutenant Commander William Isenhower of Lemoore, California was damaged during the raid, but he managed to steer over the sea before bailing out. He was rescued by a Navy helicopter…
Navy bombers first hit the Haiphong fuel depot on June 29. Minutes later Air Force pilots pounded a large petroleum products farm three and a half miles from the center of Hanoi. About 40% of North Vietnam’s fuel storage capacity and 95% of its facilities for unloading fuel tanker ships. Several ships were reported to be anchored outside Haiphong before the first strike. The Hanoi complex contained 20% of the nation’s storage capacity….”United States officials announced after the first said that the Air force had knocked out 90% of its targets and the Navy had been 80% successful. Well informed sources said this week, however, the Navy planes damaged only slightly more than 30% of the Haiphong facility on the first raid. No damage was done by enemy anti-aircraft missiles in yesterday’s encounter…In other air action yesterday Air Force pilots attacked a fuel depot 35 miles north of Hanoi and Navy pilots hit one 43 miles southeast of Vinh. Smoke around the targets made bomb damage assessment difficult…During an attack on a railroad bridge and a freight train 90 miles northwest of Hanoi, an Air Force f-105D was brought down by gunfire and the pilot is listed as missing. To the northeast and northwest of the capital, other F-105s dodged three surface-to-air missiles….
“Vietnam: Air Losses”…Two aircraft downed in an exceptionally heavy day of ops…
(1) 1LT RALPH THOMAS BROWNING was flying an F-105D of the 333rd TFS and 355th TFW out of Takhli in a quick reaction strike on a truck park discovered near Thai Nguyen…Chris Hobsen reports: “One of the strike aircraft was hit by a 85mm shell and immediately burst into flames. Within seconds the Thunderchief became uncontrollable and 1LT BROWNING ejected. RALPH BROWNING spent nearly seven years in various prison camps until his release on 12 February 1973. This was an ironic case of history repeating itself as his father, an Eighth Air Force B-17 navigator/bombardier during the Second World War, had also been shot down and spent 19 months in a German POW camp. After release RALPH BROWNING resumed his Air Force and became an instructor in an Aggressor Squadron, He later commanded an F-15 squadron and eventually rose to the rank of Brigadier General in 1988 when he took command of the 58th Wing at Luke AFB, Arizona. RALPH BROWNING retired from the Air Force in 1992.”…oohrah for the Brownings…
(2) An A-4C Skyhawk from the VA-216 Black Diamonds embarked in USS Hancock lost a bomb on the catapult stroke that bounced and struck the belly of the aircraft causing the pilot to successfully eject before the damaged aircraft hi the water… He was rescued by helicopter… This was the third VA-216 A-4c lost in the first 8 days of July (4th,7th, and 8th)… Pilot of the third A/C was unidentified…
RIPPLE SALVO… #130… Parading captured combatants through narrow streets flooded with shouting and threatening citizens and troops for the purpose of propaganda and to boost the morale of the citizens is outside the bounds of the 1949 Geneva convention, which North Vietnam, a new nation, acceded to in June 1957. Article XIII of the accords specifies that prisoners of war must be protected against intimidation, insults and public curiosity. By declaring our downed Rolling Thunder aviators war criminals and not prisoners of war, since the United States never declared war, our warriors became vulnerable to the courts of North Vietnam…and useful pawns for exploitation by Ho Chi Minh at any time morale among his war weary people lagged. As it did during the POL campaign and the escalation of the bombing to targets closer to the population centers. Thus a flurry of POWs on parade, disclosure of the names of a few POWs, and interviews with “admissions of guilt” ??? with a select few for dissemination to the world… I have culled four July 1966 articles from the NYT covering the parading and “admissions” that Ho Chi used to bolster the morale of his people and command world attention.
(1) NYT 7 July Page 5: “Hanoi Says Pilots Are Paraded In City”… Moscow…”Dozens of captured American pilots were marched through the streets of Hanoi last night to the shouts and demonstrations of angry mobs. The North Vietnamese agency said tens of thousands of people poured into the streets as the airmen passed by under armed escorts “to a place where they will be interrogated.” The Hanoi dispatch said the men ranged in rank from Lieutenant to Commander and were based on carriers in the Seventh Fleet or at bases in South Vietnam of Thailand. It gave no further identification. (However, a photograph of seven of the prisoners was published in the NYT with the story. The photo showed a column of paired POWs with crowds of demonstrators encroaching on the column.) …The Moscow dispatch added: “In the face of the wrathful shouts and protests of the population, all of them marched dociliy with their heads bent, their faces pale in the sweltering heat–a lamentable of the heavily battered United States air superiority.”
(2) NYT 7 July Page 3: “Hanoi Identifies Two Downed Pilots”:…”The North Vietnam press agency announced today the names of two more American pilots it said it had captured after their planes were shot down in North Vietnam. The Hanoi radio raised hints that captured fliers might be tried on charges of war crimes. The two men were identified as CAPTAIN DAVID HATCHER of the Air Force and COMMANDER JAMES MULLIGAN of the Navy. Radio Hanoi said the two men admitted their crimes and released their statements:
HATCHER: ” Since my capture I have realized that the war that is waged by the United States government against North Vietnam is dirty and bad because it is against the will of the Vietnamese people and makes it impossible for them to have their independence, their freedom, territorial integrity and national unification.”
MULLIGAN: “This war in Vietnam had no appeal to me, for it was an unjust war against a people who never did anything to the detriment of United States interests. My military obligation forces me to participate in this war. Many other military men share this same attitude, as do many other groups forming against this unjust and unlawful war in the United States and contributing to the ground swell of war opposition on the United States home front.”
“Describing the parading of American prisoners yesterday through the Hanoi streets the Hanoi Radio said, “The people knew the government would represent them all to try to punish the pirates in proportion to their crimes.”… “The broadcast said the Americans were handcuffed and marched under armed escort.”
(3) NYT 10 July Page 4: “2 More U.S. Fliers are Named in Hanoi’…” Hanoi’s press agency said today that two more U.S. pilots captured in North Vietnam had admitted their crimes and asked forgiveness for part in raids…” The two added to Captain Hatcher (5/66) and Commander Mulligan (3/66) were LIEUTENANT COMMANDER COLE BLACK (6/66) and CAPTAIN BRUCE SEEBER,USAF (10/65)…
(4) NYT 11 July Page 13: Tokyo dateline: “Another captured American pilot admitted being a war criminal. Navy LIEUTENANT EDWARD ANTHONY DAVIS, who was shot down in August 1965 while flying an A-4 off USS Oriskany.” The North Vietnam official press agency release also alluded to two other pilot admissions of war crimes but did not identify the fliers by name..
The plight and treatment of our POWs will be one of the threads of interest that I will be tracking in my daily summaries of the days of Rolling Thunder…
Lest we forget…. Bear ………. –30– ……….