RIPPLE SALVO… #101… TO PROCEED WITH GREAT EFFORT… but first…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED ONE of a remembrance of a forgotten war… unless you were there…
8 JUNE 1966…ON THE HOME FRONT…(NYT)… A sunny and pleasant Wednesday in NYC…
Page 1: “Troopers Shove Group Resuming Meredith March”… Mississippi State troopers took to pushing the Meredith marchers off the road and on to the shoulder, including Dr. Martin Luther King, where the march resumed. Three miles down, 194 to go. The front ranks of the march is a who is who of civil rights leadership with every national organization represented. The march to Jackson is already rivaling last years Selma to Montgomery march and has given new impetus to the campaign for new legislation. The shooting of Meredith, who remains in the hospital with superficial wounds, has increased pressure for the enactment of new civil rights legislation… Page 1: Meredith Regrets He Was Not Armed“…”I am sorry I didn’t have something to take care of that man. I’ll never make that mistake again.”… Page 26: “Attack On Meredith Spurs Rights Bill,” by John Herbers… “The shooting of James H. Meredith on a Mississippi highway stirred angry responses in Washington officials today and increased pressure for enactment of the Administration’s civil rights bill. Emanuel Celler from Brooklyn, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee and sponsor of the Johnson Bill said,” There are times when the civil rights movement has no greater friend than its enemy. It is the enemy of civil rights who again and again produces the evidence to convince the nation that we cannot stand still.” Ev Dirksen said a ghastly act on the highway that it is bound to add spirit and steam to the civil rights bill that was lacking before.
Page 1: “U.S. Plans A Vietnam Drive Using 100,000 More GIs”…”A major United States offensive in South Vietnam to open principle highways and the north-south railroads is awaiting the now scheduled arrival by the end of the year of about 100,000 more U.S. troops. This would bring the number of United States troops there to nearly 400,000.” A pentagon official said, “We will never persuade the South Vietnamese peasant we offer some hope for the future while we continue to hop over troubled areas in our airplanes and helicopters leaving him to contend on the ground with persistent armed harassment.” The offensive would be aimed at pushing the Vietcong and NVN troops off the coastal provinces, where they sit astride the main arteries, into the central portion of the country.
Page 3: “Buddhists To Urge Non-Cooperation”... The leadership of the United Buddhist Church plans to use passive resistance if Ky stays as Premier. R.W. Apple wrote: “The Leader of the moderate wing of the Unified church, Thich Tam Chou told a crowd of 5,000 Buddhists at Saigon’s main pagoda that he would order a ‘non-co-operation’ campaign if Premier Ky and Lieutenant General Nguyen Thieu, the Chief of Staff, did not resign. Thich suggested that children would boycott classes, civil servants strike, and soldiers lay down their arms . Thich, who represents about 1 million Buddhists in a national population of 16 million said: “The leaders of the interim government must be strongly anti-Vietcong because I am a Buddhist and I take a strongly anti-Communist position. I say this even though the Vietcong might try to assassinate me.”… “GI Prisoners In The North Get 50 Letters a Week”…”The International Red Cross said today it is forwarding an average of 50 letters a week to United States prisoners in North Vietnam.”
Page 3: “Enemy Toll is 172 In Vietnam Clash”… “A North Vietnamese attack on a U.S. artillery position was turned back by American paratroopers in antral highlands, leaving their dead on the battlefield. What began as a minor mortar attack became a small fire fight that was interrupted by monsoon rains. the fight resumed and continued through dawn and included hand to hand fights.”
Letter to the editor: Signed by 21 Princeton academics reacting to an earlier Times story…”We believe that American actions in the past year have done more harm than good. The air strikes in the North are futile and immoral. Massive intervention in the South is destroying the basis for any reasonably just and viable government and society while corrupting ourselves in the process.”
8 June 1966…President’s Daily Briefing… CIA (TS sanitized)…South Vietnam: The political situation remains uneasy. The Buddhists are keeping up the pressure on the government. Tri Quang has started another hunger strike. In a Saigon press conference today Tam Chau reiterated that the non-violent struggle to topple Ky will continue. He reportedly said Buddhists would participate in the proposed elections if the government resigns. Chau has an appointment with Ambassador Lodge on 9 June. In Hue’ and Da Nang the streets are still blocked by altars and nothing effective has been done about removing them. This is also the case farther north in Quang Tri, where the chief Buddhist monk appears to be in control.
8 JUNE 1966…ROLLING THUNDER OPERATIONS…NYT (9 June page 1 reporting 8 June ops): “United States Air Force and Navy pilots flew 70 missions over North Vietnam yesterday striking in the vicinity of Dong Hoi on the coast. The Air Force bombers destroyed four bridges and six anti-aircraft sites near the Mugia Pass, one of the most important infiltration routes. the road through the pass was interdicted in three places. Navy pilots attacked railroads, bridges and coastal shipping in the panhandle and near Haiphong. One strike destroyed more than 150 feet of railway track.” “Vietnam: Air Losses”…
(1) MAJOR J.C. HOLLEY was flying an F-105D from the 334TFS and the 4thTFW out of Takhli on an armed reconnaissance mission over the panhandle and was hit by groundfire while strafing a target ten miles south of Dong Hoi. MAJOR HOLLEY wa able to fly the aircraft over the Gulf and eject to be rescued by a USAF helicopter.
RIPPLE SALVO… #101… “STRUGGLE”… “…to make strenuous effort against opposition… to proceed with difficulty or with great effort…”
Struggle was the name the South Vietnamese Buddhists gave their campaign of civil disobedience to overthrow the government. Great word. Applies to so much of what our lives are all about. Nations too. Struggle is a good descriptor of a life on earth for man or beast. Struggle is also a good descriptor for my composition skills this evening… Aaah, a good night of sleep…
Lest we forget…. Bear ………. –30– ……….