RIPPLE SALVO… #251… THEN AND NOW… but first…
Good Morning: Day TWO HUNDRED FIFTY-ONE of a look back to the war that tore America apart…
8 NOVEMBER 1966… HEADLINES AT HOME from the New York Times… A cloudy Tuesday for the “off year elections.”…
Page 1: “G.O.P. Is Expected To Add Strength In Voting Today… House Shift Seen… Result to be watched for clue to how national sentiment on Vietnam war.”…Page 1: “Johnson Surgery Is Likely Friday; tests all right…operation could be delayed until Tuesday depending on talks with doctors…operation on polyp in throat and scar tissue from old gall bladder operation.” …Page 1: “Chinese Stage Second Walkout In Two Days at Moscow fete…49th anniversary of Bolshevik Revolution.” …Page 1: “Air Force Urges Big New Bomber faster than B-52…Plane would follow F-111 with twice the range and 5 times the firepower…McNamara gets the plane and expects to approve the funds for detailed study of the craft’s potential.” … Page 1: “McNamara Heckled as War Antics Halt His Car.”… Page 6: “Hopes For Pacification Need in Vietnam is called urgent but quick gains appear unlikely.”…Page 23: “Dr. King To Meet Hoffa On Rights will seek financial help at a conference tomorrow.”…
8 NOVEMBER 1966… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NYT (9 Nov reporting 8 Nov ops)… Page 5: “In North Vietnam yesterday United States pilots flew 140 missions of 2 to 5 planes each striking near Hanoi and the port of Haiphong, through the panhandle region, and as far northwest as the former French stronghold of Dienbeinphu. Several missions were directed into the demilitarized zone separating North Vietnam and South Vietnam.”… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There were no fixed wing losses in Southeast Asia on 8 November 1966.” ooohrah…
RIPPLE SALVO… #251… Fifty years ago on this day in 1966 President Johnson and Vice President Humphrey watched the “off-year election” hoping that the Democrats could retain majorities in both the Senate and the House so they could continue to simultaneously wage war in Southeast Asia and pursue the hundreds of programs in LBJs ambitious “Great Society” … The democrats lost a lot of seats but they retained their majorities in Congress.
Our 2016 Presidential election is probably the most important election of our lifetimes… The nation is more divided than at any time since the Civil War; we are in deep, deep, debt; the winds of war are roaring in the Mid-East and Southern Asia, with warm breezes building in other quarters; and, neither of our choices for President has a plan to get us out of the graveyard spiral that has gained control of our national destiny. We live in perilous times and we are about to hand the controls to a pilot that at least two thirds of Americans don’t and won’t trust.
A true measure of the dilemma is well stated in Victor Davis Hanson’s essay “The Unenviable Next President.” I quote a paragraph: “The next President will be facing economic stagnation, record debt, racial division, looming large and ongoing small wars abroad, and a health care system in ruins. Common to all problems is that tough solutions–fiscal discipline, recalibrating the tax code, restoration of deterrence, and a new health insurance model–will be controversial and painful as is the current unsustainable slide into chaos.” http://victorhanson.com/wordpress/?p=9579
The “slide into chaos” that began in the years of the Vietnam War and Operation Rolling Thunder and the ascension of the Boomer Generation to positions of authority in America continues unabated. (Boomers have held the Presidency for 24 consecutive years and will continue to make the big decisions for another four to eight years). “United we stand, divided we fall.” God’s will be done. Pray for our country, we’re in a lot of trouble.
Lest we forget… Bear -30-