RIPPLE SALVO… #947… STATE DEPARTMENT INSTRUCTIONS FOR OUR NEGOTIATOR and “NORTH KOREA SAYS PUEBLO CREW MADE AN APPEAL FOR LENIENCY”… See below… but first…
GOOD MORNING… Day NINE HUNDRED FORTY-SEVEN of a return to the air war fought fifty years ago over North Vietnam called Rolling Thunder…
HEAD LINES from The New York Times on Tuesday, 8 October 1968… (23 more days of going north to bust a bridge)…
THE WAR: Page 1: “THIEU SAYS ENEMY HAS LOST MILITARILY”… “President Nguyen Van Thieu said today that the enemy had lost the military part of the Vietnam war and had turned to politics to recoup. The President made the statement at a Senate reception after having declared in a speech to the National Assembly that the enemy had failed in every ‘disastrous consequences’ to South Vietnam in 1968. ‘They know they cannot win militarily so the move to the political phase,’ General Thieu commented to newsmen at the reception. ‘Now they would like to use what they still have to consolidate the political area.’ It was the first time President Thieu had declared outright that he thought the enemy had lost militarily. He has repeatedly stressed that the South Vietnamese people and Government should gird for a political struggle tht would follow the military battles.”… Page 6: “TWO ALLIED SWEEPS IN VIETNAM FAIL TO FIND THE FOE”… “Allied troops pushing today through the jungle-covered mountains of the northern provinces of the South Vietnam in two massive operations were unable to find the enemy…Other troops, searching a section of the demilitarized zone and the countryside 37 miles northwest of Saigon, reported discovering two large ammunition caches.”…. BATTLESHIP MOVES NORTH… “The battleship New Jersey continued farther up the coast of North Vietnam yesterday as ti shelled an artillery site and supply point near the Ron River about 50 miles north of the demilitarized zone.”… Page 4: “CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS WIN RESPECT ON VIETNAM BATTLEFIELDS”…
PEACE TALKS: Page 7: “HANOI DELEGATION AVOIDS PRESS–Unusual Action Is Taken As Johnson Reviews Policy”… “The North Vietnamese delegation to the Vietnam peace talks here abruptly canceled its customary Monday news conference and other press interviews today in the wake of reports of a high-level policy in Washington…The Action was so unusual that Western diplomats immediately suspected that the North Vietnamese negotiators wanted to avoid the press, at least until the next scheduled session Wednesday, while President Johnson and his top advisors reviewed their Vietnam policy.”…
HEAD LINES: Page 1: “RUSK MEETS HERE ON STRONGER NATO–He Confers With 13 Foreign Ministers On the Impact of Czechoslovakia Situation”… Page 1: “HUMPHREY SCORNS NIXON AS FURTIVE–OPENS A CRUCIAL WEEK WITH ATTACK IN PENNSYLVANIA ON FOES SECRET LETTER“… Page 1: “WALLACE OFFERS A FOREIGN POLICY–His Positions Are Close To His Two Rivals–He Backs Aid and U.N.”… Page 1: “NIXON SAYS HE COULD ACHIEVE PEACE IN VIETNAM–INDICATES HE MIGHT BE ABLE TO AGREE TO A SETTLEMENT JOHNSON CANNOT ACCEPT–Saigon Role Mentioned–Candidate Links Prospects To Bigger Fighting Share For South Vietnamese”… Page 1: “TIGERS BEAT CARDS, 5-3,–Cards Lead Series 3-2…Al Kaline 2-Run Single Decides Game”… Page 2: “SOVIETS URGE SLOVAKS TO BE FRIENDLY TO ITS TROOPS–Pravda Says Closer Contact Would Speed The Return of Normalization”… Page 2: “MOSCOW STILL PRESSING FOR A WORLD RED PARLEY– Calls For Long Sought Talks–Dispute Postponement Over Czechoslovakia”… Page 18: “SYMINGTON SUGGESTS TERMINATION OF F-111 PROGRAM–Says Plane Appears Unsound And Halt may Save Lives and Billions Of Dollars”…
8 OCTOBER 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times: No coverage of the air operations north of the DMZ… VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES (Chris Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 8 October 1968…
(1) 1LT CHARLES HENRY RICHARDSON and A1C JOHN BRADFORD STEVENS were flying an O-2B of the 9th SOS and 14th SOW out of Nha Trang on a psychological warfare mission–dropping leaflets–15 miles northwest of Nha Trang when downed by ground fire. Both aviators perished in the crash. Their remains were recovered and sent home. 1LT RICHARDSON is buried in Washington Memorial Gardens in Paramus, New Jersey. AIC STEVENS, an aerial photographer, was serving with Detachment 13 of the 600th Photographic Squadron out of Nha Trang at the time of his death in combat. He was on his last mission in Vietnam before heading home for duty in Orlando… He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, Los Angeles, and rests in peace…
(2) CAPTAIN JOSEPH WESTER JONES III, USMC and CAPTAIN DANIEL J. COONON, USMC were flying an F-4B of the VMFA-115 Silver Eagles and MAG-13 out of Chu Lai on a close air support mission 15 miles southwest of Danang hen downed by enemy ground fire. They were on a diving attack on thier target when hit and never recovered. They were killed as the Phantom continued into the ground. Their remains were recovered and sent home for burial. CAPTAIN JONES is buried alongside his father, also a fallen warrior, in the Beaufort national Cemetery. His sister left a remembrance for CAPTAIN JONES at the VVMF Wall of Faces: “Dad is buried near you now. Both warriors. Both loved and missed. You have daughters and granddaughters you never knew.”… CAPTAIN COONON rests in peace– glory gained, duty done–at Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Lebanon, Pennsylvania…
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES (KIA/MIA/POW) ON THE FOUR 8 OCTOBER DATES OF THE FOUR YEARS OF THE OPERATION OVER NORTH VIETNAM…
1965, 1967, 1968… NONE…
1966…LT JOHN ANTHONY FELDHAUS, USN… (KIA)… The Hobson report is included in RTR for 8-Oct-66 (Ripple Salvo #221)… To which the following is added. Navy News Service, 7-Dec- 2001. Vietnam War MIA Identified, laid to Rest at Arlington. “The remains of a U.S. Navy pilot, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and returned to his family in the United States. Identified is Commander John A. Feldhaus, of Lawrenceberg, Tennessee. Feldhaus was buried with full military honors on November 20, 2001 at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. He is survived by four children and seven grandchildren. His widow Suzanne died in 1987.”
At the time of the loss to enemy ground fire a search of several days for a crash site and LT FELDHAUS was fruitless. No parachute, beeper, warrior or wreckage was found. He was declared MIA. In 1993, a joint U.S./Vietnamese team led by Joint Task Force-Full Accounting conducted an investigation in Thanh Hon Province where they believed the crash occurred, but they found no aircraft debris or remains. Between 1996 and 2000, another four investigations or evacuations were conducted in Vietnam yielding aircraft debris, pilot-related artifacts, personal effects and remains. The U.S.Army Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii used mitochondrial DNA to confirm the identification. The process involved matching a skeletal fragment to that of a Feldhaus family member. A 35 year wait was over…
An active search for 1,016 missing and unaccounted-for Vietnam war warriors continues… Support your local DPAA…
RIPPLE SALVO… #947… STATE DEPARTMENT. OFFICE OF HISTORIAN. HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS. FOREIGN RELATIONS. NORTH KOREA, 1964-68. Document 318, a “Telegram from the Department of State to the Embassy in Korea,” dated 8 October 1968. This easy reading two-pager is a set of instructions for our man in Panmunjom, Admiral Woodward, to follow at the Twenty-third Meeting with his “worthy opponent” North Korea’s Foreign Minister Pak. The release of the 82 members of the crew (plus one body) is finally getting close. The wheels of diplomacy move slowly. It is down to wordsmithing, gentlemen’s deceit, and face saving. Please read to the last footnote. Where to sign the document is worth a smile… Read and smile at…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v29p1/d318
NEW YORK TIMES, 9-OCT-68, Page 16. “NORTH KOREA SAYS PUEBLO CREW MADE AN APPEAL FOR LENIENCY,”
by Bernard Gwertzman. Dateline: Washington, 8-Oct-68…
“North Korea made public today a petition for leniency allegedly addressed to it by the crew of the Pueblo, the United States intelligence vessel seized last January 23. Some United States officials believe the petition may lay the groundwork for the eventual release of the 82 survivor crew.
“According to a monitored broadcast by the North Korean press agency, the crew said that because the United States government had not taken ‘proper steps’ to obtain their release, ‘we can see but one way–that is, to ask for leniency from the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.’ In the statement the crew affirmed that the Pueblo had entered the 12-mile territorial limit of North Korea, and criticized the United States for not acknowledging the penetration.
U.S. BARS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
“The United States contends that there is no evidence that the ship penetrated the 12-mile limit but that, if the crew was released, an investigation would be held and apologies made if the charge were upheld. The petition noted that the United States had rejected North Korea’s terms for the release of the men: acknowledgement of the alleged penetration, an apology, and assurances that there would be no penetration in the future.
“The petition said, according to the North Korean press agency, that ‘it is clear to us that our Government has not yet given any affirmative answer [to North Korea’s conditions], nor has it taken any proper steps, and we think there is a limit to the patience of the Government of the D.P.R.K. Therefore in deciding the fate of each of us, we can see but one way–that is, to ask for leniency from the Government of the D.P.R.K.’ North Korea did not say what action it was taking on the petition, which was broadcast in English.
“The State Department said the lengthy document had ‘nothing new’ and was ‘part of the renewed propaganda campaign’ of the North Koreans. But some analysts believe that by conceding that the United States will not meet North Korea’s conditions, the leniency appeal may be a prelude to a decision to release the men on humanitarian grounds. Other officials said hopes had been raised before, but had not been fulfilled.
“The Pueblo was on an intelligence-gathering mission off North Korea when seh was captured by North Korean patrol boats. One man in the 83-man crew died of injuries caused during the capture. Since then, United States and North Korean officials have met 22 times at Panmunjom to discuss the Pueblo.
SEVERAL ‘CONFESSIONS’ ISSUED
“Various confessions attributed to Captain Lloyd M. Bucher and his officers, men and civilian oceanographers who were aboard the ship have been published by the North Koreans. Two news conferences have been held, in which the men said the ship had orders to transgress North Korean waters and, in fact, had been captured 7.6 miles from a North Korean island. Today’s petition, like other alleged confessions, was written in awkward English, suggesting, that they had been drafted by the North Koreans.
“The petition listed 17 instances of intrusion into North Korean waters during the 10 days the Pueblo was on its mission. The crew said, according to the press agency, that ‘we 82 crew members of the Pueblo stand guilty before the fair world judgement as superspies and perpetrators of crimes so horrible they have seldom been exceeded in the history of the world. We are truly hurt by [United States] denials of the obvious truths of our atrocities… and we implore [North Korea] to, consider our true penitence and bona fide assurances to never again take part in crimes against their country.’ “… End quote…
Alas, it would be until December before a deal on the release of the 82 Pueblo sailors could be reached…home by Christmas, which is more than could be said for the several hundred Rolling Thunder warriors caged in Hanoi. Of course, Harriman and Vance were negotiating Christmas packages for the American POWs in North Vietnam… Humble Host wonders??? Did our Secretary of State Pompeo– fresh from a fourth visit to North Korea today– after talking nukes with Kim Il-un, have the chutzpah to mention the 50-year old thorn in our side, USS Pueblo, that awaits a return to the U.S.A…. ???
RTR Quote for 8 October, thanks to Bruce Herman (RTR PLANK OWNER). WILLIAM FAULKNER, Requiem for a Nun: “The past is never dead. It is not even past.”… Pueblo, case in point….
Lest we forget… Bear