RIPPLE SALVO… #551… Continuing the Summary Report of the August 1967 Stennis hearings… but first…
Good Morning: Day FIVE HUNDRED FIFTY-ONE of a return to the air war over North Vietnam called Rolling Thunder…
8 September 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a fair Friday in the home of the Yankees…
VIETNAM: U.S. TO CONSTRUCT VIETNAM BARRIER NEAR BUFFER ZONE–McNAMARA ANNOUNCES PLAN FOR FORTIFIED LINE BUT WON’T SPECIFY LENGTH–BARBED WIRE BEING INSTALLED–MARINES NEAR DMZ REPULSE BAYONET CHARGE”... “Defense Secretary Robert Strange McNamara announced a decision today to construct a barrier of barbed wire, mines, and electronic devices along the northern border of South Vietnam. the barrier would be placed below the DMZ. Mr. McNamara would not say how far the strip–designed to impede the flow of men and arms from North Vietnam–would extend along the 39-mile border or whether it would cross into Laos to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail…MORE TARGETS…Speaking at a Pentagon news conference…he said he believed that some of the recommendations for expanding the bombing in North Vietnam made by the Senate Preparedness Subcommittee run the risk of widening the war, but he did not preclude attacks on additional targets as time goes by…”... Page 1: “Thieu On taking Office Will Offer Bombing Pause”...on about October 1. There will be no pause unless North Vietnam shows some sign of reciprocation. ‘Maybe one week or ten days after that, I will offer a pause. (On Tuesday NVN indicated it would reject any attempt to make peace offers through General Thieu.)… Page 8: “Enemy Strength Held Overstated –New Figures Indicate Total Is Much Below 297,000”... “The intelligence community has nearly completed a study based on captured documents, more productive interrogation of prisoners and an enlarged network of spies and informers. Study says 297,000 is based on guesswork.”…
Page 9: “Marines repulse Bayonet Attack–American Dead Put At 114 As Battle enters Fourth Day”... “Encircled U.S. Marines wearing gas masks against a barrage of tear gas shells turned back a North Vietnamese bayonet charge…as the battle near a hamlet 32 miles south of Danang entered its fourth day. A total of 114 Marines have been killed and 283 wounded. Enemy dead were put at 376. General Westmoreland arrived by helicopter at the command post of the Fifth Marine regiment toget a first hand report of the battle, the heaviest contact in Vietnam in two months…Hill 63…Hamlet of Vinhhuy, 12 miles northeast of Tamky… 4,000 North Vietnamese in pressed uniforms with new field telephones, new gas masks and shiny weapons are elements of three regiments entrenched in the Queson Valley. ‘There are caves and tunnels in the valley going back to Vietminh days,’ said Brigadier General Foster Lahuc, the assistant division commander. ‘We found one cave that could have held a full battalion.’ “… Page 13: “U.N. Viewed As Unlikely To Call Vietnam Parley–Delegates See Little Chance for U.S. Plan–the opposition by Soviet Union is firm.”
SUMMER IN AMERICA 1967: “The Dirty Dozen” is showing as the #1 movie at neighborhood theaters… Norman Mailer was asked: “Why are Americans in Vietnam?…His answer: “Because it is there, man. And violence is there, and violence is as American as apple pie.
“Page 1: “Mayor of New York Charges U.S. Scrimps On City Aid”…”Does not provide sufficient aid…has failed to meet the rising expectations of the poor, the ill-housed and the oppressed.”... Page 1: “Nixon Aide Doubts Romney’s Ability–Says He Shows Weakness’ in Handling the Issues–McNamara Also Critical of Nixon.”… “Long Ford Strike Appears Likely–Walkout To Last at Least 2 Months”… “Long Loans Urged to Spur Students–A 40-year Repayment Plan to Finance College Costs asked by U.S. Panel.”… “Milwaukee Civil Rights Demonstrators Tear Up Mayor’s Office Reception Room–Four Hour Sit-in”…
ALSO Page One: “Mao Is Expected To Pursue Purge,” which means a protracted continuation of Mao Tse-tung’s campaign to purge China of revisionist policies, ideas and officials.”
8 SEPTEMBER 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (9 Sept reporting 8 Sept ops)... Page 2: “While bad weather prevented strike operations around Hanoi, propaganda aircraft managed to drift three million leaflets over the Hanoi and Haiphong areas with four often repeated psychological warfare messages.”… No further reports in NYT…
(Humble Host: I saw a CIA followup on this leaflet drop with a spy (?) in Hanoi reporting a few days later that the leaflets did not apparently come down on Hanoi…)
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 8 September 1967…
(1) MAJOR J.B. CASKEY and CAPTAIN R.J. DRAGE were flying an F-4B of the VMFA-323 Death Rattlers and MAG-13 on a bombing mission in the DMZ and hit by ground fire on their second bomb run on buildings near Thon Cam Son. MAJOR CASKEY turned east and over the water turned south to head for Danang in the crippled jet. Unfortunately, the F-4 quit flying six miles off-shore from Hue and both Marines ejected. They were rescued to fly and fight again…
(2) an F-8C of the VF-111 Sundowners embarked in USS Oriskany suffered an electrical failure, then engine failure on an armed recce mission and was forced to eject over the Gulf of Tonkin. The unidentified fighter pilot was rescued and was back in the fight the following day. oohrah…
RIPPLE SALVO… #551… STENNIS SENATE PREPAREDNESS SUB-COMMITTEE AIR WAR HEARING REPORT SUMMARY: VI of IX…PROPOSALS TO SUSPEND OR RESTRICT THE AIR WAR…
“Many proposals have been heard recently calling for a curtailment of our air campaign against North Vietnam, including a complete cessation of the bombing in certain vital areas. It is clear from the record that all of these proposals have received some discussion in official circles. It is less clear that they are dead at this time.
“Each of these proposals has the serious fault that, if adopted, the inevitable result would be an increased infiltration of men and war goods into South Vietnam and increased casualties among US and allied troops. The impact of a complete cessation of the bombing is clearly apparent. As Admiral Sharp testified: ‘It generally would be a disaster for the United States, in my opinion,’ as ‘we would immediately face a large increase in loss of troops in South Vietnam,’ and ‘in my opinion, extend the war indefinitely.’
“A territorial limitation on the bombing would also be a perilous course because it would afford the North Vietnamese many sanctuaries and enable them to expand the ground war in South Vietnam with a lesser penalty than is now being exacted. As; an illustration, General Wheeler testified that a reduction of our bombing or imposition of additional restrictions on our air forces would cause increased US and allied casualties in South Vietnam.
“Those who propose a temporary bombing lull, as evidence of our good intentions in the hope that it would bring Hanoi to the conference table, overlook the hard facts of increased casualties and past history. The net effects of such truces was shown clearly by the Tet stand down in early 1967. We were told that during the four-day lapse in air attacks during the period North Vietnam pushed through volume of supplies that would have required at least thirty-eight days to move during periods of air activity. As a matter of fact, the tonnage figures reveal that supplies flowing southward during this four-day lull were at least 600-per cent greater than the figures cited by Secretary McNamara.
“Conceding that these proposals are well-meaning, we feel that they ignore the facts of life. Hanoi continues to demand unilateral and unconditional suspension of the bombing campaign without any offer of reciprocal reductions of military action on its part. It does not even guarantee that meaningful talks would ensue if we suspended the bombing. It only suggests the possibility of such talks.
“The subcommittee is firm in its belief that the desire for an early end to the fighting which we all share must not cause us to be so naive or foolish as to throw away one of our principal military advantages for shortening the war. There is no evidence whatever that North Vietnam has lowered or softening the war. There is no evidence whatever that North Vietnam has lowered or softened in any way the demands contained in the four-point stand originally proclaimed by Premier Pham Van Dong on April 8, 1967. These four-points were that the United States must stop bombing and other acts of war against North Vietnam permanently and unconditionally, withdraw all free world troops from South Vietnam, recognize the National Liberation Front as the sole genuine representative of the South Vietnamese people, and let the Vietnamese people settle their internal affairs themselves. These four-points were reaffirmed recently as July 1, 1967, by the North Vietnamese Communist Party’s official newspaper, Nhan Dan.”
Tomorrow, 9 September : VI of IX: The Impact of Previous Bombing… (and at Hook ’17 in Sparks–a full day of food, voices of wisdom from the podium, subject: Big Decks, then an evening of old friends) Tailhook oohrah
RTR QUOTE for 8 September: THOMAS JEFFERSON, Writings, Vol. IX: “Establish the eternal truth that acquiescence under insult is not the way to escape war.”…
Lest we forget… Bear