RIPPLE SALVO… #341… “WHATEVER THE OUTCOME…PRESERVE MUTUAL TRUST…” but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED FORTY-ONE of a non-stop revisit to OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…
9 February 1967… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a bitter cold Thursday in Manhattan…
Page 1: “Freezing Cold Slows City Removal”... “New York struggled yesterday on the coldest day of the year to dig out from the blizzard that closed schools, left icy perilous roadways and dealt a crippling blow to planes, trains and buses. As freezing cold numbed the East coast–the city shivering in temperatures as low as 6-degrees–residents began the laborious job of removing 12.6-inches of snow that fell Tuesday.”... Page 1: “Johnson Says U.S. Hopes New Truce Leads Up To Parley”…”President Johnson expressed hope today that the current cease-fire in Vietnam might be extended and open the way to negotiations for a ‘just and stable peace.’ Without elaborating the President said in a reply to a message from Pope Paul VI that the ‘Government of the United States and the Republic of Vietnam, together with others, are devoting intensive efforts to this end.’…the Pope urges…all to convert the truce into an armistice and begin peace talks…President displayed in the message a fairly tough position by indicating again that no reduction in American military actions should be expected unless it was ‘balanced’ by similar reductions of military activity by the enemy.”...Page 1: “Kosygin Urges U.S. To Halt Bombing”… “Premier Aleksie Kosygin of the Soviet Union said today that unconditional cessation of American bombing was necessary in order to enable talks to take place’ between the United States and North Vietnam. His statement was seen in some informed quarters a significant signal that Hanoi would reciprocate with some move if the bombing were halted. The United States has said it will halt the bombings only if there is some indication of reciprocation.”… Page 3: “Few Incidents Mar Cease-Fire”… “An American spokesman listed today only 17 significant incidents assertedly caused by enemy forces during the first 24-hours of the current four-day holiday. One such incident: ‘A sniping attack’ by 10 guerrilla on an American division in a province southwest of Saigon.”…
Page 1: “New China Policy Urged by Kennedy”... “Senator Robert Kennedy urged today the formulation of a new policy toward Communist China. He asserted that the United States had ‘widely exaggerated the aggressiveness of Peking and underestimated the significance of the Chinese-Soviet split.’…He said: ‘The United States should be prepared to extend economic aid–many more times than we are now paying.’…also… If a strong and free India is considered vital to national security the level of economic and military assistance should reflect that priority.”… Page 1: “Moscow and Peking In a Loudspeaker War”… “Soviet loudspeakers blared complaints at the curtained windows of the Chinese Embassy today while the Soviet Foreign Minister accused the diplomats inside of rudeness. the ministry demanded the embassy stop running its own loudspeakers, two little ones that were no match for the Soviets eight big ones.”…
Page 1: “President Offers a Program to Aid Neglected Children”… “President Johnson gave Congress a vivid picture today of the neglect suffered by millions of American children and recommended a variety of measures, largely experimental, to alleviate their condition and to seek long-term solutions: (1) $135 million for pre-school training for poor children (2)$100 million to encourage better treatment of juvenile delinquents and (3) search for new forms of child service and health care.”… Page 4: “400 Peace Corps Members Ask the President to End Bombing of North Vietnam….in a letter from ‘The Returnees Association.’…”Page 23: “House Votes to Raise the National Debt Ceiling $6-Billion”…”New ceiling is $336-billion through June 1967…the higher limit made necessary by rising costs of the Vietnam war that were not taken into account when the $330-billion ceiling was fixed last year.”
9 FEBRUARY 1967…UNITED STATES STATE DEPARTMENT Office of the Historian…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d47
This document is the written record of a phone call from Secretary McNamara to the President at 8:29 in the morning of 9 February 1967 in the middle of the cease-fire truce in Vietnam. The conversation: (1) McNamara tells the President that the Joint Chiefs have evidence that the NVN guys are cheating on a large-scale and more than 900 large junks are hauling stuff south and the Chiefs want to go destroy the 900 junks. McNamara tells the President that he has talked to “Buzz” (Wheeler CJCS) who supports the JCS Chiefs…go for the junks, etc. (2) McN says, no way, but let’s have a meeting today and reminds the President that the ongoing peace initiative is more important than the junks. The President asks McN if the truce agreement with NVN allows them to do what they are doing…(3) McN. No. Our agreement with them allows us to jump all over them if we catch them cheating, but McN tells the President that we are cheating too, so we should let it go… (4) President says let’s have the meeting…They meet… Follow-on note says: “The President, McNamara, Rusk, Katzenbach (#2 at State), Vance (#2 at Defense), and Bundy met with Wheeler that afternoon from 1:12pm to 2:07pm. No record of the meeting has been found, but apparently a decision was made against resumption.”…
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM…LIEUTENANT JUNIOR GRADE DIETER DENGLER, UNITED STATES NAVAL RESERVE…the NAVY CROSS…
“The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the NAVY CROSS to LIEUTENANT, JUNIOR GRADE DIETER DENGLER, United States Naval Reserve, for extraordinary heroism during an extremely daring escape from a Prisoner of War stockade in Laos on 30 June 1966. Playing a key role in planning, preparing for, and developing an escape and evasion operation involving several fellow prisoners and himself, LIEUTENANT, JUNIOR GRADE DENGLER, keenly aware of the hazardous nature of the escape attempt, boldly initiated the operation and contributed in large measure to its success. When an unplanned situation developed while the escape operation was being executed, he reacted with the highest degree of valor and gallantry. Through his courageous and inspiring fighting spirit, LIEUTENANT, JUNIOR GRADE DENGLER upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”
LTJG DENGLER was flying an A-1J of the VA-145 Swordsmen embarked in USS Ranger when downed by enemy ground fire in Steel Tiger (Laos) and captured by the Pathet Lao on 1 February 1966. He made his escape on 29 June and was rescued on 20 July. He told his story in a book, “Escape From Laos,” which was made into a full length movie. Among his other combat awards is the Distinguished Flying Cross.
9 February 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… No coverage in either the NYT or Hobson (No fixed wing losses). (Bear/#26/ST/trucks) Tet truce… Old “Victory at Sea”movies in the ready room…Junks all over the Gulf of Tonkin, headed south…
RIPPLE SALVO… #341… 9 February 2017: Chaos in Washington. A divided country. Factions are now so entrenched with building bitterness between them, unlike anything any living American has ever seen in our country, and the nation teeters on the edge of catastrophic failure. The chasm — “A major division, separation or difference between groups– widens and deepens. How did we get here? Where did this come from? What can be done to narrow and eventually heal the breach?…
Fifty years ago in the first months of 1967 a very wise American wrote a little book titled “The Bitter Heritage.” His parting shot–last lines–were these:
“If we can remember this, in whatever direction our decisions and destiny take us, we can preserve and cherish our fundamental unity of purpose as Americans.”
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. wrote in “The Bitter Heritage: Vietnam and American Democracy, 1941-1966,” (1967) the following:
Page 50: “Our concentration on Vietnam is exacting a frightful cost. In domestic policy, with Vietnam gulping down more than a billion and half dollars a month, everything is grinding to a stop. Lyndon Johnson was on his way to a place in history as a great President for his vision of a Great Society; but the Great Society is now, except for token gestures, dead. The fight for equal opportunity for the Negro, the war against poverty, the struggle to save the cities, the improvement of our schools–all must be starved for the sake of Vietnam. And war brings ugly side-effects: inflation; frustration; indignation; protest; panic, angry derision within the national community; premonitions of McCarthyism.
“American public opinion, the Louis Harris poll tells us, ‘is rising toward increased militancy about the Vietnam war and a get-it-over-with mood.‘ No doubt this is so: the fear of a hopeless stalemate in Southeast Asia had produced a hunger for drastic solutions. It is not so much hawks vs. doves any longer as it is people becoming simultaneously hawks and doves and saying like Senator Russell, that ‘we should go in and win–or else get out.’ Among the early casualties of this get-it-over-with frenzy are likely to be our nationwide equability, good temper, moderation and reason. And, as the frenzy gathers speed, it may well bring in its wake a testing of the national faith in liberty.”
Page 126: “For whatever the outcome of the Vietnam debate or of later debates that may darken our future, the essential thing is to preserve mutual trust among ourselves as Americans. Let us remember that those who take a different position — whether they want to evacuate Saigon or bomb Hanoi — may also be actuated by honorable and patriotic motives — may, whatever their degree of error, still have a genuine concern for peace and freedom. Let us always distinguish between disagreement and disloyalty, between opposition and treason. Let us never forget that complicated problems can be resolved only by reasoned analysis, and that the insistence on reason is the final hope of democratic society. If we can remember this, in whatever direction our decisions and destiny take us, we can preserve and cherish our fundamental unity or purpose as Americans.”…end quote…
“… THE ESSENTIAL THING IS TO PRESERVE MUTUAL TRUST AMONG OURSELVES AS AMERICANS…”… and if you ain’t got it, get it… restore it… “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”… What began in 1967 in Vietnam divided our nation, divisions that have grown to crisis proportions, as evidenced in our beloved, but failing, nation over the last year and in particular, the last three months… Restoring mutual trust is a national priority. We were unable to do it in the 1960s and 50 years later any semblance of unity is gone. Make America great again? Not if we don’t trust each other and work together, as we should have been doing since the divisive 1960s.
Humble Host returns to the Gulf of Tonkin and Operation Rolling Thunder tomorrow. This post shares my conclusion that the divided nation we are today has its roots in the history and decisions made in 1965-68… That’s my view, what is yours?…
CAG’s QUOTES for 9 February: SUN TZU: “One defends when his strength is inadequate; he attacks when it is abundant.”…PATTON: “Man is war and we better remember that!”…
Lest we forget… Bear