Bear Taylor 
COMMEMORATING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE VIETNAM WAR (1961-1973)…
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER and COMMANDO HUNT REMEMBERED…
LEST WE FORGET… VIETNAM WAR BATTLE DEATHS for the month of OCTOBER 1969 — 495 brave American men were reported Killed-in-Action to raise the total American battle deaths in the war to 39,223… another 954 would be killed before the end of the ninth year of the Vientam War. Sadly, as we began the three year process of “bringing more than 540,000 troops home,” more than 18,000 would come home in body bags. Humble Host raises these bitter truths to accentuate the folly of our war in Afghanistan. The lesson learned and paid for with the blood of 58,400 American warriors in Southeast Asia was ignored eighteen years ago, and has been relearned with the loss of thousands more of our finest.
Good Morning. Humble Host concludes a remembrance of the COMMANDO HUNT II operations that spanned May through October 1969. The COMMANDO HUNT campaign against the enemy ops in Laos on the Ho Chi Minh Trail would continue for three more years with limited success… This post also includes go-to links for the remaining five campaigns of the COMMANDO HUNT operation (1968-1972) …
I. WAR AND PEACE HEADLINES FROM The NEW YORK TIMES for OCTOBER 1969… ( 1 Oct) PRESIDENT LEADS ATTEMPTS TO MUTE CRITICISM OF WAR–Republicans Scott and Ford Also Assail Those Who Would ‘Bug Out” Or Accept Capitulation–Firm Stand Asked–Nixon While Decorating Unit of Marines Says Aim Is To “Negotiate a Fair Peace”… PULLOUT OF 6,000 IN THAILAND SET…HANOI IS REPORTED SET TO LIST POWS–But No Softening On Basic Issues Is Seen… POLL FINDS NIXON IS BACKED BY 60%… (2 Oct) NIXON EASES RULE ON STUDENT DRAFT–Those Eligible For Graduate School May Finish Term… (3 Oct) MANSFIELD BIDS NIXON DECLARE A CEASE-FIRE–Says Troops Should Fire Only If Atacked–McCarthy Also Critical of Administration… ( 4 Oct) TWENTY-SIX LOST AS NAVY PLANE CRASHES IN GULF OF TONKIN… James Reston: MAIN U.S. AIM: TRAINING VIETNAMESE… ENEMY DOWNS 3 U.S. AIRCRAFT–Heavy Fighting Along DMZ… PERCY ASKS HALT IN VIETNAMESE OFFENSIVE–Troop Call-Back Urged… (5 Oct) TWENTY-ONE BILLION ARMS BILL–Approved After Bitter House Debate… WHEELER PREDICTS ENEMY OFFENSIVE WILL RESUME AFTER LULL… WAR FRUSTRATION PUT AT NEW HIGH–Poll Finds 58% Dissillusioned Over Vietnam Conflict… THE WAR: a Warning to Saigon On Troops Withdrawal–Time Is Running Out… (6 Oct) THIEU IS WILLING TO START TALKS ON A CEASE-FIRE… ROCKET ATTACKS GROW–Heaviest In Nearly Three Weeks… HUMPHREY ASKS NIXON TO TELL WITHDRAWAL PLANS TO DEMOCRATS… (7 Oct) U.S. AIDES DISCOUNT REPORTS ON GAINS IN PEACE EFFORT–False Optimisnm On Vietnam War Is Feared–Dissent Spreads to Congress…LAWMAKERS BACK ANTIWAR PROTEST–Nine In Congress Urge Support For Classroom Moratorium… WHEELER SAYS U.S. IS ON RIGHT TRACK… (8 Oct) MONSOON HAMPERS ACTION IN VIETNAM… (9 Oct) SIX RAND EXPERTS SUPPORT PULLOUT–Back Unilateral Step Within One Year In Vietnam… WAR DEATHS REPORTED NEAR THREE YEAR LOW… (10 Oct) U.S. SPEEDS SHIFT IN BURDEN OF WAR TO SAIGON’S ARMY–Laird Asserts New Orders Give ‘Highest Priority’ To Transfer of Fighting… U.S. WEEKLY COMBAT DEATHS AT 64–Low For A Week Since 1964… (11 Oct) HUMPHREY BACKS NIXON WAR POLICY AS ON RIGHT PATH–Endorses Basic Moves For Peace… NIXON RELIEVING GENERAL HERSHEY AS CHIEF OF DRAFT SYSTEM–76-Year Old General Will Be Promoted And Named An Aide To President…LAOTIAN REFUGEES TELL OF THEIR LIFE UNDER BOMBING… FIRST STEP TO DRAFT REFORM…(12 Oct) 103 YOUTHS SIEZED IN CHICAGO BATTLE–Yelling Radicals Quit Parade And Charge Police Lines… 79 COLLEGE HEADS BID NIXON STEP-UP VIETNAM PULLOUT– Leaders Of Private Schools Acting As Individuals Say War Is Hurting Society…PROTEST MOVES MOUNT–October 15 Demonstrations Set–Joint Chiefs Confer With President… (ORIOLES DEFEAT METS, 4-1, IN WORLD SERIES OPENER)… U.S. FINDS HANOI STANCE AT PARIS PARLEY TOUGHER… CONGRESS REACTS TO THE RISING CHORUS OF VIETNAM DISSENT–Bill S-3000 Vietnam Disengagement Act of 1969… (13 Oct) SECRETARY OF STATE ROGERS SAYS CRITICS MAKE PEACE UNACHIEVABLE SOON–Secretary is Disputed On Policy By 2 Senators… 16 ARE KILLED IN AC-119 CRASH–Fighting Near Saigon Intensifies…VIETCONG AIDE IN PARIS ACCUSES NIXON OF BREAKING VOW… (14 Oct) NIXON VOWS AGAIN NOT TO BE SWAYED BY WAR PROTESTS–Says In Letter To A Student That U.S. Cannot Let Policy Be ‘Made In The Streets– Plans November 3 Address To Nation–Asserts Nothing New Can Be Learned In Nationwide Moratorium Tomorrow… U.S. STRENGTH IN VIETNAM DOWN TO 505,600… B-52s KEEP UP RAIDS NEAR CAMBODIA LINE… (15 Oct) MASSIVE PROTEST ON VIETNAM WAR EXPECTED TODAY–Nixon Opposition Is Unlikely To Deter Coast-to-Coast Demonstrations.. NIXON CHALLENGES PROTEST LEADERS–Vice President Agnew Speaking For White House Asks Repudiation Of Support From Hanoi… HANOI CALLS U.S. MORATORIUM TIMELY REBUFF OF NIXON…
(16 Oct) VIETNAM MORATORIUM OBSERVED NATIONWIDE BY FOES OF THE WAR–Rallies In NYC Crowded and Orderly–Opponents React–Many Show Support For Nixon By Flying Flags At Half-Staff… PROTESTS STAGED IN WASHINGTON AS NIXON AND AIDES MEET–A Pledge By Humphrey–Thousands Mark Day… PACIFICATION IN RURAL VIETNAM MAKING BIG BUT FRAGILE GAINS… POLL FINDS NIXON LOSES POPULARITY–Gallup Survey Sees A Drop Of 8% Since July… BELLS TOLL AND CROSSES ARE PLANTED AROUND U.S. AS STUDENTS SAY ‘ENOUGH TO WARS’–Campuses Remember Plain G.I.s… WOUNDED WAR VETERANS AT SHEA FOR 5TH GAME OF WORLD SERIES DEMAND FULL-STAFF FLAG… (17 Oct) (METS WIN, 5-3, TAKE THE WORLD SERIES FROM ORIOLES–Grateful City Goes Wild–Fans Storm Field–Thousands Rip Up Turf… A Paper Blizzard Wraps The City In a Blanket of Joy)… HANOI PROPOSES U.S. AND VIECONG NEGOTIATATE ALONE…Calls In Pairs For Secret and Immediate Talks–Plan is Barred In Washington… MORATORIUM BACKERS SAY NIXON WILL HAVE TO REACT–Leaders of Moratorium Look To November 15–INTELLECTUALS DIVIDED OVER EFFECTIVENESS OF MORATORIUM IN PROMOTING PEACE…82 AMERICANS DIE IN WEEK’S BATTLES IN VIETNAM–U.S. Losses Near 3-Year Low–South Vietnam Losses Rise… (18 Oct) Eugene Rostow: FROM BOMBING HALT TO UNILATERAL WITHDRAWAL (OpEd)… (19 Oct) PRESIDENT TO CUT MILITARY BUDGET FOR NEXT FIVE YEARS–Seeks $4 to $6 Billion Slash for 1971 and Reduction In Global Capabilities–‘1 1/2 War’ Plan Backed–Preparation For One Minor and Two Major Conflicts Would Be Abandoned…NIXON SAID TO PLAN PULLOUT OF 300,000 TROOPS… WHAT THE CRITICS URGE NIXON TO DO–And Why He Refuses...GALLUP FINDS INCREASING FRUSTRATION OVER WAR… THE WAR: Is Hanoi’s Troop Reduction significant?–No One Seems To Know… (20 Oct) VICE PRESIDENT AGNEW SAYS ‘EFFETE SNOBS’ INCITE WAR MORATORIAUM… NEW ENROLLMENT IN UNIVERSITY R.O.T.C. PROGRAMS SHOW SHARP DIP–Penatagon Cites Rising Opposition to War For Drop In Freshman–Universities Ending Course… (21 Oct) TWO SENATE CRITICS VOICE CONFIDENCE IN NIXON ON WAR–Mansfield And Fulbright Say He Is Seeking To Conclude The Conflict In Vietnam– New Optimism Is Hinted–Others Doubt Major Move In President’s Speech November 3–Laos Hearings Begin… (22 Oct) NIXON ‘FACT SHEET’ REVIEWS MOVES TO END FIGHTING–Step Is Seen As An Attempt By The Administration To Keep Critics of Administration On the Defensive–Congress Gets The Paper–It Contrasts The Current Policies On Vietnam With Those of Johnson Period… TWO ANTIWAR GROUPS STRIVE FOR UNITY–Their Leaders Vow Mutual Help for Demonstrations Scheduled In November…ANTIWAR RIOTING IN JAPAN CAUSES NEAR PARALYSIS IN TOKYO… (23 Oct) SECRETARY OF DEFENSE LAIRD IS OPPOSED TO ONE-SIDED HALT BY U.S. IN FIGHTING–He Rejects Any Cease-Fire Not Included In An Accord With North Vietnam… HUMPHREY SAYS U.S. HAS MET ALL VIETNAM OBLIGATIONS… UNIVERSITY GROUP BACKS NIXON’S DRAFT LOTTERY PLAN… (24 Oct) LODGE OMITS TALKS IN PARIS–Cites ‘Invective” By Hanoi… HUMPHREY ASSAILS PACE OF PULLOUTS FROM VIETNAM… U.S. BATTLE DEATHS CONTINUE TO DECLINE–74 Killed In Action Last Week… NIXON DEFENSE POLICY: Plans Call for Cuts In Conventional Forces And Stress Atomic Weapons… (25 Oct) RUSSIANS ACCEPT NIXON INVITATION FOR ARMS TALKS–Negotiations Seek Curb On Strategic Weapons… (26 Oct) WHY THE MILITARY OPPOSES A UNILATERAL CEASE-FIRE… BEYOND STUDENT UNREST: A CRISIS OF BELIEF… (27 Oct) PENTAGON PLANS CUTBACK IN BASES IN U.S. AND ABROAD–307 Military Installations To Be Closed Or Reduced As Economy Measure–A $609 Million Saving–37,800 Jobs Are Affected… (28 Oct) KUNSTLER SAYS THAT NORTH VIETNAM IS READY TO HAND OVER A LIST OF U.S. POWS… (29 Oct) FULBRIGHT ASSAILS OPERATION IN LAOS– He Says After Hearing That Congress Hasn’t Approved Clandestine War There… U.S. MILITARY EXPECTS INTENSIFIED FIGHTING NEXT MONTH IN VIETNAM… NIXON AVOIDING TIMETABLE IN TALK ON WAR (3 November speech to nation)… (30 Oct) ROGERS DISPUTES FULBRIGHT ON LAOS–Asserts Congress Recieves Full Information On U.S. Role In Secret Warfare… (31 Oct) LODGE ASKS PRIVATE PEACE TALKS–Plea Is Rejected By North Vietnamese In Paris…SENATE DEMOCRATS REBUFFING NIXON–Delay Draft Lottery Action…
A MILESTONE IN AMERICAN HISTORY… The final three months of 1969 were tumultuous and transformative. On the battlefield the war continued and President Nixon was unable to fulfill his goal of ending the war in his first year in office. The North Vietnamese refused all American proposals for a negotiated end to the war, insisting that they would yield no ground until all American forces had been withdrawn from South Vietnam and Southeast Asia. Nixon had even begun his “Vietnamization” plan to unilaterally withdraw AmericanS as the South Vietnamese troops proved capable of taking the lead in the fighting in their home country. The North Vietnamese clung to their “talk while fighting” stance in the Paris negotiations, which remained hopelessly stalled. Nixon concluded that “the savage attack” proposed by Henry Kissinger and developed by the Joint Chiefs might alter the behavior of the enemy. “Duck Hook,” and even the use of nuclear devices, were part of the plan developed in October and November of 1969. Readers are encouraged to delve into the history of these plans in the following references… all highly classified for decades following the war…
https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//NSAEBB/NSAEBB195/index.htm (“Nixon White House Considered Nuclear Options Against North Vietnam, Declassified Documents Reveal: Nuclear Weapons, the Vietnam War, and the ‘Nuclear Taboo’)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_Hook
Needless to say, President Nixon did not execute his “Madman Strategy,” although he did rattle the world with a global increase in defense conditions and activate American forces around the world in October to elicit a reaction from North Vietnam and the Soviet Union. The ruse failed to get a reaction from either.
Concurrent with the focus on the war and peace initiatives, the President was faced with a rapidly diminishing base of support for continuation of the war. The following is quoted with permission of John Prados from pages 294-95 of his brilliant one volume book on the Vietnam War, THE BLOOD ROAD: The Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Vietnam War. I quote…
“During the initial months of Nixon’s administration the protesters had been mostly quiescent as they waited to see what results would flow from Richard Nixon’s plan to end the Vietnam War. But without movement on the Paris negotiations the frustration grew, particularly after April 1969, when the number of American combat deaths in Vietnam surpassed those suffered in the Korean War. A national moratorium was called for October 15 (1969), with a follow-up event a month later. Before the big demonstrations planned for Washington, the Students for a Democratic Society launched a deliberately violent protest in Chicago from October 8 to 11, the ‘Days of Rage.’ The SDS had been blooded in this city the year before, and the ‘Chicago 7’ leaders of the 1968 demonstrations were going up for trial. The Weathermen, the most militant faction of the spintered SDS, wanted to show up the contradictions of state power by means of open confrontation. The Days of Rage would be their theater, but also marked the effective end of SDS. Probably no more than 600 Weathermen and -women and their hangers-on, were at this violent affair, but they attracted a good deal of attention.
“The moratorium, when millions across the nation stopped business as usual for a day, framed the other end of the range of antiwar activism in America. The September 15 March on Washington that keynoted the moratorium proved huge–organizers spoke of up to a million demonstrators. The official police count would be 250,000, but the Nixon White House had its own photographs made, and as Bob Haldeman reveals, the White House crowd estimate was at least 325,000. If October had been huge, November would be humongous, as the November 15 march on Wshington drew tremendous masses of protesters. Even the police count started at 600,000 that day.”… End quote… Thanks John…. Read more at…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moratorium_to_End_the_War_in_Vietnam
After the October demonstrations and on the eve of his famous 3 November address to the nation, President Nixon wrote a letter dated 31 October to Georgetown University student Randy J. Dicks explaining his actions to live up to his promise to end the war. He wrote: “One of the first acts of my Administration was to review, exhaustively and comprehensively, every aspect of the nation’s policies in Vietnam. We have drastically altered the policies we inherited. We are on the road to peace. That road is not easy. It is not simple, but I am convinced it is the right one. There is no problem to which I have given more of my time and thought. For nine months, we have worked every day for a just end to a conflict which has been building for more than eight years.”…
On 3 November the President told the American people and the world…
“At the time we launched our search for peace I recognized we might not succeed in bringing an end to the war through negotiationj. I, therefore, put into effect another plan to bring peace–a plan which will bring the war to an end regardless of what happens on the negotiating front… I am sure you can recognize from what i have said that we really only have two choices open to us if we want to end this war. I can order an immediate, precipitate withdrawal without regard to the effects of the action. Or we can persist in our search for a just peace through a negotiated settlement if possible, or through continued implementation of our plan for Vietnamization if necessary–a plan in which we will withdraw all of our troops from Vietnam on a schedule in accordance with our progress, as the South Vietnamese become strong enough to defend their own freedom. I have chosen this second course.”
The President concluded: “…I have initiated a plan which will end this war in a way that will bring us closer to that great goal to which Woodrow Wilson and every American President in our history has been dedicated–the goal of a just and lasting peace.” Then came the “humongous” anti-war demonstrations by millions on 15 November…
On page 294 of THE BLOOD ROAD, John Prados wrote: “In retrospect, both Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger later regretted their failure to carry out Duck Hook. Telescoping the events of those war years they pointed to the bombing and mining of 1972 (Linebacker I and II), which they believed successful, and wished it had been carried out in 1969. But in 1969, what William Watts feared was exactly right–the activists were frustrated enough to turn to violence, public opinion had begun to shift away from support for the war, and the Russians, not to mention the Chinese, had yet to be decoupled from Hanoi.” (Quoted with permission of the author)…
As 1969 drew to a close and a new year began, there was little for Americans to celebrate. The war had more than three more years of fighting and dying to run. More than 18,000 more of the nation’s bravest would die while the “talking while fighting” dragged on.
II. HUMBLE HOST WRAPS UP THE FINAL THREE YEARS OF COMMANDO HUNT… This website was initiated to remember the years of Rolling Thunder–1965-1968, and it is time to return to the original intention. COMMANDO HUNT, the “war against trucks” on the Ho Chi Minh Trail is a matter of record on the internet and the following sources are recommended for my readers attention. John Prados’ THE BLOOD ROAD: The Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Vietnam War is most highly recommended. The book is out of print but good used copies are available from abebooks.com for about ten bucks. This book belongs in every Vietnam vet’s library.
Bernard C. Nalty’s THE WAR AGAINST TRUCKS: Aerial Interdiction in Southern Laos, 1968-1972 is available in its entirely on-line, all 380 pages. Humble Host recommends you download this easy reading account of the seven phases of COMMANDO HUNT… It’s a freebie!… Available at…https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA476352.pdf
The detailed reports of the COMMANDO HUNT operations are recorded in seven Project CHECO (Contemporary Historical Examination of Current Operations) Southeast Asia Reports, five of which are held in the Texas Tech Vietnam Archives. Humble Host refers you to two of the reports (350-pages each) covering COMMANDO HUNT III and COMMANDO HUNT V… Download in 50+/- page increments at:
COMMANDO HUNT III Interdiction Campaign in six fifty-page increments available at:
https://vva.vietnam.ttu.edu/repositories/2/digital_objects/550005 … (Six Parts)
First 55-pages of CH III also at :
https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/reports/images.php?img=/images/F0311/F031100250072a.pdf
Remainder of report in 50-page increments is at same address with one change per line. The final letter in the address (a) before the pdf continues the alphabet b, c, d, e, f, for the remainder of the CH III report.
COMMANDO HUNT V –Headquarters SEVENTH AIR FORCE… Seven increments, 315 pages… Download at:
https://vva.vietnam.ttu.edu/repositories/2/digital_objects/87127 … (Seven Parts)
USAF OPERATIONS IN LAOS: 1 JANUARY 1970-30 JUNE 1971 (31 May 1971) is available at:
https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/reports/images.php?img=/images/039/0390105001a.pdf
Bernald Nalty summed up the “war against trucks,” the interdiction war against North Vietnam this way: “Did the seven Commando Hunt operations, despite the absence of the planned barrier to infiltration across the demilitaized zone, do as Secretary McNamara hoped and replace Rolling Thunder in discouraging North Vietnamese aggression in the South? Actually, one campaign did as well, or as poorly, as the other; for neither caused the Hanoi government to back down. The interdiction effort, however, had the advantage of costing less in aircraft and the lives of crewmen than the Rolling Thunder strikes.” (page 303)… Sigh!!!
III. AIRCRAFT LOSSES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: October-December 1969… Humble Host refers you to Chris Hobson’s monumental record of American fixed wing air losses, VIETNAM AIR LOSSES: United States Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps Fixed-Wing Aircraft Losses in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973… Available on line at David Lovelady’s brilliant website…
https://www.vietnamairlosses.com
IV. HUMBLE HOST END NOTE: Next begins a new series of weekly posts recalling the 1965-1968 ROLLING THUNDER missions flown from the carriers at Yankee Station to strike targets in North Vietnam. These tales will be told using personal notes obtained from the Awards Files of CinCPacFlt before they were destroyed 35 years ago. The series will be posted under the banner WHEN THE NAVY WAS ROLLING THUNDER… The initial tale will post on Monday 6 April and will detail the USS CONSTELLATION/CVW-14 Alpha Strike on targets in the Van Dien area executed on 10 June 1967…
Lest we forget… Bear
