ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED 1 JANUARY 1967

RIPPLE SALVO… #302… THE REALITY: WAR AND VIOLENCE…”Only the dead have seen the end of war.” (Plato)… but first…

Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED AND TWO of a 1000 blog review of the air war over North Vietnam fought fifty years ago…

1 January 1967… HEADLINES OF THE HOME TOWN PAPERS from the New York Times on a cloudy, cold Sunday in NYC…

NYT Editorial… Page 40: “New Year Greeted With Merriment and Sadness”…”In moods ranging from jubilation to hushed prayer a peace hungry world observed New Year’s eve last night while a tense shot marked truce hung over the battlefield in North Vietnam. President Johnson said, ‘I think we have had a generally good year and I think most Americans believe that they have done reasonably well this year. We all deeply regret that in 18-months we have not been able to bring peace to the table.”…

Page 1: “President Makes New Bid to Hanoi on Truce or Talks”…”President Johnson said today that he would be ‘very glad to do more than our part in meeting Hanoi halfway in any possible ceasefire, truce or peace–conference negotiations.’ The President… described himself as very interested in the response of North Vietnam to this offer and to appeals by Britain and others. But he had to know that response, he added, before irrevocably committing the United States to unilateral reductions in the fighting or in the bombing of North Vietnam. Commenting on the bombing, President Johnson said that: ‘Inevitably and almost invariably there are civilian casualties and losses of life among civilians.’ He insisted that raids had been authorized only on military targets, that there had been no change in his orders and that available evidence indicated that no mistakes had been made in them in execution. Mr. Johnson said the United States did everything possible to minimize civilian casualties. He added that he wished everyone was equally concerned about the death of thousands of civilians in South Vietnam this year by grenades and bombs. Presumably he meant deaths caused by Vietcong terrorists and by American attacks in villages occupied by Vietcong. He regrets every casualty, North and South, Mr. Johnson said.”… Page 3: “Hanoi Charges Raids on Residential Areas”…”The Hanoi radio charged today that a number of United States planes from the Seventh Fleet and bases in Thailand and South Vietnam attacked many residential areas and industrial installations in North Vietnam yesterday (Dec.31). The radio did not say the planes violated the truce, which went into effect at 7AM yesterday (6PM Friday in New York). Targets bombed: Thanh Hoa, Vinh, Namha, Hatinh, Nghean, Auangtrac, and Quangninh province.”… Section 4, Page 1: “Road Ahead Still Long”…”Apart from the mood of Hanoi, Mr. Harrison Salisbury’s dispatches from North Vietnam last week gave a picture of greater civilian casualties and property damage from American bombing than had been indicated in U.S. military communiques. Coming on top of long-standing international concerns on this issue, the dispatches caused considerable stir…What all this underscores is that this is a tough war on civilians…”…

Page 1: “De Gaulle Urges U.S. To Quit War”…”President De Gaulle called upon the United States tonight to end what he called its ‘detestable’ intervention in Vietnam. In a frankly political New Year’s message to the French nation by television, the President hailed the peace and prosperity of France and the easing of tensions in Europe. Then in words blunter than any he had used before on the Vietnam war, he declared: ‘But while Europe takes the road to peace, war rages in Southeast Asia. Unjust war, for it results, in fact, from the armed intervention of the UNited States upon the territory of Vietnam. Detestable war since it leads a great nation to ravage a small nation. In the name of good sense, of the attachment we retain with regard to Indochina, of the two century-old friendship we bear for America, we hold it necessary that she put an end to the ordeal by bringing her forces back to her soil.’ “…

From 31 Dec. NYT: Page 1: “London Urges U.S., Hanoi and South Vietnam to Meet at Once”…”Britain invited the United States, North Vietnam and South Vietnam to meet at once on British territory to ‘arrange a cessation of hostilities in Vietnam.’ George Brown, the Foreign Secretary, sent messages to all urging that representatives of the three countries meet. (In Washington, State Department officials said the proposal would pose no problems.) …Secretary Brown is motivated by political pressure as a consequence of Harrison Salisbury reports from Hanoi to take some action.”… Page 1: “Thant Makes Plea for Early Peace”…”As the approach of the new year offers again an opportunity for sober relection, I invite all men of good will to ponder for a brief moment the great problems of war and peace which face this world and pose challenges of unprecedented dimensions. Although there may be serious divergences of view in regard to the war that is raging in Southeast Asia, I am sure that in calling once again for an early end to this war, I reflect the concern of an increasing number of people in the world who are deeply disturbed by the untold miseries and the grave risks this conflict brings…Let us together wish that during the coming year, a new and relentless effort will be made in the great search for peace and unity in the world after the long and fateful recess we have known.”… Page 3: “Spellman Urges Prayers for Peace”… “The Holy Father has asked us to pray for peace and I am sure that all of us are doing that because I have come home from Vietnam and have seen a great number of tragedies and wounds. God knows, I pray as you all do that light might come to the minds of Communists. That sometime they will be moved to pity, compassion and will come to the peace table so that all involved in this terrible tragedy of useless war will have peace again.”…

27-31 Dec 1966 The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized)… a few interesting items… NORTH VIETNAM: The people have been given an unsusually bleak assessment of what the new year will bring them. Hanoi radio broadcast a year-end speech by party first secretary Le Duan in which he warned that the US would step up the war effort in 1967 and that the people must therefore brace themselves for even greater hardships and sacrifices. Le Duan went on, as usual, to assert the inevitability of an ultimate US defeat. “Even atomic bombs,” he said, can’t present this…. COMMUNIST CHINA: A campaign to curtail US use of Hong Kong as a Vietnam leave port may be brewing. Peking radio played this theme today for the first time since last February. The Communists are probably feeling their oats after their easy intimidation of the Portuguese authorities in Macao. Hong Kong , however, is much more useful to Peking, and we doubt that the pressure will go beyond minor harassments of the colony…. SOVIET UNION: We have evidence of Moscow’s concern over the military implications of its dispute with China. (Large portion still classified) We doubt that Moscow sees any acute military threat, although incidents along the border continue. But Moscow does appear determined to respond  vigorously to any Chinese provocation. As for the Chinese, there is plenty of evidence that they are watching the Russian’s every move, and may even be convinced that the Soviets will eventually attack China…

1 JANUARY 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… NYT (2 Jan reporting 1 Jan ops)… Page 3: “American commanders have continued to send unarmed reconnaissance planes over North And South Vietnam during the most recent truce.”… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson)… There were no fixed wing aircraft losses over Southeast Asia on 1 January 1967…

RIPPLE SALVO… #302… THE DAILY QUOTES: John F. Kennedy: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.”…Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.: “Papa always told me that the first thing was to be a good soldier. Next was to be a good scholar.”…

On Thursday, 29 December 1966 the American Historical Association held a meeting at the Hilton Hotel in New York to share views on the Vietnam War and American participation. The exchange between noted historians tackled the million dollar question: “How do we end this war?”  New York Times, 30 December 1966, Page 5: …”Historians Here Doubt Bombs Can Force Hanoi to Negotiate”…” The United States will never be able to bomb North Vietnam and the Vietcong into submission and force them to the negotiating table, according to American historians who addressed seminars at yesterday’s meeting of the AHA… Harvard historian Professor John Fairbanks: ‘The war will end only when someone gets tired of bombing and killing…what will persuade one side to accept the unacceptable is a knowledge that it can no longer win, that it cannot afford to continue fighting indefinitely, or that an ally acknowledged or unacknowledged, is ready to bow out. ‘Perhaps this is what will bring the Vietnamese war to an inevitable end. When the power balance shifts or the will to fight ceases,’ he said, ‘or the internal political climate has been altered, a nation, grudgingly acknowledges its reverses and will begin talking at the peace table. England needed Yorktown, Spain needed Gibraltar, France needed Dienbienphu. I shall not venture to predict what decisive event or alteration of the political climate will persuade the principals in the present conflict that it is time to make peace.’ (Humble Host interjects: Tet, February 1968???)… In another seminar Professor Raymond O’Connor, Chairman of the History Department at Temple: …”The current belief that the American concept of victory requires the enemy’s unconditional surrender has no foundation in American history, save for the Civil War and the Second World War. Every American war, including the American Revolution, was terminated by compromise.”…

Humble Host and the brains of this RTR outfit, “Mighty Thunder,” wish our readers a New Year full of good health and unbounded happiness… We will be here every day bringing back the world of 1967 one day at a time, and remembering the events and brave actors in the air war over North Vietnam…

Lest we forget…                      Bear                     -30-