Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #311… THE AIR OFFENSIVE IS HURTING HANOI! … SO?… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED ELEVEN of an old warrior’s return to a battlefield of his past…the air war called Rolling Thunder…
10 JANUARY 1967… THE HEADLINES OF THE NEW YORK TIMES on a damp and windy Tuesday in New York…
Page 1: “Congress Convenes Today Amid an Air of Uncertainty”…”The 90th Congress opens at noon today in an atmosphere of change, conflict and uncertainty. Democrats in the House removed Adam Clayton Powell, Democrat of Manhattan, as chairman of the Education and Labor Committee and…the clerk of the House in a blow to Speaker John McCormack who opposed the removals. In the Senate a bipartisan group of liberals planned to renew their perennial fight for a change in the rule that required a two-thirds majority to stop a filibuster. They contended their chances for success were the best ever. President Johnson’s State of the Union Message to the joint session at 9:30PM. The speech will be broadcast on TV/radio.” … Page 1: “Democrats Vote to Oust Powell as House Committee Chair”… “Powell may be kept from his seat today. Democrats in the House voted today to depose Representative Adam Clayton Powell…these actions are subject to a formal vote by the House itself but no one doubts that they would approve the action. Today’s vote related solely to a report that Mr. Powell made private trips at public expense. His reaction to the vote was bitter, ‘It was a lynching–Southern style. I was a black Dreyfus.’ ” … Page 1: “Alinsky to Help the Poor Here (Brooklyn)”…”Saul D. Alinsky, who calls himself a professional radical, has been recruited by a group of Roman Catholic and Protestant clergymen to mobilize the poor of the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. Mr. Alinsky, a controversial figure in Chicago, Rochester, Buffalo, Detroit and other cities where he has organized the people of the slums, will act as consultant to a newly formed organization representing civic and religious groups of a once elegant neighborhood…Alinsky’s task will be to help rally a silent and apathetic community and give it a voice in impending urban renewal projects that may drastically affect their lives.”… Page 1: “Harlem Resentful of vote on Powell”…”Harlem reacted with bitterness and resentment to the vote that would strip Representative Powell of his House committee chairmanship…”
Page 1: “Israeli Tanks Fire on Syrians in Growing Conflict on Border”…”Israeli tanks were used today for the first time in the worsening border crisis with Syria. Israelis had used nothing heavier than automatic weapon fire until today, and called the incident ‘limited escalation.’ “… Page 1: “Struggle in China Seen at Critical Stage”… “The prolonged dispute between a Chinese Communist Party faction led by Mao Tse-tung and another faction that includes many important leaders appears to have reached a critical phase. In the view of diplomatic observers the news from China was too fragmentary however to permit sweeping conclusions as to whether Chairman Mao was winning or losing or whether there would be a break down of public order…”…
Page 1: “Enemy Sinks U.S. Dredge; 3 Other Vessels Damaged”… “The Vietcong mined and sank a large American construction dredge on the Mekong river today, shelled a British oil tanker and damaged two South Vietnamese minesweepers. In a relatively rare use of human shield tactics two Vietcong companies spearheaded an attack using a shield of Vietnamese civilians against a hail of fire by Government troops while Vietcong frogmen mined and sank the $3 million dredge. The dredge is salvageable. Ten children were killed and 16 wounded in the attack by the Vietcong.”…
10 January 1967… The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized)…SOUTH VIETNAM: There is likely to be some rather rough jockeying among the top generals in Saigon before the question of who is to be constitutional president is decided later this year. Ky made it clear that he wants to be president and that he considers Chief of State Thieu his principal competitor. Ky went on and on to explain why Thieu could not win an election and why, even if he did, he would be a poor president. The whole problem, Ky concluded, requires considerable thought. In the same conversation, Ky revealed that he intends ‘very soon’ to move against General Co, deputy prime minister and minister of defense. Co is to be accused of profiteering and brought to trial. There is certainly plenty of dirt that can be used against the corrupt Co, but Ky may not find this prominent southerner a pushover…COMMUNIST CHINA: Posters went up in Peking today railing at Chou En-lai for “going soft” in the campaign against Liu Shao-chi and company. This is the second such attack against Chou; last week posters calling for the “burning” of Chou were torn down almost at once. If the new posters stay, it would suggest a break between Chou and the Mao-Lin Piao group. Monitored radio broadcasts indicate the struggle also continues in Shanghai and Foochow. Few details of the situation in either city are available (rest is redacted)…
10 JANUARY 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times (11 Jan reporting 10 Jan ops) Page 3′ “United States pilots flew 60 strike and reconnaissance missions over North Vietnam yesterday, primarily in the southern region along the coast.”… {Battlecry 07: #15, Mk-4 gun pod 300-rounds into a barge in Song Ca} …”Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) One fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 10 January 1967…
(1) CAPTAIN JAMES PAUL GAULEY was flying an F-105D of the 34th TFS and 388th TFW out of Korat on a strike on a storage depot in Barrel Roll in northeast Laos near Muong Nham when hit by ground fire. He ejected safely but when a USAF rescue helicopter arrived it was discovered that his parachute had failed to open. CAPTAIN GAULEY was Killed in Action fifty years ago this day… Lest we forget…
RIPPLE SALVO… #311… New York Times…10 January 1967…Page 3…Drew Middleton penned: “Hanoi’s Bomb Damage”…
“The conviction is growing among some Western diplomats and officials here that behind the Communist denunciation of the American bombing of North Vietnam lies a harsh truth: that the air offensive is hurting Hanoi’s war effort. ‘I think this is an unnecessary war,’ one official said, ‘but I must concede that all this propaganda against the bombing, all these promises that something might happen if we stop, looks very much like an admission that it is doing great damage to Hanoi’s war effort.”…‘Of course, it is hurting them,’ said a Western diplomat, ‘they have put together one of the biggest propaganda campaigns in history to stop it. They say it is inhuman because it kills some civilians. They say it’s a failure because they are still sending people south. They say everything but what, I am convinced is the truth: they’re suffering from it. Moreover, they know that your bombing program is severely restricted. They must be asking themselves what it will be like if the United States really let go and attack forbidden targets like Haiphong.’
“One deduction here is that the effects of the bombing of North Vietnam, being cumulative, did not begin to worry President Ho Chi Minh’s Government until the middle of December. Since then, it was pointed out here, the Hanoi Government has indicated its concern over the bombing in several areas:
*Mr. Salisbury and other Eastern European correspondents were told the bombing was not successful and stimulated North Vietnamese people to even greater military exuberance.
*Premier Pham Van Dong in his Salisbury interview added a fifth point–an unconditional end to the bombing… Bombing was not mentioned in the four points. Hanoi had only asked that the United States ‘stop acts of war’ against North Vietnam.
*Secretary General Thant’s recent exchanges with Hanoi has disclosed that progress toward a cease-fire rested on an unconditional cessation of the bombing.
*There were numerous statements… from several Eastern European and other non-aligned countries that stressed the importance of an end of the bombing in making peace.
“Sources with access to Western and neutral intelligence say that the effects of the bombing have been considerable. These sources dismiss the argument by opponent’s of the bombing that it is ineffective…
“Proponents of bombing are inclined to put emphasis on indirect results of the bombing such as the 40,000 man diversion of labor and material to the repair of bomb damage.
“The ongoing Chinese upheaval may have a direct effect on the prospects of peace in Vietnam…the more optimistic sources believe the discord in China will force North Vietnam to reconsider its whole position in the war. Their argument is that while Hanoi did not want China to enter the war, they rely on the threat of the Chinese intervention to limit American operations. With China on the verge of chaos, it is added, Hanoi can no longer consider Chinese military intervention as a credible deterrent to escalation of the war by the United States.
Consequently, these sources contend, the political-military balance in the Far East has been disturbed and North Vietnam, already suffering from 20 years of war, must recognize that there is no military factor preventing United States expansion of the conflict.”
“In this situation they say, Hanoi may consider peace more profitable than continuation of a war that is already going badly and that may be stepped up by the United States. Now is the time for a major American peace offensive, they suggest.”
Humble Host posits that if this was a good time for “a major American peace offensive,” it was also a good time to use the sledgehammer… China was in NO position to counter a bold American move… another lost opportunity, I say….
Lest we forget….. Bear -15-
