Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #223… SECRETARY OF DEFENSE VISITED SAIGON FIFTY YEARS AGO… but first…
Good Morning: Day TWO HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE af a return to Vietnam and the air war in North Vietnam…
10 OCTOBER 1966… THE NEW YORK TIMES FRONT PAGES on a rainy Monday in knickerbocker country…
Page 1: “McNamara Party Arrives In Saigon For War Review”…”Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara arrived in Saigon today and said he would ask South Vietnamese leaders their opinions on possible additions in United States assistance. During his four day visit in South Vietnam Mr. McNamara is expected to review the course of the war and especially the possibility of increasing United States manpower and material. The Secretary, accompanied by Under Secretary of State Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, was met at Tan Son Nhut airport by Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, General William Westmoreland and South Vietnam’s Deputy Premier Lieutenant General Nguyen Huu Co. Mr. McNamara began his eighth visit to South Vietnam with a brief news conference at the airport. He noted that almost 12-months had passed since his last visit in December 1965 and that in that time forces have more than doubled to the present 322,000. ‘It is quite appropriate that we should again visit South Vietnam to review the progress of military and other operations. Other questions to be discussed will include: the threat of heavy infiltration through the DMZ; plans to reduce tension by moving more troops outside of Saigon; the effect of bombing North Vietnam and possible increasing of air attacks,’ and the introduction of U.S. troops into the Mekong Delta.”… Page 1: “Soviet Indicates Raids Are The Bar To Better Relations”…”Pravda, the Soviet Communist Party newspaper indicated today that a halt of United States bombing attacks against North Vietnam was Moscow’s primary condition for responding to President Johnson’s appeal for greater Soviet-United States cooperation. The paper in a report on the President’s speech of last Friday omitted in its reaction previous demands that the United States must withdraw its troops from Vietnam before the Soviet Union would consent to wider and friendlier contacts. In his speech President Johnson declared the United States desire for a united, peaceful and secure Europe, East and West…Noting that the President had urged an improved atmosphere for cultural and trade relations with Communist countries, Pravda said: ‘But it is known that it is precisely the policy of Washington, bombing one of the Socialist countries, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, that is the greatest obstacle on the path to improving United States relations with the Socialist countries and relaxing international tensions.”…
Page 1: “Dr. King Weighing Plan To Repudiate Black Power Bloc”…”The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said today that he would meet with top advisors this week to decide whether to repudiate and oppose all ‘black power’ organizations. This action if it comes would be a major step toward fashioning a new national civil rights coalition that would operate without such black power oriented organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Co-ordination Committee and the Congress of Racial Equality. Already several organizations have sought to unite on a ‘manifesto’ opposing racial separation as the major goal of the civil rights movement. The organizations are: The National Association For the Advancement of Colored People; the Urban League; the Philip Randolph Institute: and Dr. King’s southern Christian Leadership Conference.”…
Page 1: “MIG Is Shot Down By Propeller Plane”…”Early this morning a Korean War model of the Navy’s A-1H Skyraider shot down a North Vietnamese jet fighter out of the skies over the Phuly bridge, 35 miles south of Hanoi. The slow moving propeller driven Skyraider came from the carrier Intrepid in the Gulf of Tonkin. It was not known immediately whether the downed MIG was a MIG-17 or a MIG-21…it was the second time that a North Vietnamese Air Force had lost a MIG to a Skyraider. The first was June 10, 1965…This brought to 23 the number of MIGs destroyed in air battles over North Vietnam. More MIGs are being sighted over time. Yesterday F-105s reported sighting 5 MIGs… (see RTR for 9 October)”….. Page 2: “Technical Problems Slow Delivery Of 3 New Military Aircraft”…”Technical problems, some of them serous, are delaying delivery of three of the nation’s newest military aircraft. The planes are the Ling-Temco-Vought A-7A Navy attack plane; the so-called COIN aircraft–the North American OV-10A counter insurgency plane for the Marines and Air Force; and the Navy version of the swing-wing General Dynamics TFX or F-111B. The problems, and the delays in delivery, have caused considerable concern in the Pentagon, particularly in the case of the A-7A, because of aircraft shortages related to the war in Vietnam.”…
10 OCTOBER 1966… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…NYT (11 Oct reporting 10 Oct ops)…Page 2: “…it was announced that poor weather conditions had limited American pilots to only 92 multi-plane attack missions over North Vietnam yesterday. Targets were hit through the Red River Valley, the panhandle region, the narrow part of North Vietnam; and the demilitarized zone. For the fifth time since late September Air Force B-52s struck in North Vietnam just above the demilitarized zone.”…”Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) Page 77: One fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 10 October 1966…
(1) LTJG MICHAEL STEELE CONFER was flying an A-4E of the VA-23 Black Knights embarked in USS CORAL SEA on a night attack on a target in Kien An, about 35 miles southeast of Haiphong. the flight lead illuminated the target with flares and LTJG CONFER was seen to execute a briefed 45-degree dive 2.75 rocket attack on the target. Flight lead also reported seeing the rockets leave the aircraft at about 2,500-3,000-feet and hit the target. And an additional large flash on the ground. There was no radio call from LTJG CONFER, or beeper. The aircraft was either hit by flak in the run or flown into the ground. LTJG CONFER was Killed in Action on the attack on this date fifty years ago. Courage, honor, commitment… Read the Task Force Omega report on LT Confer.
RIPPLE SALVO… #223… A VISIT TO VIETNAM AND A MEMO TO THE PRESIDENT…
(quoted from The Pentagon Papers–Gravel Ed.–pages 124-5)
I quote: McNamara’s trip to Vietnam in October 1966 served a variety of purposes. It came at a time when CINCPAC (Admiral Sharp) was involved in a force planning exercise to determine the desired (required in his view) force levels for fighting a war through 1967. This was related to DOD’s fall DPM process in which the Pentagon reviews its programs and prepares its budget recommendations for the coming fiscal year. This in turn engenders a detailed look at requirements in all areas for the five years to come. As a part of the process, just three days before the Secretary’s departure, the Joint Chiefs of Staff had sent the Secretary an important memo reviewing force posture the world over and recommending a call-up of the reserves to meet anticipated 1967 requirements. This recommendation as a part of the overall examination of force requirements needed his personal assessment on the spot in Vietnam. Other important reasons for the trip were, no doubt, the ones we have referred to in detail: McNamara’s dissatisfaction with the results of the POL attacks; and the reports of the Jason Summer Study. Furthermore, the off-year Congressional elections were only a month away and the President had committed himself to go to Manila for a heads of state meeting later in October. For both these events the President probably felt the need of McNamara’s fresh impressions and recommendations.
Whatever the combinations of reasons, McNamara left Washington on October 10 and spent four days in Vietnam. Accompanying the Secretary on the trip were Under Secretary of State Katzenbach, General Wheeler, Mr. Komer, John McNaughton, John Foster, Director of DDR&E, and Henry Kissinger. In the course of the visit McNamara worked his way through a detailed seventeen item agenda of briefings, visited several sections of the country, plus the Fleet, and met with leaders of the GVN.
His findings in those three days in South Vietnam must have confirmed his disquiet about the lack of progress in the war and ineffectualness of U.S. actions to date, for when he returned to Washington he sent the President a gloomy report with recommendations for leveling off the U.S. effort and seeking a solution through diplomatic channels. McNamara recommended an increase in the total authorized final troop strength in Vietnam of only about 40,000 over Program #3, for an end strength of 470,000. This was a direct rejection of CINCPAC’s request of 12/31/67 strength of 570,000 and marked a significant turning point in McNamara’s attitude toward the force buildup. The issue would continue to be debated until the President’s decision shortly after the election in November to approve the McNamara recommende total of 469,000 troops under Program #4.
With respect to the air war he stated that the bombing had neither significantly reduced infiltration nor diminished Hanoi’s will to continue the fight, and he noted the concurrence of the intelligence community in these conclusions. Pulling back from his previous positions, he now recommended that the President level off the bombing at the present levels and seek other means of achieving our objectives… end of quote…
RIPPLE SALVO will post the section of the Secretary’s memo to the President on the bombing program in the next RIPPLE SALVO…#224…
Lest we forget… Bear ……… –30– ……….
