Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #345… LET THE AIR WAR BEGIN AGAIN… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED FORTY-FIVE of another look at what was happening fifty years ago...
13 FEBRUARY 1967… The New York Times Headlines on a cold and cloudy Monday with ice under foot…
Page 1: “Raid Suspension Continued as U.S. Moves For Talks”...”The Johnson Administration is maintaining its suspension of bombing raids against North Vietnam on a day-to-day basis while it continues a diplomatic search for some acceptable way to move toward peace negotiations…Sources said…they did not believe any such means had yet been found and they did not know how long President Johnson would continue to suspend the bombing. One administration source said they are playing it by ear.”... Page 1: “Wilson Presses Kosygin For a New Vietnam Step”… “Prime Minister Wilson has made intensive efforts to draw from Premier Aleksie Kosygin of the Soviet Union some word from Hanoi that would open the way for talks on the war in Vietnam.”…
Page 1: “Mississippi Delta, More Pay Means Fewer Jobs”... “Mississippi cotton growers are planning sharp cutbacks in their Negro labor force this year to lessen the impact of the new $1 an hour minimum wage for farm workers. The Delta Council, an organization of cotton planters, said thousands of workers would be replaced by chemical weed killers and even more intensive use of mechanical cotton pickers. This means another in a long series of upheavals for Negro farm workers whose ranks have been depleted almost every year during the last decade by automation and Federally imposed reductions in cotton acreage. Knowing that they had small chance of finding employment in Mississippi’s glutted job market some newly displaced farm workers have already moved to Northern cities, joining thousands of other displaced Mississippi Negroes who have left the state since World War II.”… Page 1: “Johnson Invokes Spirit of Lincoln to End Race Bias”…”President Johnson invoked the spirit of Abraham Lincoln today to condemn racial suspicions, racial hatred and racial violence. These are ‘man’s ancient curse and man’s present shame’ he told several hundred adults and children at the Lincoln Memorial. He spoke at a ceremony commemorating the 158th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth…Everett Dirksen’s recorded recitation of the Lincoln Gettysburg Address was part of the ceremony. Although civil rights was the dominant theme of Mr. Johnson’s speech he did not go beyond a general call to end racial discrimination.”
Page 4: Hanson Baldwin: “Vietnam Turnover: Heavy U.S. Personnel Replacement to Keep Units in a State of Instability”…”About 576,000 soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen will complete their tours of duty in the next fiscal year starting July 1. During the same year a total of about 821,000 enlisted men–about 27 per cent of the combined enlisted strength of the armed forces are expected to leave the services as their draft terms or enlistments expire. Both totals represent almost a 200,000 increase as compared to the current fiscal year. These figures from the Pentagon…mean that ‘replacement training and personnel turbulence–turnover–will keep nearly all units in a state of instability and the services will find it almost impossible to maintain the experience level, particularly in pilots, junior officers and non-coms’…Fixes include prospect of European troops being rotted to Vietnam and a call up to active duty for reserves. Draft calls will also be increased.”… Page 2: “18 Americans Killed and 158 Wounded” in 89 significant truce incidents…23 South Vietnamese troops were killed and 26 injured with enemy dead put at 112.”…
Page 32: Times Editorial: The Bombing Pause
“The United States is now giving a ‘signal’ to Hanoi by refraining from bombing North Vietnam. It had been made clear that Hanoi would not consider peace negotiations without a cessation of bombing. The next move is therefore up to Hanoi.
“The intricate maneuvering going on behind the scenes in many capitals bears out the description of Walt Rostow, President Johnson’s aide, that ‘an extremely interesting and delicate phase’ has been reached. The present suspension of the bombing comes as a gratifying surprise after Secretary Rusk said last week that the United States would not stop bombing the North unless there was some reciprocal move of de-escalation on the part of Hanoi. For the moment the United States is stopping the bombing without any pro quo.
“This is not the permanent cessation demanded by North Vietnam. But it does, as a Washington spokesmen put it, ‘keep the diplomatic door open briefly’ for practical negotiations. There has been much talk of ‘peace feelers’ from the North Vietnamese side. Now that the bombing pause has gone into its second day beyond the agreed truce it is reasonable to say Washington is putting out a peace feeler of its own. The two sides are groping very cautiously in a fog of mutual suspicion. It is understandable and necessary that discussions take place secretly, and the bombing pause can provide a shield behind which these talks can take place.
“A waiting world can only hope that both sides will exercise patience and keep on making the delicate explorations that have been taking place. Prime Minister Wilson and Foreign Secretary Brown, acting both on their own, and as a channel from Washington, undoubtedly did their utmost in London to persuade Premier Kosygin of the great role Russia is now in a position to play in the Vietnamese conflict. This is especially true while the Communist Chinese are temporarily paralyzed by internal strife.
“The United States, meanwhile should keep the diplomatic door ajar by holding back on the bombing. Most of all, Hanoi can take advantage of an opportunity to enable the diplomats to go on talking, even though soldiers and guerrillas are once again fighting in South Vietnam.”
13 February 1967… The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized) COMMUNIST CHINA: A concerted effort to curb Red Guard activity seems to be under way. A number of recent directives and posters have told students to go home, ordered most schools to reopen, and called a halt to the travel of military personnel to participate in the cultural revolution. Similar directives last November and December did little to curb the Red Guards. The recent ones appear more authoritative however. Peking is emphasizing that top leaders–including Chou En-lai and Lin Piao–explicitly endorse them.
THE UNITED STATES STATE DEPARTMENT Office of the Historian… SUNFLOWER is living on borrowed time on this date and by sundown will droop dead… To complete my review of the SUNFLOWER episode of this return to Operation Rolling Thunder five additional documents from the Office of the Historian are referenced here and RTR readers may find them interesting, particularly the fifth–#80 “Editorial Note,” a good summary of the whole episode…good history lesson…
#76. “Editorial Note”…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d70
#77. “Telephone Conversation: President and SecDef”…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d77
#78. “Telephone Conversation: President and SecDef”…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d78
#79. “Telephone Conversation: President and SecDef”…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d79
#80. “Editorial Note”…
https://history.state.gov/historcaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d80
13 February 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times bare of news of the air war, per se…”Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft losses in Southeast Asia on 13 February 1967″…
RIPPLE SALVO… #345… SUNFLOWER gone to seeds... Nice try… At 4:15pm on 13 February 1967 the President’s Press Secretary George Christian read the following at the President’s News Conference…”It had been our hope that the truce periods connected with Christmas, New Year, and Tet might lead to some abatement of hostilities and to moves toward peace. Unfortunately, the only response we had from the Hanoi government was to use the periods for major resupply efforts of their troops in South Vietnam (Bear add: and every one of a thousand AAA gun positions in North Vietnam). Despite our efforts and those of third parties, no other response has yet come from Hanoi. Under these circumstances, in fairness to our own troops and those of our allies, we had no alternative but to resume full-scale hostilities after the cease-fire. But the door to peace is and will remain open and we are prepared at any time to go more than halfway to meet any equitable overture from the other side.”
CAG’s QUOTES for 13 February: SUN TZU: “He whose ranks are united in purpose will be victorious.”… PATTON: “Battle is not a terrifying ordeal to be endured. It is a magnificent experience wherein all elements that have made men superior to the beasts are present: courage, self-sacrifice, loyalty, help to others, devotion to duty.”… oohrah…
Lest we forget…. Bear…
