Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #405… Spring is sprung. Sunny and bright. In the Homeland let the anti-war demos begin. In the Heartland of North Vietnam let the fighter-bombers loose. The Summer of 1967, a summer like no other… but first…
Good Morning: Day FOUR HUNDRED FIVE of a journal of war and the pursuit of peace fifty years ago…
14 April 1967… HOMETOWN HEAD LINES and LEADS from The New York Times on a cloudy Friday in NYC…
Page 1: “Leaders Approve ‘Action Program” For the Americas”... “The Presidents of the American republics approved today unanimously a declaration of purpose and ‘action program’ designed to achieve the economic integration of the Americas. Bolivia was the only nation absent from the second conference ever held by the Presidents, and Ecuador raised the only objection to the final communique. ‘The Declaration of the President of the Americas’ was approved by 18 of 19 presidents attending. The objection: it did not call for more economic assistance from the United States.”… Page 1: “Chou Scored Liu at Rally, Wall Posters Say”... “Wall posters announced today that Premier Chou En-lai of Communist China had accused President Liu Shao-chi of conducting an anti-party policy since the end of World War II. Mr. Chou said at a mass meeting that the actions of Mr. Liu, who is being represented as the principal enemy of Mao Tse-tung, the party chairman, constituted “the main element in the political struggle.’ “… Page 8: “200 French Boats are Mobilized To Fight Torrey Canyon Oil slick”… “…to dump sawdust and plastic foam and other materials on patches of oil drifting off the coast of Brittany. Troops ordered into the battle against the tons of crude oil released by the tanker Torrey Canyon when she went aground in March off southern England at Seven Stones Reef.”… Page 11: “McClelland Charges TFX Plane Output Cannot Be Justified”… “Senator John McClelland, Democrat, Arkansas, challenged the Defense Department today to justify current production of the new TFX fighter plane which he said is ‘not up to the Pentagon’s own standards’ and is not militarily acceptable at this time.”…
Page 1: “Vietcong Blast 2 Bridges To Cut Supply Links”… “Vietcong guerrillas severely damaged two bridges between Danang and Quangtri early today cutting land communications to strong-points manned by United States Marines along the DMZ. Two bridges across the Cade River six miles north of Danang were destroyed.”… Page 3: “American Bombers Are Being Guided To Targets“… in North Vietnam by daily photographs received from United States weather satellites, the Associated Press reported from Saigon. It said the Air Force announced that these photos had become one of the most valuable guides to American bombing but acknowledged that North Vietnam might also be receiving them and using them for air defense purposes. ‘The weather has been so bad north recently, we could be 95% correct at predicting bad weather all the time. That doesn’t do much good. The Air Force wants to know about the other 5-per cent.”… Page 3: “Deaths of American Servicemen Announced”... “The Department of Defense identified 27 American servicemen killed in action in Vietnam. (23 identified 13 April). American deaths in combat in the Vietnam war at the end of March 1967 put at 8,931 and 52,346 wounded. Enemy deaths this week at 1,478 and U.S. at 177 KIA with 1,345 wounded. Also, Navy divers continue to search for the bodies of 7 airmen killed in the C-141 crash in Cam Ranh Bay.”…
Page 36: Times Editorial: “Retreat on Poverty”… “Even the many weaknesses of the Administration’s vastly oversold and misnamed war on poverty do not justify its curtailment. Yet the Administration itself is about to jettison the most controversial element–encouragement of community action for the poor– and congressional critics are seeking to divide the remaining functions of the Office of Economic Opportunity among the government agencies, which would lead to further attrition of the program.”…
14 April 1967… The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized): SOUTH VIETNAM: There are several reports that the Viet Cong are planning a combined mortar and rocket attack against US installations at DeNang for the middle of the month. Rocket launchers and what may have been rocket launch positions were seen recently south and east of the base. SOUTH KOREA: Another clash on Wednesday in the DMZ came after an intruding North Korean platoon encountered a South Korea security patrol…COMMUNIST CHINA: The mammoth anti Liu rallies continue almost daily in Peking…Chou En-lai said he was canceling a trip abroad because he is expecting there would be “great” events in China during the next two months…
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM… CAPTAIN HAROLD EUGENE JOHNSON, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE… AIR FORCE CROSS…19 April 1967…
“The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the AIR FORCE CROSS to HAROLD EUGENE JOHNSON, Captain, U.S. Air Force, for EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM as Electronic Warfare Officer of an F-105 aircraft of the 357th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 355th Tactical Fighter Wing, Tuy Hoa Air Base, Vietnam, SEVENTH Air Force, engaged in a pre-strike missile suppression mission over North Vietnam on 19 April 1967. On that date, Captain JOHNSON guided the pilot in attacking and destroying a surface-to-air missile installation with an air-to-ground missile. Through his technical skill, he immediately detected a second missile complex and guided the pilot into visual contact. diving into the deadly barrage of antiaircraft fire, his aircraft bombed and successfully destroyed this site. In the attack on this second missile site, the wingman was shot down by the intense antiaircraft fire, and the crew members were forced to abandon their aircraft. Flying through hostile missile threats, Captain JOHNSON’S aircraft engaged and destroyed a MiG-17 while attacking a superior MiG force. He aided in the rescue efforts for the downed crew, engaged additional MiGs, and damaged one in the encounter. Through his EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness Captain JOHNSON has reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.” …
Among CAPTAIN JOHNSON’s combat awards: the Air Force Cross, Silver Star (2), Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross (6), Bronze Star with “V”, Air Medal (9), Air Force Commendation Medal, Purple Heart (2), and the Prisoner of War Medal…. oohrah…
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM…COLONEL JOHN SMITH HAMILTON, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE… the AIR FORCE CROSS…19 April 1967…
“The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the AIR FORCE CROSS (Posthumously) to JOHN SMITH HAMILTON, Colonel, U.S. Air Force, for EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM in military operations against an opposing force as an A-1E Pilot of the 602nd Fighter Squadron (Commando), Udorn Royal Thai Base, Thailand, SEVENTH Air Force, in action in North Vietnam on 19 April 1967. On that date Colonel HAMILTON was engaged in a search and rescue mission near Hoa Binh City when his aircraft was shot down by North Vietnamese MiG-17s. Through his EXTRAORDINARY HEROISM, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness in the face of hostile forces, Colonel HAMILTON reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.”
Among Colonel HAMILTON’s combat awards: the Air Force Cross, the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, and the Air Medal (5)… oohrah…
14 April 1967… (Bear#59mk82STgunposit)… Operation Rolling Thunder… New York Times…Devoid of air war over the north reports… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 14 April 1967…
(1) MAJOR PAUL R. CRAW was flying an F-105D of the 357th TFS and 355th TFW out of Takhli on a mission to strike a target consisting of construction equipment spotted near Dien Bien Phu. Entering his dive attack on the target, MAJOR CRAW’s Thunderchief was hit in the wing by 37mm forcing him to eject after a short flight from the target. He was rescued by an HH-3 from his downed position 170-miles deep into North Vietnam.
RIPPLE SALVO… #405… The air war against North Vietnam–Rolling Thunder–had two strikes against it: the bad bombing weather from November through March, and the targeting run from the White House. Both situations began to brighten up in the first week of April 1967… The President bought off an increase in sorties per month raising the max from 13,200 to 14,500 and best of all, a number of new targets–thermal power plants at Haiphong, the main Hanoi power plant, a cement plant near Haiphong and shortly two of the airfields. Admiral Sharp thanked General Wheeler for his efforts at persuading the President to expand the RT bombing program and the Admiral “promised that the effect would be anything but salubrious for Hanoi.” (Salubrious: “favorable to health”)… Bring on the “Blue Skies.” The air war in the Red River Valley and in Route Package VI was about to get bloody serious.
Meanwhile, on the home front, the warm weather was motivating the marchers. Activated by: a draft that called up a million young men in 1966 from the college campuses of America; Vietnam war casualty lists in the hundreds every month– 9,000 KIA and more than 52,000 WIA, so far; no end to the war in sight; anti-poverty and Great Society program on hold; and civil rights issues mounting, including a new group under a Black Power banner, the voices of discontent were from shore to shore. Now for the first time the single issue protesters were uniting under one banner against the Vietnam war to accumulate the numbers needed to dominate the news. The late Spring and Summer of 1967 in America was also about to get bloody serious.
The New York Times had this to say on 14 April 1967…Page 21:
“Dr. King and the War”...by Gene Roberts…“The outspoken stand of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the war in Vietnam has dampened his prospects for becoming the Negro leader who might be able to get the nation ‘moving again on civil rights.’ He now seems further removed than at any point in his career from leaders of the political establishment and the Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and also from the mass of voters, and he needs the support of all groups to win new gains for the Negro. At the same time, Dr. King attacks on the war appear to have won him only superficial support from the young Negro militants who had found his approach to civil rights issues too conventional for their taste…Dr. King took the middle ground between Black Power militants and the civil rights movement…when he began speaking out about the Vietnam war…in attacking the war, Dr. King automatically aligned himself with the black power wing of the civil rights movement, which had long preached against the war (and serving in the military) and cut himself adrift from the moderate wing of the movement…On Saturday (15 April) he will be speaking at an anti-war rally in New York on the same stage with Stokely Carmichael and Floyd McKissick… Meanwhile, civil rights advocates are waiting in the wings hoping against hope for the sort of program that has eluded them since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1964. But it does not appear to be coming from Dr. King.”
Rolling Thunder 54 and 55 are about to have an effect that will be “anything but salubrious for Hanoi.” The antiwar movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is about to have an effect on President Johnson and Secretary McNamara that will prove to be anything but salubrious.
Th long hot summer of 1967, both here in the homeland and out there in the heartland of our enemy, is not to be forgotten…
Lest we forget… Bear…
