Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #740… ON 31 MARCH 1968 PRESIDENT JOHNSON GAVE A SPEECH FROM THE OVAL OFFICE OF ENORMOUS HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE. The Speech was a turning point in the conduct of ROLLING THUNDER. Ripple Salvo will tap several sources for the events that led up to the landmark and unexpected 41-minute speech the President dropped on the world on Sunday, 31 March 1968… A few paragraphs from Wayne Thompson’s “To Hanoi and Back”... and a Homework Assignment for one of your breaks from “March Madness” and starting over on your “brackets.”… but first…
Good Morning… Day SEVEN HUNDRED FORTY of a remembrance of a period of history a lot of folks would like to forget… especially those who chose not to participate and ducked and dodged their obligation to serve…
HEAD LINES from The New York Times on Friday, 15 March 1968…
GROUND WAR & KHE SANH: Page 1: “CASUALTIES OF US IN VIETNAM TOP KORE WAR’S–TOTAL REFLECTS FEWER KILLED IN ACTION AND MORE WOUNDED”… “American casualties in the Vietnamese war have exceeded those in the Korean conflict, according to a report today by the United States command. THE REPORT SAID THAT 509 AMERICAN SERVICEMEN WERE KILLED IN ACTION AND 2,766 WOUNDED LAST WEEK pushing the casualty total since January 1, 1961, to 139,801, of whom 19,670 were killed in action and 120,131 wounded. American casualties in three years of fighting in Korea were 136,914–33,061 dead and 103,853 wounded. Thus the Vietnam war has become the fourth bloodiest in United States history, exceeded only by World War I with 321,000 casualties, the Civil War with 798,000, and World War II with 1,678,000. The number of Americans killed in action in Vietnam, however, was 13,391 fewer than in Korea, with a corresponding increase in the wounded in Vietnam. Nearly half the wounded in Vietnam do not require hospitalization and are quickly returned to duty. The Vietnam casualty figures rose sharply on the week of January 30 when the enemy launched a Lunar New Year’s offensive. Until then, the United States had never lost more than 337 men killed in a week of fighting. Every week since then, however, it has lost more than 400 every week. Last week’s toll of 509 was the third highest of the war and the third time in four weeks that deaths had exceeded 500. Enemy deaths during the week were put at 4,335 by the Command…. A command spokesman explained the casualties: ‘I can only say that 33 enemy rocket and mortar attacks on military installations over the three day period last week contributed to the total casualty figure.’… The spokesman said that the enemy pounded the Marine encampment at Khe Sanh with 200 artillery, rocket and mortar rounds but damage was ‘light.’…In other action, enemy soldiers attacked a convoy with light weapons along South Vietnam’s superhighway nine miles north of Saigon and killed one American soldier and wounded three incurring light damage to vehicles in the convoy.”…
Page 1: “BRITISH SUSPEND GOLD TRADING FOR ONE DAY AT REQUEST OF U.S.--Reserve’s Bank Rate Put At 5%–Sales At Record Level–England Also To Close Exchanges and Some Bank Offices Today– Lifting Of U.S. Gold Cover Voted By Senate, 39-37–Dollar Defended–International Meeting Called For Tomorrow in Washington”… Page 1: “Civil Rights Bill Changes Sought In House”… Page 1: “KENNEDY REFUSES TO BACK JOHNSON FOR RENOMINATION--Says He Will Decide Soon On Entering Primaries in Oregon and California–McCarthy In New Race–To Run In South Dakota and Indiana Primaries–Congressmen Bid Robert Kennedy Stay Out”… “Mayor John Lindsay (NYC) Is Critical of Nixon, But He’ll Back Him”… McCarthy Favors Delay By Kennedy–‘Leave The Primaries to Me,’ He Says, With Chance of Settlement At Convention“…Page 4: “DRAFT OF GRADUATE STUDENTS MAY REACH 70%–Study Finds–New Rules May Cut Deferments For Engineers By 62%”... Page 16: “U.S. Bids North Korea Adjudicate Pueblo Case”… Page 26: “WHITE HOUSE BEGINS A BROAD REVIEW OF ITS CAMPAIGN STRATEGY FOR 1968–President’s Backers Likely To Spend More In Wisconsin”…Page 26: “Draft Rockefeller Drive Pushed–National and State Units Set Up”… Page 26: “Nixon Urges Rise In Allied Soldiers–Says Eisenhower Diplomacy Required and Needed to End War”…
15 MARCH 1968 (President at Ranch in Texas March 16-18) President’s Daily Brief: SOUTH VIETNAM: Communist forces may be preparing for another round of coordinated attacks in various areas of the country in the near future…. NORTH VIETNAM: Reflections On U.S. Political Attitudes On the War: Comments on Foreign Relations Committee Hearings: Initial Hanoi commentary on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings has centered on the statement on the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. A Hanoi domestic broadcast on 13 March noted that Secretary Rusk was “strongly criticized” at the hearing when he “leaded for the US aggressive policy in Vietnam.” According to this account, Rusk was “forced” to give a clear explanation about the ‘fabrication’ of the Tonkin incident. The broadcast also said that several questioning of Rusk on this point reflected the “great worries” of a number of U.S. Senators about the consequences of differing views on Vietnam policy in the US. Statements critical of US policy by Senators Morse, Fulbright and Mansfield were offered to support that contention….Summing up its view of the Senate debate, Nhan Dan, the Hanoi party daily, claimed that never has the US been criticized and condemned so strongly and isolated so seriously as it s now….
STATE DEPARTMENT, Office of the Historian, Historical Documents, Foreign Relations, 1964-68, Vietnam Volume VI: Three documents dated 15 March are of interest. Document 129 is a short memo from new Secretary of Defense Clifford to the President that answers three questions posed by the President in a prior conversation. The subject is troop levels and the options for responding to a request of 206,000 more troops from Westmoreland. Clifford comes up with a recommendation from his “A to Z” review of an additional 48,493 Reserves… The memo is to prep the President for the 2-hour Wise Man meeting that followed…which is Document 130, a very interesting 3-page summary of the meeting. Humble Host hopes you have time to peruse this since it is a very influential event that was a factor in the President’s set of decisions announced two weeks ahead in his 31 March speech to the world. Document 131 is also essential reading…Ambassador Goldberg had watched from his sideline position at the UN and put together a road map for the President that put a peace initiative back in play out of the Tet Offensive. The President took this solid 2-page think piece to his ranch on the Pedernales for the weekend. It is a preview of what he will include in his remarkable and historic 31 March speech…
129. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d129
130. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d130
131. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d131
15 MARCH 1968…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER...New York Times (16 Mar reporting 15 Mar ops) Page 2: “In the air war, Unite States planes flew 94 multi-aircraft missions over North Vietnam as the weather remained broken and overcast with 2000-foot ceilings Two bridges and airfields were attacked in the Haiphong area and in Hanoi the port facility was bombed again. In South Vietnam, B-52s bombers (fighter-bombers from all three American air forces) swarmed over Khe Sanh. The B-52s pounded enemy positions around the Khe Sanh fortification with six cells of big bombers.”
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 15 March 1968…
(1) CAPTAIN R.C. FAIRBANKS and 1LT P.E. HUBLER were flying an F-4C of the 391st TFS and 12th TFW out of Cam Ranh Bay in a flight of Phantoms assigned to strike a truck park about 80 miles west of Danang in Southern Laos. They were on their third attack on the trucks when hit by ground fire. Their Phantom burst into flames. The crew ejected from the burning aircraft a few miles from their target and were rescued by an Air Force HH-3 ahead of enemy ground party searchers…
Humble Host flew #122. Led a flight of four into Steel Tiger to day bomb (5 MK-82s) and strafe trucks west of Tchepone. Made four passes each (3 bomb, 1 strafe) and got BDA of “four trucks destroyed.”…No opposition noted… Undoubtedly was there, but if the FAC can orbit for a couple hours and mark targets from a couple thousand feet, it must be OK for fast jets to make the most out of the opportunity to do some good with multiple passes– a definite no-no over North Vietnam north of 20-degrees North (Route Packs IV-V-VI)…Up there: in and out… one pass, salvo, minimum altitude for a chance at a long life 2,000-feet…
RIPPLE SALVO… #740… The Prelude and Countdown to “The Speech”… What was the President thinking? Part I: From Wayne Thompson’s “To Hanoi and Back“...
As the Clark Clifford “A to Z” review that linked troop levels and the air war in the North–the bombing–was wrapping up in the first week of March, Secretary Dean Rusk “raised the possibility of a partial bombing halt during the ongoing northeast monsoon, and the President latched onto Rusk’s suggestion as the bright sport of the meeting: “Really get your horses on that.”
From pages 134-35 of “To Hanoi and Back” I quote…
“It took a month for the partial bombing halt to become a reality. that month of March proved even more difficult for President Johnson than February had been, despite the fact that on the ground in South Vietnam the outlook for government and American forces continued to improve. Hue was recaptured at the beginning of March. Although North Vietnamese troops still surrounded the Marines at Khe Sanh, the Marines were adequately resupplied by air while their besiegers suffered the heaviest conventional bombardment of all time. In another month Westmoreland would send a relief column that would arrive after enemy survivors had once again slipped away into the jungle. But meanwhile, march brought a series of new blows to Johnson’s Presidency, all of them aftershocks of the Tet Offensive.
“On March 10, The New York Times published a front page story on Westmoreland’s request for 206,000 men and on the ensuing debate in Washington. This story seemed to confirm all the speculation since Tet that American forces in South Vietnam were in deep trouble. President Johnson was furious, but he was unable to discover the source of the leak, though he suspected that it came from a Pentagon civilian. Only years afterward did a reporter reveal that the original tip came from Townsend Hoopes, the Under Secretary of the Air Force.
“On March 12, Democratic voters in the New Hampshire primary failed to give President Johnson the overwhelming support expected. Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, who was running against war in Vietnam and Johnson’s handling of it, got almost as many votes as the President. True, McCarthy’s name was on the ballot and Johnson’s was not, but a landslide of write-in ballots for the President was expected. At the time McCarthy’s votes in New Hampshire were thought to indicate support for withdrawing from Vietnam. Later analysis indicated, however, that most of McCarthy’s supporters in New Hampshire were disgusted with Johnson for not prosecuting the war more vigorously.
“On March 16, Senator Robert Kennedy announced his candidacy for the presidency. As recently as January 28, he had said that he did not intend to run. But shortly after McCarthy’s strong showing in New Hampshire, Kennedy presented an ultimatum to Clifford–either Johnson appoint a commission of prominent Americans, including Kennedy, to reassess the Administration’s Vietnam policy, or Kennedy would enter the race. The President refused.
“‘Lady Bird’ Johnson had noticed in early March a serenity emerge in her troubled husband. This new equilibrium was upset by the political tremors of that month. On the morning of Kennedy’s announcement, the President told a meeting of the National Alliance of Businessmen that the United States was going to win in Vietnam. ‘to meet the needs of these fighting men, we shall do whatever is required.’ Two days later he asked the National Farmers Union to join ‘a total national effort to win the war.’ He warned them that this would require a more austere economy, which should mean at least enactment of the 10 per cent income tax surcharge he had proposed a year before.
“The President’s sudden bellicosity passed quickly away. Political realities in Washington no longer permitted a truly national war effort. Clifford’s discussion with Senators Russell, Stennis, and Symington (among others) indicated that the administration would have a hard time selling a reserve call-up of even 100,000, let alone the 262,000 Clifford had originally contemplated. By the end of March, the President decided to call-up only 62,000 reservists and send to Vietnam nothing beyond these forces already scheduled for deployment, the troop ceiling in Vietnam would not go above 549,000. Johnson also announced that he would bring Westmoreland’s home that summer to be Chief of Staff of the Army. Westmoreland’s replacement in Saigon would be his deputy commander, General Creighton w. Abrams, Jr., who had been giving much of his attention to building the South Vietnamese Army.
“Ever since the Tet offensive, President Johnson had been thinking about making a televised speech on Vietnam.”…. End quote.
On 31 March he gave it… It was 41 minutes long… Humble Host most strongly recommends RTR readers watch it… at…
(Webmaster note: I second Bear’s strong recommendation that all readers of this site watch this entire video. It is the political death of a president, in a bed of his own making. Near the end of the address Johnson says the word “accordingly”. Immediately after he swallows, and pauses, before making the announcement that he would not be seeking reelection. It is one of the most important, and consequential, addresses ever made by an American president. Below is the last part of his historic address)
RTR Quote for March 15: PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON, 2 April 1965: “Dr. Billy Graham comes here frequently and gives me strength and comfort and prays over me, and nobody needs a prayer more than I do.”…
Lest we forget… Bear
