Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #773… IN APRIL 1968 THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT WAS WORKING HARD TO GET NEGOTIATIONS GOING WITH BOTH NORTH KOREA AND NORTH VIETNAM. THE GOING WAS SLOW… ESSAYIST HENRY J. TAYLOR COMMENTS: “ORIENTALS HARD TO DECIPHER, IN NO HURRY TO SETTLE WAR.” Humble host suggests this is a useful history lesson for current talks with North Korea and Communist China… but first…
GOOD MORNING: Day SEVEN HUNDRED SEVENTY-THREE of a return to the air war with North Vietnam and events in 1968, “the year the dream died.”…
HEAD LINES from the OGDEN STANDARD-EXAMINER (AP/UPI) for Wednesday, 17 April 1968…
THE WAR: Page 1: “RED GUNS POUND KHE SANH BASE”… “North Vietnam gunners resumed the shelling of Khe Sanh with the fury of the worst days of the U.S. Marine bastion’s 77-day siege. U.S. military spokesman reported today. They said 19 Leathernecks were killed, 56 wounded and 14 are missing. The casualties were the heaviest in two weeks at the combat base, officially relieved 12 days ago. The North Vietnamese mounted a 250-round attack by artillery, mortars and 100-pound rockets. North Vietnamese dead were put at 20… To the south, allied forces pushing through jungles and rice paddies in the biggest offensive of the war reported six sharp clashes within 35 miles of Saigon. It was one of the busiest days so far for Operation Complete Victory, the 100,000 man sweep which began April 8. Enemy KIA was put at 50.”… Page 4: “SOUTH VIETNAMESE GET PRIORITY ON NEW M-16–Plus Larger Share of Fighting”… “The Unite States is giving South Vietnamese troops lightweight, rapid-firing M-16 rifles ahead of American soldiers… production rate of new weapon has been tripled.”…
Page 1: “JOHNSON & PARK LAUNCH FIRST OF VIETNAM TALKS–SOUTH KOREAN HAILS LBJ PEACE BID”…”Issues of peace and war in Vietnam and tensions in the potential Korean powder keg occupied President Johnson as he welcomed President Chung Hee Park of South Korea today for one-day conference. The two chief executive officers had a full round of formal meetings set for today at the Hawaiian White House–the luxurious ocean front estate of the late industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. Park’s visit coincided with important developments affecting his country and the military-diplomatic situation in Vietnam, where South Korea has nearly 50,000 troops in action.”…
Page 1: “LONDON BRIDGE PICKED UP“… “London Bridge is finally falling down–and the Americans are picking up the pieces. The City of London Corporation announced the sale of the bridge to an American bidder Tuesday who it was revealed will rebuild the bridge in Lake Havasu City Arizona…. Page 1: “GUARDS KILL FIVE PRISONERS DURING INMATE PROTEST”… “Guards opened fire on demonstrating inmates at Carolina Central prison today killing 5 and injuries put at 95>”… Page 1: “ROCKY AND REAGAN SHOW INTEREST”… “The republican camp was astir today with renewed indications Governors Nelson Rockefeller and Ronald Reagan may at some point compete actively for the GOP nomination.”… Page 1: “LONG STRIKE CONCLUDES IN MEMPHIS”… “The city’s 1,300 garbage collectors began returning to their jobs early today, after settlement of a labor dispute which brought Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the city where he was killed. … Hourly rate of $1.65 to $2.10 per hour will increase by ten cents per hour in May and another 5 cents in September.”… Page 2: “KING ASSASSINATION PROBE-TAXI-DRIVER SAYS RUDE FARE LOOKED LIKE KING ASSASSIN”… “An Atlanta taxi driver says a FBI sketch match a rude patron who rode with him two blocks in southeast Atlanta’s hippie section a night after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was slain.”… Page 3: “ECONOMY SOARS ALONG–GROWTH CALLS FOR TAX INCREASE“… “A record-shattering performance by the nation’s economy so far this year has government experts worried about inflation and how to sustain thee boom They see the record as proof of the need for higher taxes.”… Page 4: “14 TWISTERS COUNTED BUT NO DEATHS”… “…drilling through Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.”…..
17 APRIL 1968… PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEF (CIA TS/S-I)… NORTH VIETNAM: A commentary on 15 April cited Senator McCarthy and the influential Japanese newspaper Manichi as typical of widespread criticism of the US refusal to accept Phnom Penh and Warsaw for initial peace parley. In a Nhan Dan editorial of the 16th, Hanoi claimed that neither of these cities represents any real difficulty for the US, since both the Cambodians and the Polish governments had assured the US that “favorable conditions would be created.”… Domestic Commentary Highlights: The assertion that in addition to delaying on the issue of a site, The US is “strengthening the war in the south and launching big military operations. A North Vietnamese daily editorial on 15 April told the people now was the time for extra efforts. The new situation called for taking advantage of every opportunity, according to the editorial; it opened up “bright prospects” but required “every minute and every breath to develop militant strength….
17 APRIL 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… No Associated Press coverage of air war in North… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 17 April 1968…
(1) CAPTAIN JOHN WAYNE HELD was flying an A-37A Dragonfly of the 604th ACS and 3rd TFW out of Bien Hoa on a close air support mission near Song Be, 70 miles north of Saigon when downed by automatic weapons fire on his third pass on the troop target. CAPTAIN HELD successfully eject from the disabled aircraft and his parachute was spotted on the ground. A SAR helicopter arrived on scene twenty minutes later and a crewman was lowered to the ground at the site of the chute but found nothing else. CAPTAIN HELD was listed as missing in action and eventually presumed to have been captured and killed by the Viet Cong… CAPTAIN HELD perished 50 years ago this day and was left behind… The search goes on… He is remembered on this anniversary of his last flight…
`Humble Host flew #145… (From notes on my kneeboard card… after each flight I would take a few minutes to add 50-100 words on the back of the card on how the flight went.)… Led flight of four on armed recce Vinh to eastern opening of Nape Valley, Route 8. No trucks. Dropped 6 MK-82s x 4 on a bridge/bridge bypass at Ha Tan on Rt 8… Rearranged the topography and left no visible means of crossing the little river there… Nothing compares with doing your own targeting in the interdiction role… Wingmen said there was shooting, I didn’t see it… 30 minutes over the beach trolling… nothing to strafe….
ROLLING THUNDER THROUGH THE YEARS 1965-68…
AMONG THE BRAVE… ON 17 APRIL… Humble Host will include this summary for the remainder of the Rolling Thunder story (the rest of 2018, Lord willing). These previously reported entries may also be found in the RTR archives for each of these dates…
1965… CAPTAIN SAMUEL A. WOODWORTH, USAF was flying an F-105D of the 563rd TFS out of Takhli and was downed by AAA on a strike mission in the Mu Gia pass.Hobson notes that CAPTAIN WOODWORTH was the first Rolling Thunder fighter-bomber to go down in the most famous pass. CAPTAIN WOODWORTH remains where he fell 53 years ago this day…his body has not been recovered…
1966… CAPTAIN LARRY HORACEK and CAPTAIN D.L. HARNAGE were flying a B-57C of the 8th TBS on a lucrative target 25 miles north of the DMZ on the Laos/NVN border (near Mu Gia) when downed by automatic weapon fire on their second strafing pass. Good Ejection (2nd time for Horacek) and pickup to keep on hunting... LCDR GARY HOUGH was flying an A-4C of the VA-56 Champs embarked in Ticonderoga 40 miles south of Vinh when hit by a SAM. He got over the water for his ejection and was picked up to go again… LCDR D.A. SAYERS and LCDR C.J. HAWKINS were flying a VA-85 A-6A off Kitty hawk on a coastal recce near Cape Mui Ron and the Song Ca river mouth when hit by 37mm fire and inflamed forcing an ejection. ..and helicopter rescue to press on… LTJG LESLIE TROMP was flying an A-1H of the VA-115 Arabs embarked in Kitty Hawk and hunting for targets in the Song Ca river area when hit by a SAM. He turned seaward and went in with his Spad. On this day 52 years ago LTJG TROMP perished forever and rests on his shield on the battlefield where he fell. In 1973 the aircraft was found and divers checked the wreckage but the body of LTJG TROMP was gone… left behind, as is the case with almost 100% of Naval Aviators who go down at sea…
1967… MAJOR JAMES MAURICE McGARVEY and CAPTAIN JAMES EDWARD CARLTON were flying a USMC VMA (AW)-242 A-6A out of Danang on a night strike on the transhipment area south of Vinh (Ben Thuy). They were downed on the run in from the southeast and perished. An extended search effort of ten days failed to find anything of the plane or its brave aviators. gone…glory gained, duty done… remembered 51 years after their last flight for out country…
1968… 100 missions were flown over the north, south of the 19th parallel, without loss … all round trips…oohrah…
Tomorrow: The recap for four consecutive 18 Aprils of taking the war to the North…
RIPPLE SALVO… #773… Fifty years ago our country was desperately seeking a start for negotiation to end the Vietnam war with North Vietnam. At the same time we were talking, occasionally, with North Korea to get our 82 Pueblo crewmen and the USS Pueblo returned to the United States. Those experiences provide a useful lesson for our ongoing efforts to get diplomatic relations and nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea underway… Writer Henry J. Taylor takes us back to the 1950s for an earlier pertinent history lesson…
‘ORIENTALS HARD TO DECIPHER, IN NO HURRY TO SETTLE WAR”…
“Much more than meets the eye is involved in the question of where preliminary peace talks with North Vietnam would take place. Orientals are hard people to decipher. But you have to play the Oriental game by Oriental rules, among which is the importance of the Oriental’s first pitch.
“To be Oriental is a frame of mind. This is true in detail as well as in principle. But we Westerners somehow insist on holding at the East from a Western viewpoint and play down the importance of a detail. It makes us the pigeons who fly into a trap. The Orientals antagonist begins by carefully selecting what appears to the Western mind to be small point. This is usually a more procedural detail. It is, however, his testing pitch.
EXPANDS DEMANDS
“If you give in he interprets the give-in as weakness. His strategy is to get you accustomed to giving in and he tries to start the habit of surrender at once. Then he expands his demands from that moment forward. It is the Oriental technique of gradualism. Accustom people to retreating and you cannot only push them out of firm positions but they’ll even begin to believe that ducking into doorways is really much better than walking down the street!
“I have experienced this Oriental technique time and again in Geneva conferences. Korea, in turn, gave a consequential example, instantly recognized by a man who thoroughly understood the Oriental mentality: General Douglas MacArthur.
“The Red Chinese never asked for the Korean cease-fire talks. We did all that, just as President Johnson has so repeatedly asked the North Vietnamese to talk, culminating in his March 31 TV appeal. On June 23, 1951, Jacob Malik, the Soviet Ambassador to the United Nations, in a radio interview in New York City simply state that the Soviet Union hoped there might be truce talks with the North Koreans. The Soviets said nothing that would, or did, commit Russia and of course, nothing that committed the Red North Koreans or Red China.
TRUE MESSAGES…
“Nevertheless, Washington filled the world’s channels with radio truce messages to the Red North Koreans and Red Chinese. In all dialects and around the clock we asked: ‘Do you want to talk about a truce. In all dialects and around the clock we asked: ‘Do you want to talk about? Will you meet with us?’ We asked the North Koreans to meet aboard the Danish hospital ship Jutlandia in the harbor of Pusan, Korea, much as President Johnson suggested Geneva on March 31. Geneva was the only specific proposal. President Johnson stated: ‘the enemy did not even answer our Korea appeal for five days.
“The morning after we began asking the enemy to this meeting I was with General MacArthur at his 90 Church Street office in New York City. He predicted, and instantly, what the Orientals would do. ‘They’ll begin by knocking down the only specific proposal we’ve made,’ General Mac Arthur told me. ‘We’ll think it’s too small to us but not to the Oriental. In my opinion, the North Koreans will begin by refusing to meet us at Pusan. They will use that refusal to test how anxious we are to sue for peace at this moment. They will substitute some other place. This will probably be some location behind their own lines, but in any case they will certainly knock down our specific proposal. And, if we give in, the talks will go on indefinitely and they’ll never stop expanding their demands.’
WE GAVE IN…
“As MacArthur predicted, the Oriental did grasp at the angle specific and did blackball it. The North Koreans insisted on their own choices of location and we gave in. The cease-fire talks began July 8, 1951. Up to that date our Korean casualties were 78,726 dead, wounded and missing–far fewer than we have already suffered in Vietnam. The Reds talked and talked for nearly two years. Before they finished talking our American casualties were 104,383 dead, wounded and missing. We suffered 25,657 additional casualties after the talks began.
“Peace celebrations on the New York Stock Exchange, or elsewhere, are very, very premature. Nothing, absolutely nothing, will now hurry this Oriental. (HO CHI MINH)
RTR Quote for 17 April: GENERAL Douglas MacArthur: “A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.”…
Lest we forget… Bear
