Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #758… ALASKA’s JUNIOR SENATOR MIKE GRAVEL was instrumental, a driving force, in publishing “THE PENTAGON PAPERS.” The most authoritative and complete version of four volumes–4,100 pages–of the Daniel Ellsburg purloined classified Defense Department papers are identified as “The Gravel Edition.” The first half –275 pages– of Volume Four is a vital source of documentation of “The Air War in North Vietnam,” but Senator Gravel’s work only goes so far. He wraps up Rolling Thunder at 1 April 1968 with a superb summary at pages 274-75… but first…
GOOD MORNING… Day SEVEN HUNDRED FIFTY-EIGHT of a 1000 blog through the past–OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER: the air war fought over North Vietnam, 1965-68 by some of the bravest of the brave… Yankee Air Pirates and Red River Rats…
HEAD LINES from the OGDEN STANDARD-EXAMINER for Tuesday, 2 April 1968… the weather forecast was: “wide-spread precipitation will cover the nation.”
Page 1: “U.S. CONCENTRATES WAR PLANES AGAINST SOUTH VIETNAM TARGETS–BOMBERS STEER CLEAR OF RESTRICTED ZONES”… “U.S. warplanes hammered targets in North Vietnam’s southern panhandle today in its aerial campaign that is rising in tempo there since President Johnson’s clampdown Monday on bombing farther north. Hanoi radio claimed one plane shot down. There was no confirmation in Saigon. Nor did U.S. officers indicate whether the raids were as intense as Monday or as far north…. U.S. bombers flew more than 100 missions against the North Vietnam Monday, nearly double the average number before the Johnson curtailment order….Hanoi radio said U.S. fighter-bombers today repeatedly attacked Thanh Hoa Province. It said defense units shot down a F-4 fighter but made no mention of the crew.”… Page 1: “PENTAGON FEARS ALL-OUT ENEMY SUPPLY BUILD-UP“…”Air Force officials say the North Vietnamese are likely to take advantage of the U.S. bombing limitation by preparing a massive supply run southward. The allied forces face the job of trying to intercept the new flow of goods ticketed for enemy troops in South Vietnam,…They said a month-long bombing halt would permit the Communists to rush 100,000 tons of supplies South. In other Pentagon reaction to President’ Johnson’s Sunday night speech on Vietnam, defense officials said the administration plans to mobilize up to 60,000 reservists. But they stressed the figure could vary up or down depending on Pentagon studies underway…..The key communications line in North Vietnam’s upper bulge freed from bombing by the President’s order is a rail line extending southwestward out of Red China into Hanoi. The line carries a substantial amount of small arms from China. This rail line hs to be hit regularly to disrupt tis use. In addition, the military would have liked to continue striking industrial plants and military complexes located in the northeast quadrant, which is now out-of-bounds.”… Page 1: IN THE GROUND WAR: “In South Vietnam Viet Cong gunners sent seven rockets whistling into Saigon’s big Tan Son Nhut airbase today and shelled three other places from Hue along the northern seacoast to the Mekong Delta. Damage from the shelling was described as light and in all nine persons were wounded….The U.S. Command announced the end of Operation Scotland in which it said 1,561 North Vietnamese troops have been killed around Khe Sanh in five months.”…
Page 1: “JOHNSON TO REMAIN NEUTRAL IN DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, MANSFIELD SAYS”… Page 1: “Early Turnout Signals Heavy Voting In Wisconsin Primary”… Page 1: “Don’t Block Peace Try, Nixon Says”… Page 2: “JOHNSON ACTS LIKE A NEW MAN–CROSSED THE BRIDGE”… “Lyndon B. Johnson has served his first day as a ‘lame duck’ President–and managed to make it look easy. If Johnson entertained any private misgivings Monday about his ‘completely irrevocable’ decision to shun another race for the country’s highest office, they were totally camouflage.” Page 2: “SPECIAL RIOT POWER SOUGHT BY LINDSAY”… “Mayor John Lindsay today asked for emergency powers tao ban the sale of firearms and alcoholic beverages and to impose a curfew in the event of civil disorders in the city.”… Page 4: “WHITES HOLD BALANCE IN SELMA VOTE”… “Three Negro candidates are seeking to defeat city councilmen in today’s Democratic primary runoff. But despite a vast increase in Selma’s Negro voting strength, the outcome rests with white voters.”…
“Page 3: “MORTARS FIRED AT 2 ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS”… “Mortar barrages were fired Monday night at two Israeli settlements in the Beisan Valley some 20 miles south of the Sea of Galilee.”… Page 3: “PAPER GOLD PROPOSALS WILL WORK DESPITE DE GAULLE, U.S. CONFIDENT”… Page 5: “Troop’s Restore Order In Riot Torn Rio De Janeiro”…
2 APRIL 1968…THE PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEF… (CIA TS-SI) A LATE ITEM: A 2 April message to subordinates south of Hanoi is the first reaction we have received from North Vietnam. The message, whose overall tone is rather calm, says the President’s speech expresses an “embarrassing defeat for the American pirates.” It urges recipients to be cautious and to “take preventive measures for a deceitful plot.” Party members are exhorted to “expand each activity,” particularly “the mission of communications and transportation aimed at realizing the party strategy.”… NORTH VIETNAM: From communications intelligence the number of Chinese military personnel in North Vietnam is calculated at up to 50,000, engaged in construction and antiaircraft tasks…. HEAVY TRUCK TRAFFIC THROUGH LAOS: Road watch teams near the Mu Gia Pass reported unusually heavy truck traffic moving into Laos during March. These trucks were probably involved in the logistics backup for the major North Vietnamese troop infiltration now under way. Between 8 and 23 March an average of 53 trucks a day were coming through the pass (this, compared to 41 a day noted in February). Road watch teams farther south on the infiltration corridor have reported an increased supply flow, too. Intercepted messages also point to an intensified logistical effort. There have been references to a “crash program.”… HANOI CONTINUES F-111 COMMENTARY: Hanoi’s domestic radio on 31 March carried another long commentary taking credit for destroying two F-111 aircraft. The broadcast said the Pentagon “had to admit” the first F-111 was downed by the Northern armed forces and people, and it cited Western press sources as evidence the second one was lost while conducting a combat mission “over” North Vietnam…
2 APRIL 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… No AP or UPI coverage of ops north of the DMZ… things are being to quiet down… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia…
(1) 1LT K.S. PETERSON was flying an F-100D of the 510th TFS and 3rd TFW out of Bien Hoa and went down while attacking a Viet Cong base on the outskirts of Saigon. He was hit by ground fire pulling up from his second ordnance delivery run on the complex of targets and was forced to eject. He was recovered to fly and fight again…
Humble Host flew #130. Led section with load of 6 Mk-82s each to work with Nails FAC northwest of Khe Sanh in the clear. “Hit my smoke,” which was labeled a “mortar site.”
RIPPLE SALVO… #758… The final paragraphs of the coverage of Operation Rolling Thunder in “The Pentagon Papers” mark the transition of the air campaign from one that included strategic targets in the Heartland to one limited to interdiction of the lines of support for the North Vietnamese war in the South. Rolling Thunder would continue until 1 November…. I quote…
(31 March 1968, President Johnson speaks… his concluding remarks: “Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my Party for another term as your President. But let men everywhere know, however, that a strong, a confident, and vigilant America stands ready tonight to seek an honorable peace–and stands ready tonight to defend an honored cause–whatever the price, whatever the burden, whatever the sacrifices that they may require. Thank you for listening. Good night and God bless you all.”)
“The speech had an electric effect on the U.S. and the whole world. It completely upset the American political situation, spurred world-wide hopes that peace might be imminent and roused fear and concern in South Vietnam about the depth and reliability of the American commitment. as already noted, no one in the Administration had seriously expected a positive reaction from Hanoi, and when the North Vietnamese indicated three days later that they would open direct contacts with the U.S. looking toward discussions and eventual negotiation of a peaceful settlement of the conflict, the whole complexion and context of the war was changed. To be sure, there was the unfortunate and embarrassing wrangle about exactly where the northern limit of the U.S. bombing would be fixed, with CINCPAC having sent extremely heavy sorties to the very limits of the 20th parallel on the day after the announcement only to be subsequently ordered to restrict his attacks below 19-degrees on April 3. And there was the exasperatingly long public struggle between the U.S. and DRV about where their representatives would meet and what title the contacts would be given, not finally resolved until May. But it was unmistakably clear throughout all this time that a major corner in the war and in American policy had been`turned and there was no going back. The President’s decision was enormously well received at home and greeted with enthusiasm abroad where it appeared at long last there was a possibility of removing this annoyingly persistent little war in Asia as a roadblock to progress on other matters of world-wide importance involving East and West.
“The President’s speech at the end of March was, of course, not the end of the bombing much less the war, and a further history of the role of the limited air strikes could and should be undertaken. But the decision to cut back the bombing, the decision that turned American policy toward a peaceful settlement of the war, is a logical and fitting place to terminate this particular inquiry into the policy process that surrounded the air war. Henceforth, the decisions about the bombing would be made primarily in the Pacific by the filed commanders since no vitally sensitive targets requiring continuing Washington level political review were within the reduce attack zone. A very significant chapter in the history of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war had come to an end.
“As those who struggled with the policy decisions about the bombing came to learn, any dispassionate and objective appraisal of it is almost impossible. As McGeorge Bundy noted in September 1967 after the Stennis hearings, both its proponents and its opponents have been guilty of excesses in their advocacy and criticism. As Bundy put it, ‘My own summary belief is that both advocates and the opponents of bombing continue to exaggerate it importance.’ To be sure, the bombing had not been conducted to its fullest potential, but on the other hand it had been much heavier and had gone on much longer than many if not most of its advocates had expected at the outset. Whether more might have been accomplished by different bombing policy decisions, at the start or along the way–in particular the last full squeeze favored by the JCS–would necessarily remain an open question. What can be said in the end is that its partial suspension in part did produce what most had least expected–a breakthrough in the deadlock over negotiations. And that is the longer view of history may turn out to be its most significant contribution.”… End quote…
RTR Quote for 2 April: ADMIRAL CHESTER NIMITZ: “When you’re in command, command.”
Lest we forget… Bear
