Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #849… “DOES THE END JUSTIFY THE MEANS?”… “Life and how you live it is the story of means and ends. The end is what you want, and the means is how you get it. Whenever we think about social change, the question of means and end arises. The man of action views the issue of means and ends in pragmatic and strategic terms. He has no other problem; he thinks only of his actual resources and the possibilities of various choices of action. He asks of ends only whether they are achievable and worth the cost; of means, only whether they will work. To say that corrupt means corrupts the ends is to believe in the immaculate conception of ends and principles. The real arena is corrupt and bloody. Life is a corrupting process from the time a child learns to play his mother off against his father in the politics of when to go to bed; he who fears corruption fears life. The practical revolutionary will understand Goethe’s ‘conscience is the virtue of observers and not the agents of action’; in action, one does not always enjoy the luxury of a decision that is consistent both with one’s individual conscience and the good of mankind. The choice must always be for the latter. Action is for mass salvation and not for individual’s personal salvation. He who sacrifices the mass good for his personal conscience has a peculiar conception of ‘personal salvation’; he doesn’t care enough for people to be ‘corrupted’ for them.”… SAUL D. ALINSKY, THE RULES FOR RADICALS… Head Line New York Times, 1 July 1968: “Non-Violent Rights Movement Faces Uncertain Future As Doubts Rise It Can Survive the Loss of Dr. King”… but first…
GOOD MORNING… Day EIGHT HUNDRED FORTY-NINE of a time of bloody battles in the streets of both Saigon and Chicago… The Summer of 1968…
HEAD LINES from The New York Times on Tuesday 2 July 1968…
THE WAR: Page 7: “FIGHTING IS SHARP IN THE KHE SANH AREA–157 ENEMY SOLDIERS KILLED–MARINES LOSE 2 DEAD”… “United States Marines supported by artillery and fighter planes were said to have killed 157 North Vietnamese soldiers early yesterday in a fight near the Khe Sanh combat base. The clash started before dawn some three miles southeast of the scarred base from which the marines are gradually withdrawing after defending it for six months… What was originally thought to be an enemy force of 30 men increased when Marine aviators on the way to the scene spotted a larger enemy force nearby. The attacked with bombs, napalm and machine-gun fire. When the enemy broke off two and a half hours later, the marines found 40 bodies and in a later sweep found 117 more bodies…There was scattered fighting around the Saigon area and one clash 41 miles northwest of Saigon resulted in the killing of five enemy soldiers…While ground units tried to stop the enemy in the jungles, B-52 bombers continued to blast surrounding provinces with hundreds of tons of bombs. The heavy air strikes were conducted all around the capital, as they have been for the last two weeks. The big planes also struck at artillery sites, bunkers and storage areas of the demilitarized zone.”… Page 7: ENEMY TOLL IS REPORTED”… “South Vietnamese command reported today that allied forces had killed 1,193 North Vietnamese and Vietcong troops last week. South Vietnamese losses were put at 273 killed and 856 wounded. U.S. losses are reported weekly on Thursdays.”
PEACE TALKS: Page 5: “HARRIMAN RETURNS TO PARIS FROM U.S.”… “W. Averell Harriman said on his return here tonight that the United States was satisfied with the position it had taken at the Vietnam talks and continued to hope North Vietnam would get down to serious negotiations. The chief American negotiator spoke to reporters at the airport upon his return from a visit to the United States during which he reported to President Johnson on the eight-week-old negotiations.”… “The French Government has rejected a proposal from Senator Claiborne Pell, Democrat of Rhode Island, suggesting that France help break the deadlock in the Vietnam talks here.”…
Page 1: “U.S. AND SOVIETS AGREE TO PARLEYS ON LIMITATION OF MISSILE SYSTEMS–BAN ON ATOM ARMS SPREAD SIGNED–Talks Start Soon–Weapons Of Offensive and Defensive Type to Be Included”… Page 1: “9 POINT DISARMAMENT PLAN IS PROPOSED BY KOSYGIN”… Page 2: “LBJ Statement On Signing Of Treaty On Nuclear Arms”… Page 2: “Kosygin Remarks And Excerpts From Treaty”… Page 3: “U.S. AND SOVIET AGREE TO CONFER ON CURBS ON MISSILES–President Warns Job Will Be Hard–His Statement Accompanies Signing Of Treaty to Limit Spread of Arms”… Page 3: “Chinese Reds Spurn Bid To Atom Parley… Page 4: “West Germany Declines to Sign Atom Pact”… Page 6: “U.S. GROUND RULES KEEP REIN ON WAR REPORTING”… Page 8: “Kosygin Confers With North Vietnamese On Economic And Military Aid”… Page 9: “Easing to Purges Hinted By China–Observers Detect Pullback From Radical Swing”… Page 14: “NAACP SPLIT ON WHITE AMERICA”…
2 JULY 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…New York Times… Page 7: (Rolling Thunder for 1 July)… “also north of the demilitarized zone, carrier based aircraft carried out 139 missions. One of the targets was a factory that manufactured bricks in an area three miles west of Vinh. Pilots reported having destroyed three buildings and three kilns. Asked why the factory was considered a strategic target a military spokesman said the bricks could be used to build artillery sites and other fortifications… NYT, 3 Jul page 6: (Rolling Thunder for 2 July) “American fighter-bombers flew 131 missions over North Vietnam between the DMZ and the 19th Parallel striking at trucks, supply boats and bridges. the pilots said they started more than 100 sustained fires and reported 26 secondary explosions.”…
VIETNAM: AIR LOSSES (Chris Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia oon 2 July 1968…
(1) 1LT LANCE LAGRANGE was flying an F-100D of the 306th TFS and 31st TFW out of Tuy Hoa on a landing zone preparation mission employing napalm. On his first napalm pass on the prospective landing site 40 miles north of Phu Cat he was hit by ground fire and the aircraft went directly into the ground giving 1LT LAGRANGE no opportunity to eject from the Super Sabre.. 1LT LAGRANGE was a graduate of RPI and graduated at the top of his class in flight training. He was on his first squadron assignment and first month of combat flying. He left a wife on this day 50 years ago when he flew his last flight. He remains where he fell on the battleield…Left Behind… but remembered…
(2) MAJOR HENRY ALBERT TIPPING was flying an A-1H of the 6th ACS and 14th ACW out of Pleiku on the RESCAP that successfully extracted LCOL MODICA (see RTR for 1 July). MAJOR TIPPING’s Spad was hit by 37mm AAA as he orbited over the DMZ at 5,000 awaiting a call to provide cover for the helicopter operations. The aircraft became uncontrollable and MAJOR TIPPING was unable to escape the aircraft before it crashed in the DMZ buffer zone… MAJOR TIPPING remains where he fell 50 years ago this day… Left Behind, but not forgotten…
SUMMARY OF ROLLING THUNDER LOSSES (KIA/MIA/POW) ON 2 JULY FOR THE FOUR YEARS OF THE OPERATION OVER NORTH VIETNAM…
1965… NONE…
1966… NONE…
1967… LTJG FREDERICK MORRISON KASCH, USN… (KIA)… and …MAJOR RAY DANIEL PENDERGRAFT, USMC…(KIA)… and… CAPTAIN DAVID GLENN SPEARMAN, USMC… (KIA)…
1968… MAJOR HENRY ALBERT TIPPING, USAF… (KIA)…
RIPPLE SALVO… #849… The events in America in the summer of 1968 provide a guide to the ongoing developments in 2018. The similarities are notable. We have been here before. The events of the 60s led Saul Alinsky to publish (1971) Rules for Radicals “as a guide on future community organizing for the new generation of radicals emerging from the 1960’s.” The guide is at work in every corner of America, and has been for five decades… My Salvo today is a primer for what is to follow in my RTR posts for the summer of 1968 as nonviolence fades into a summer like no other. Except maybe the summer of 2018…
NYT, 1-Jul-68, Page 17: “NONVIOLENT RIGHTS MOVEMENT FACES UNCERTAIN FUTURE AS DOUBTS RISE IT CAN SURVIVE THE LOSS OF DR. KING” by Earl Caldwell… “Early one afternoon just before the Government flattened Resurrection City last week, the young Negroes who had taken up residence there (on the Mall in Washington) streamed noisily aboard a battered old bus. ‘We’re gong to see Stokely (Carmichael),’ they shouted. ‘If you’re interested in black power come with us. We’re sick of his nonviolent stuff.’
“It had become difficult for leaders of the Poor People’s Campaign to involve the youths in their nonviolent protests. But to talk with Stokel;y Carmichael, the black power advocate, they rushed out of the camp. ‘It’s no longer relevant,’ a Negro writer snapped when questioned about the merits of nonviolence. ‘It’s only a trick bag that whitey puts me in. He disarms me and then brings in the cops. It’s not even worth discussing.'”Most observerrs agree that the fate of the nonviolent movement rests largely with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a proposition that some are not happy to accept.
“They are also aware that the civil rights group is in the midst of a demanding Poor People’s Campaign that most concede is going badly. What the campaign set out to accomplish was looked upon from the start as being all but impossible. The goal to which it was committed seemed to call for a new social order.
“The Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s successor, says that the drive is attempting to bring about a redistribution of the nation’s wealth. Previously, conference leaders were concerned with human dignity and political equality for Negroes. But to cope with the rise of violence in the country, Dr. King saw the Poor People’s Campaign, even with the risks as being unavoidable. A part of the risk was that the nonviolent movement was badly in need of a victory that might re-establish its effectiveness.
“But just when the movement needed encouragement because it was being discredited by the militants, Dr. King felt compelled to present it with its stiffest challenge. As a result, if the Poor People’s Campaign fails, it may be widely interpreted as a defeat for nonviolence. ‘Nonviolence cannot fail,,’ conference leaders argue. ‘America can fail but nonviolence has already been proven.’The conference is generally considered the organization that carries the nonviolent movement, although other groups–the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Urban League–adhere to nonviolent policies on a scale comparative with the Leadership. The Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee have shunned the philosophy of nonviolence, although neither has openly engaged in violent programs.
There is considerable feeling that the Poor People’s Campaign may decide the future of the Leadership Conference because this is its first crusade without Dr. King. The Rev. Andrew J. Young, executive vice president of the conference concedes that if the group suffers an embarrassing defeat ‘we’d immediately be written off that we can’t make it without Martin Luther King.’ As Mr. Young p;points out, Dr. King was the movement’s most articulate, prominent and powerful spokesman. Just the fact that he had a Nobel Peace Prize meant that ‘he had to be taken seriously. People had confidence in him,’ the second ranking officer in the Leadership Conference continued.
“Th problem now, Mr. Young said, ‘is that people will accept what we say but they will not accept us. They have not demonstrated a willingness to take us seriously,’ he said. The lack of acceptance often reduces the white support that has been so vital in the nonviolent movement. “Change doesn’t come until white America is ready to change,’ Mr. Young said. ‘The definition of social change is moving a significant number of white Americans to accept it.’
“As crucial as the Poor People’s crusade is to the movement, though its chances for significant success appear nil. ‘it really looks as though we’ll have difficulty pulling through \this with anything,’ mr. Young said. ‘The way it reads now, we got our rumps kicked in Washington.’ Still, Mr. Young says, in his opinion the movement is in better shape than that. “Look who we’re fighting,’ he says. ‘Even Russia doesn’t have the confidence and power to take on the United States Government and that is exactly what we’re trying to do.
“Mr. Young has his own ideas about what the conference has to accomplish in Washington. ‘I think that success is to show that we wage a good fight,’ he explained. ‘We don’t have to win this one. We just have to show that we can do battle. He adds that while the Poor People’s Campaign may not achieve its goals now, it will ‘define the issues for the next Administration.’ If the crusade does fail, Young acknowledges, that ‘Ralph Abernathy will be castigated’ and that ‘there will be a whole raft of discussions about leadership struggles.’ But he says with confidences that Mr. Abernathy will continue as president and that ‘by February or March we’ll be back with something else.’
“He discounts reports that Dr. King’s widow, Mrs. Coretta King, will attempt to take over the organization. But he believes Mrs. King intends to become involved in the movement, ‘perhaps coordinating a movement among women.’
“John Lewis, a former chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and now a conference board member, shares Mr. Young’s opinion that failure in the Poor People’s Campaign will not result in new conference leadership.
‘If the campaign is a failure the board will say that we all failed,’ Mr. lewis said. He also believes that the movement must have some victories ‘We must give people some hope,’ he said. Outside the conference, observers have suggested that much of the blame for shortcomings in the campaign can be laid to an inadequate staff. Sources inside the organization report that from the staff of 150 persons, not many more than 25 can be depended on consistently in the campaign.
“Critics of the staff ague that ‘Dr. King was never an organizer’ but that he was able to succeed because he could attract white professionals and inspire his own staff. Mr. Young acknowledges deficiencies in the staff but says that since Dr. King’s death the conference personnel has matured.”
RTR Quote for 2 July: SAUL D. ALINSKY, Rules for Radicals: “#13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”…
Lest we forget…. Bear
