Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #749… JAMES RESTON in the New York Times, 24 March 1968… “Dean Rusk says the Vietnam policy is being reassessed from A to Z, and President Johnson talks as if the reappraisal were going merely from A to B, but obviously something is afoot here.”… but first…
GOOD MORNING: Day SEVEN HUNDRED FORTY-NINE of a review of a page of history and war that took the lives of more 58,000 American warriors with a closer look at Operation Rolling Thunder, the offensive air war carried to the heartland of North Vietnam…
HEAD LINES from The New York Times on Sunday 24 March 1968 with snow in the forecast…
THE GROUND WAR & KHE SANH: “KHE SANH SHELLED HEAVILY BY ENEMY–U.S. DESCRIBES CASUALTIES AS LIGHT”… “North Vietnamese pressure on the United States Marine outpost at Khe Sanh increased yesterday, when 640 mortar, artillery and rocket shells exploded in the base. Casualties among the marines holding the outpost were described as light … Although more than 1,000 shells hit the outpost on a day in February, the usual incoming fire has ranged between 100 and 300 per day. High level military officers in Saigon were reluctant to attach special significance to the unusually heavy shelling of Khe Sanh. Many officers have said they believe the North Vietnamese shelling is directly related to the enemy’s supply levels. ‘They keep hitting us every day and building up a stock of stuff from the North,’ an officer said. ‘Then when their stock is up high they hit us hard. Things quiet down for few days then they hit us again.’…Possibly in reaction to the heavy shelling, the United States sent in seven flights of B-52 Stratofortresses to bomb in rugged mountains overlooking the Khe Sanh outpost. In Addition, 235 fighter-bombers mounted attacks in the vicinity of Khe Sanh. ‘We’re sure he has been weakened. The question is, how much.’ …Most American commanders believe that the fading of the monsoon, which gives away to clear skies around Khe Sanh in mid-May, makes an all-out attack on the outpost increasingly likely. But they continue to say that the enemy could strike at any time…. In other action, troops sweeping the fringes of Saigon in the largest operation of the war discovered more weapons and food caches.”… Page 1: “SWEDEN CONFIRMS CONTACT WITH HANOI”… “Sources said today that the United States had recently used Swedish diplomatic channels for contacts with North Vietnam despite the chill in U.S.-Swedish relations.”… Page 1: “Westmoreland Departure Could Spur War Changes”... “A full-scale review of United States strategy in the war in Vietnam was already underway (A TO Z) before it was known that General William C. Westmoreland would be replaced as American commander there. According to informed sources, at least some modifications of strategy and tactics would have been inevitable after what one of them called the ‘cataclysmic events’ of the Vietcong’s recent Lunar New Year offensive.”…
PAGE 1: “65% AT CONVENTION TO BACK JOHNSON, SURVEY INDICATES–Kennedy and McCarthy are Given 790 Votes, Against 1,725 For The President–Poll Covers 50 States–Some Democratic Chiefs Say New Yorker’s Drive May Force New Estimates”… “…leaders in all 50 states were asked predict how their delegations would line up if the August nominating convention were held today.”... Page 1: “INDUSTRY DRIVE IN DETROIT SHOWS SMALL GAINS IN CREATION OF JOBS”… Page 46: “Kennedy Mobbed By Fans On Coast–On Flight Out He Says He’s In Elections Race To stay”… Page 48: “Some Labor Men Bolting Johnson”… Page 47. “Kennedy Candidacy Is Posing Problems For Americans For Democratic Action”… Page 58: “NIXON TO START QUIET COURTSHIP OF MODERATE WING OF REPUBLICAN PARTY”… Page 64. “Leftists Plan Democratic Convention Disruption–Convene With Black Power Leaders in Coordination with Antiwar Campaign”… Page 32: “Gallup Poll: Johnson Trails Kennedy”…
Page 1: “HUSSEIN DISAVOWS ANY DUTY TO HALT GUERRILLA ACTION BY JORDAN–Insists He Will Not Accept Responsibility for Safety of his Enemy’s Forces–Raid’s Toll Increases– Draft resolution at the U.N. Warns Israel of Sanctions and Military Measures”… Page 6: “Hanoi Says Resolve of North Vietnamese People Is Firm”… Page 1: “GOD IS DEAD DOCTRINE IS LOSING GROUND TO THEOLOGY OF HOPE”… Page 12: “Political Activism New Hippie Thing”…Page 28: “Systems Analysts Are Baffled By Problems of Social Change”…
24 MARCH 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (25 Mar reporting 24 Mar ops) Page 3: “In North Vietnam, American pilots attacked the Catbi Airfield, three miles southwest of Haiphong and the Hadong military barracks eight miles southeast of Hanoi. Pilots of many of the 93 multiple plane raids into North Vietnam dropped their bombs with the aid of radar and their damage assessments were incomplete. In addition to Catbi the pilots bombed Baithoung Airfield 22 miles northwest of Thanh Hoa, for the fifth time this month. The spokesman said: ‘I doubt if there’s much left of it now.’...Page 3: “HANOI AREA BOMBED”… (Agence France-Presse)… “The Hanoi area was bombed twice today (24th), for the first time in 11 days. There were raids at 2 A.M. and heavier ones at 8:30 A.M. the second attack appeared to hit the Red River area on the southeast edge of the city. It could not be ascertained immediately whether the city proper had been hit in addition to the suburb.”…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There were two fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 24 March 1968…
(1) A UC-123K Flareship of the 606th ACS and 56th ACW with a crew of five aboard was operating over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos when hit by ground fire in the port engine. The pilot aborted the mission and successfully returned to NKP. The battle damage was so severe the aircraft was struck. All five onboard survived to fly and flare again…
(2) CAPTAIN CHARLES WILBUR PORTERFIELD, USMC, was flying an A-4E of the VMA-211 Checkmates and MAG-12 out of Chu Lai. He aborted a take-off on a strike mission after experiencing a malfunctioning system on the roll. Unfortunately, the Skyhawk veered off the runway and was destroyed killing CAPTAIN PORTERFIELD… He is remembered on this day 50 years after his last flight as he rests in peace in Arlington National Cemetery…
RIPPLE SALVO… #748… JAMES RESTON in The Sunday New York Times 24 March 1968… Page 16E…I quote…
VIETNAM REAPPRAISAL–A to Z or A to B?…
Washington, March 23– “Dean Rusk says the Vietnam policy is being reassessed from A to Z, and President Johnson talks as if the reappraisal were going merely from A to B, obviously something is afoot here. Several things we know. President Johnson brought General Westmoreland prominently into the politics of the war and in the process promised the general publicly he would get all the troops he would need. General Westmoreland asked for 206,000 more troops, which he isn’t gong to get, and now he ‘s coming home to be the Army Chief of Staff. Maybe there’s no connection between these things, but they’re intriguing.
THE CRITICAL EVENTS
“Also, the events of the last few weeks have forced some solemn reflections here. No resident can face 500 American deaths a week during the enemy’s latest offensive in Vietnam, plus a run on the dollar, a budget crisis in Congress, the Kerner report on the plight of the cities, and a challenge to his office by McCarthy and Kennedy–all within a few days and all connected to the war–without wondering about where the national interest and his personal interest lie. Nobody, of course, could guess this from the President’s public statements. He has never appeared more calm or determined in private, or more confident in public that all is well, despite what he portrays as a few minor irritations and temporary reverses. And this may really be the way it is and to be, for in issues of war and peace the President’s mood and will are decisive.
“Yet there is a change in Washington. Whatever the official line at the White House, the mood, manner and private conversation of at least some influential men just below the President are quite different. They are searching for where the true national interest lies. They are weighing the priorities, trying to avoid the tangles of pride and policy our of the past, talking about where we should go from here. Thus, it would be wrong to say–despite the Westmorland reassignment–that the policy has changed, but the dialogue among important officials has certainly hanged on at least two respects.
THE PRIMARY QUESTION
“First, the talk in official Washington now is not about large U.S. reinforcements in the war–though there will undoubtedly be some reinforcements–but about large South Vietnamese reinforcements. Second, the talk now is not much about the U.S. making unlimited sacrifices to achieve victory in South Vietnam as it is about giving the South Vietnamese a last chance to prove that they can carry the main burden themselves.
“On this point, the recent speech by President Thieu of South Vietnam, calling for the conscription of an additional 135,000 South Vietnamese soldiers, may be significant. ‘Our allies in the Free World,’ he said, will give us more military and economic assistance, but for our part, I think that we must make greater efforts and accept more sacrifices, because this is our country, the existence of our nation is at stake, and this is mainly a Vietnamese responsibility.’
SHIFT INDICATED
“This is the kind of talk Washington wants to hear, and the White House took some pains to alert the press to what President Thieu said. Talk, however, is not policy, but it could be the beginning of a new policy, or at least a new emphasis on the primary responsibility of the South Vietnamese. What some officials in Washington now seem to be saying is that if the force levels have to be increased substantially to achieve the present allied objectives in the war, the South Vietnamese will have to produce the extra weapons, then if this does not work, then the objectives will have to be redefined and reduced.
“All this is very fuzzy for the moment. It is nothing more than a new element in the discussion of policy, forced by military, economic and political events, and could be overwhelmed by the enemy’s future actions on the battlefield, but it is important nonetheless. The importance of it is that the basic assumptions of the Administration’s past Vietnam policy, so long challenged in the nation, are now being questioned, or at least discussed, at the highest levels of the Government. Is victory in Vietnam really ‘vital’ to the honor and security of the United States? Would it really stop the Communist ‘wars of national liberation’ if we achieved it? If not, is the attainable objective worth the cost? Can we really rely on the South Vietnamese, and if not, can we really replace them?
“These questions are now, at last, being seriously discussed by officials who have influence at a moment when critical decisions have to be made, and that is news. Nobody knows outside the White House, and maybe not even there for the moment, where it will come out, but the fact that it is being discussed is now known in Saigon and that is important. For as long as the Saigon Government took our propaganda seriously–that we would make any sacrifice to win the war, for it was vital to our honor and security–there was little hope that they would even make the effort to unify their country and takeover the effective prosecution of the war and thee pacification of the villages.
“Maybe it is beyond their capacity. Maybe they can’t prevail unless we continue our search-and-destroy policy that is now in serious dispute in Washington, but at least the debate on all these things is now going on in Washington and the Saigon leaders know it.” End Quote…
RTR Quote for 24 March: HOMER, The Odyssey: “One who in the past has suffered much in the wars and from the waves; now he slept at peace forgetful of what he had suffered.”
Lest we forget… Bear
