Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #418… Peace keeping, peace making or war mongering???… but first…
Good Morning: Day FOUR HUNDRED EIGHTEEN of a day-to-day journal of the Vietnam air war…
27 April 1967… HEAD LINES and leads from The New York Times on a rainy Thursday in the Bronx…
Page 1: “Blake Declares War Impels U.S. to Tragic Disaster”... “The Rev. Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, declared today that United States policies in Vietnam were leading this country ‘to tragic disaster’…he urged the United States to stop the bombing of North Vietnam and ‘agree with our allies in Asia that we will accept any peace that they will develop and agree with us.’ “… Page 10: “Lodge Finds War Hurt by Critics”…” Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge returned to his home state today with a warning that ‘disunity in America prolongs the war in Vietnam’…demonstrations ‘make Hanoi think all they have to do is hang on, and we will fall apart.‘ “… Page 10: “Red Cross Reports Hanoi Still Bars It”… “The President of the American Red Cross said today that thus far the organization had been unable to do anything substantial for United States prisoners of war in North Vietnam. ‘Even the International Committee of the Red Cross has been unable to get a representative into North Vietnam or to meet with the Vietcong’…‘we will not give up pressing for correct treatment of prisoners.’ “… Page 1: “First Oil Output from Shale Lands in West Due in ’70”… “the country’s first plant for extracting oil from the rich Western oil shale lands will be ready for production in 1970…process 58,000 barrels per day.”… Page 1: “Confessions Curb Ordered to Military Law”…”The nation highest military court ruled today that the limitations on police interrogations and confessions announced last year by the Supreme Court also be applied to military law.”... Page 1: “U.S. Office Stoned by Mob in Yemen”... A rioting mob stoned and attacked the United States and mission in Yemen today and several American and officials were taken into American aid officials were taken into custody by Yemeni authorities.”… Page 44: “The Summer Ahead”… “Summer violence is not inevitable in big city ghettos if communities prepare themselves now with imagination and leadership…” ???
27 April 1967… The President’s Daily Brief…CIA (TS sanitized) YEMEN: Late word this morning from Taiz is that a second day of demonstration has begun…no Americans have been reported hurt but at lest two American citizens are said to have been taken into custody. Damage to embassy and other US property is heavy. The explosion of mob violence follows directly from a campaign of harassment against US presence in Yemen since the return of pro-Egyptian hardliners last August… Chances for a US mediation effort of the Yemen problem are not bright … SOUTH VIETNAM: The impasse between Ky and Thieu over which of them will be the military’s candidate continues, although both insist they will ultimately come t some amicable agreement. This will take some doing, since each appears to have his heart set on getting the “nomination’ and to be confident that he will… CAMBODIA: Sihanouk is evidently planning further crackdown against extremists on the left… GREECE: During the past 24 hours the situation in Athens remains essentially unchanged. King Constantine issued a statement: he expressed his dissatisfaction with the recent events and hoped his country will return soon to parliamentary government…
STATE DEPARTMENT, Office of the Historian, FRUS, 1964-68, Vol V, Document 149. General Westmoreland is in CONUS and meets with the President, Rusk, McNamara, Rostow Wheeler and others twice during the day of 27 April 1967. This document is a summary of General Westmoreland’s comments and some President Johnson responses/questions… here are a few lines from the three page document…
(1) In the final analysis we re fighting a war of attrition in Southeast Asia.
(2) What’s next? The addition of 2 and 1/3 divisions, another 100,000 men, probably in FY69.
(3) I am frankly dismayed at even the thought of stopping the bombing program.
(4) In summary, with the troops we have now in country, we are not going to lose, but progress will be slowed down.
(5) This is not an encouraging outlook, but it is a realistic one.
(6) I have contingency plans to move into Cambodia in the Chu Pong area. We would use a South Vietnamese force but we would like US advisors to accompany.
(7) With a force of 565,000 men the war could well go on for three years. With the second increment of 100,00 additional men leading to a total of 665,000 men it could goon for two years.
(8) WHEELER: The bombing campaign is reaching the point where we will have struck all worthwhile fixed targets except the ports. At this time we will have to address the requirement to deny the DRV the use of the ports.
(9) WHEELER: In summary, the JCS believe the President must review the contingencies which we may face, the troops required to meet them, and additional punitive action against the DRV.
Entire document at: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d149
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER…CONSPICUOUS GALLANTRY AND INTREPIDITY…COMMANDER JAMES HILL WILSON, UNITED STATES NAVY…SILVER STAR…26 APRIL 1967…
The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the SILVER STAR Medal…
“For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving as pilot of a fighter aircraft and Fighter Squadron TWO HUNDRED THIRTEEN and leader of a USS KITTY HAWK (CVA-63) strike force in actions against enemy forces in North Vietnam on 26 April 1967. Assigned to lead the U.S. Navy’s first strike against enemy fighter bases in North Vietnam, Commander WILSON prepared a daring and comprehensive plan of attack on very short notice and personally led the attack force against the Kep Airfield which resulted in the destruction of several aircraft, support buildings and equipment on the ground and two enemy jet fighters in aerial combat. Employing his attack and support aircraft with imagination and telling effect, he guided the strike through a determined and capable enemy defense, which included the firing of approximately 20 antiaircraft missiles, large numbers of anti-aircraft artillery and enemy jet fighters. Despite the fact that his own aircraft was hit by enemy fire when beginning the attack, Commander WILSON resolutely pressed home his dive and personally silenced an active artillery anti-aircraft battery with salvos of rockets. His meticulous planning and foresight made best possible use of the forces at his disposal in minimizing the effectiveness of the considerable enemy defenses, including neutralization of the airborne enemy fighters, of which two were destroyed by the escort fighters as they were prevented from attacking the strike airplanes. This highly successful attack was carried out with outstanding resolution and professional excellence in the face of the very best defense that as resourceful and determined enemy could interpose. In the swift reaction to the target assignment, in the meticulous and foresighted planning for every eventuality and in the highly skillful, resourceful and heroic execution of the task in the face of great personal danger Commander WILSON upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.” ……ooohrah!!!
27 April 1967… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times (28 Apr reporting 27 Apr ops)… Page 14: “MiGs Appear Often Through Heavy Overcasts”... “American pilots flew 84 multi-plane missions over North Vietnam clashing briefly but repeatedly with Soviet built MIG interceptor planes over Hanoi and Haiphong. One flight of MIG-17s fired two salvos of missiles at a flight of Thunderchiefs, but missed. In the raid on Hanoi’s main highway and railway bridge four miles from the center of the city, Thunderchief pilots ran into MIG-17s, surface-to-air missiles and 37-mm, 57-mm, and 85-mm anti-aircraft fire. ‘We got in and out as fast as we could,’ said one flier, Colonel ALLAN G. NELSON. ‘I took one quick glance and noticed the bridge light up.‘ Other Thunderchief pilots dropped 3,000-pound bombs on the nearby power transformer plant. The destroyed eight warehouse and six large storage buildings as the transformer complex, which channels power to all of North Vietnam, erupted in flames. Navy pilots struck the oil storage area two-miles northwest of Haiphong’s center with 250-pound bombs (Sometimes called “lady-fingers”) and 500-pound bombs. They damaged packing, pumping and warehouse buildings as well as nearby railway spurs and intersections.”…
“Vietnam: Air Losses” (Hobson) There were no fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 27 April 1967.
RIPPLE SALVO… #418… WHAT ARE WE DOING? What very warrior wants to know. Were we PEACE MAKING….? PEACE KEEPING…? OR… WARMONGERING? (“a monger is one who tries to stir up or spread something”)… Everybody in the world had an opinion. The warriors of OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER had a Commander-in-Chief and a sworn duty to “follow the orders of the officers appointed over us.”
Here is what our Commander-in-Chief had to say on Thursday, 27 April 1967… NYT, page 1: “Johnson Affirms Desire for Peace”… “President Johnson, who returned here from Germany today (he made a quick trip for the funeral of Konrad Adenauer) to find increasing Congressional criticism of his Vietnam policy, said tonight that ‘I want more than any human being in the world to see the killing stop.’…The President told dinner meeting of the American Physical Society that he wanted to ‘sit down and talk instead of kill,’ the enemy in Vietnam. But we added, ‘I can’t just negotiate with myself.’…Everyday, good people, wise people say to me, why can’t we have a political settlement? Why can’t we understand our fellow human beings? Why can’t we negotiate? Why do men die? I ask myself that every morning and reflect on that every night.’… ‘I want to negotiate. I want a political settlement. I want more than any human being in the world to see the killing stopped. Maybe somewhere, somehow, someday, someone will want to sit down and talk instead of kill. If they do, I’ll be the first one at the table.”…
James Reston had this to say a few days later in a column in the NYT titled, “Blessed Are The War Makers”… “The latest theory in this upside down wart in Vietnam is that a hawk is a dove and a dove is a hawk. This is the gospel according to our embattled masters; the doves are deceiving the enemy into prolonging the killing (by their active dissent), whereas, the compassionate hawks are trying to bring this killing to a quick and merciful end (by bombing the life out of North Vietnam).”
What are we doing? Following the leader…
The policy: Let’s make peace by making more war. Aye, aye, sir.
CAG’s QUOTES for 27 April: MAO TSE-TUNG: “Enemy advances, we retreat; enemy halts, we harass; enemy tires, we attack; enemy retreats, we pursue.”… PATTON: “In battle, the soldier enters a lottery with death as the stake.”…
Lest we forget… Bear
