ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED 3 FEBRUARY 1968

RIPPLE SALVO… #700… “The Senate Foreign Relations Committee decided today (30-Jan-68) to re-examine the Administration’s account of the Gulf of Tonkin incidents by calling Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara for further testimony…   but first…

Good Morning: Day SEVEN HUNDRED of a thousand visits to the archives and accounts of the air war over North Vietnam called OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER: a historic 40-month battle courageously fought in direct support of the ground war in South Vietnam that most Americans never heard of, or care about. Humble host remembers Rolling Thunder.

3 FEBRUARY 1968… HEAD LINES from The New York Times on a windy, sunny Saturday on Liberty Island…

TET OFFENSIVE: Page 1: “WARNING IS GIVEN–PRESIDENT TERMS U.S. READY FOR PUSH BY ENEMY AT KHESANH”… “President Johnson said today that the Vietcong suffered ‘a complete failure’ militarily throughout South Vietnam this week and he expressed confidence that as the facts became known the enemy would gain nothing psychologically either. Measuring his comments at a news conference with extreme care, Mr. Johnson said the second stage of a long-planned enemy winter-spring offensive was imminent around Khesanh. He has tried to provide his commanders with everything they think they need to repulse that expected assault, he said, and is ‘reasonably sure’ and ‘confident’ about their readiness. Only when the engagement is over, the President said, will he be able to give an over-all appraisal of the position of anti-Communist forces in South Vietnam. So far, he added, no basic changes in strategy seem necessary.”… Page 1: “Street Fighting Rages Within Mile of the Capital’s Center”… “Deadly fighting broke out again this morning in narrow streets and alleys within a mile of the center of Saigon and in the suburbs. The Vietcong, who attacked the city early Wednesday, clung to strong points in a Cholon, the Chinese section of the city, near the Anquang pagoda, headquarters of the anti-Government wing of Buddhism…Heavy fighting continued in Giadinh Province, three to six miles north of the center of the city. In the Mekong Delta and the Central Highlands, South Vietnamese and American troops, supported by tanks and helicopter gunships, were tying to corner guerrilla units that appeared to be leaving Saigon. The United states command announced that by last mid-night 12,704 enemy troops had been killed and 3576 suspects detained. A total of 1,814 hand weapons and 545 crew-served weapons, such as machine guns, were said to have been captured. The casualty count compiled mainly by South Vietnamese sources, was believed to be considerably inflated. ALLIED CASUALTIES THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY FOR THE FOUR DAYS OF FIGHTING WERE PUT AT 983 KILLED–A FAR HIGHER FIGURE THAN FOR ANY PREVIOUS FULL WEEK–AND 3,483 WOUNDED. OF THESE, 318 OF THE DEAD AND 1,639 OF THE WOUNDED WERE AMERICANS… Page 1: Enemy Maintains Tight Grip On Hue–Forces Put at 5 Battalions–U.S. Marines Hold Two Square Blocks of City”... “Enemy battalions weathered repeated attacks by Marine tanks and South Vietnamese aircraft today to maintain a tight grip on the ancient city of Hue.”... Page 1: “Thieu Asks Action to Penalize North Vietnam”... “…urged an extension of the bombing of North Vietnam to cover all military objectives.”… Page 1: “6 U.S. Missionaries Killed by Vietcong”… “…in an assault on the town of Banmethout in the highlands of South Vietnam, the Christian and Missionary Alliance announced yesterday…the slayings occurred at a leprosarium operated by the alliance. Bodies of the missionaries were left in the area and were wired with booby traps…”…

PUEBLO INCIDENT: Page 1: “U.S. REBUFFED AGAIN ON PUEBLO BY NORTH KOREA–PRESIDENT SAYS 2nd MEETING AT PAMNUNJOM PRODUCED NO SATISFACTORY RESULT”... “North Korea has rebuffed a second demand for the release of the intelligence ship Pueblo and her crew, seized 10 days ago….The President indicated that diplomatic efforts would continue even though he conceded that he had no confidence that the United States could expect to have the ship and her crew back in the near future. ‘I don’t want to holdout any hopes, on information that I have. All I can say is that things take time…We hope there will be additional meetings.’…

Page 16: “ALINSKY, ‘PROFESSIONAL AGITATOR,’ WARNS OF CHICAGO SUMMER RIOTS”... “Saul D. Alinsky, the ‘professional agitator,’ believes his hometown of Chicago is ripe for violence this summer. Chicago’s overcrowded slums, he said, in an interview yesterday, have become ‘one mass ulcer of discontent.’ He said antiwar demonstrations would focus on the Democratic convention in August and Negro pressure for better jobs, housing and education opportunities might explode before that. Unless Mayor Richard J. Daly shifts from talk of forceful repression to negotiation, he said, Chicago will explode in violence. ‘If this town blows,’ the 59-year old organizer asserted, ‘it’s going to make Detroit look like a sideshow.’…

(Webmaster note: Saul Alinsky was a Marxist agitator who both hated and despised the freedoms of this country and all that we stand for as a nation. Sadly, he is worshipped by many leftist politicians in Washington, DC, a great majority of academia, as well as a former president)

STATE DEPARTMENT, Office of the Historian, Historical Documents, Foreign Relations, Vietnam, 1964-68: Four very informative documents dated 03-Feb-68 are identified for your consideration. All four are lengthy exchanges that discuss the impact on future strategy and operations based on the surprise Tet Offensive. If you only have time for one, try 48. “Estimated Communist Strategy in the Coming Months”… read at:

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d48

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d49

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d50

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d51

3 FEBRUARY 1968… OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times devoid of coverage of the air war in the North…”Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 3 February 1968…

(1) 1LT WALLACE LITTRELL WIGGINS was assigned to the 509th Fighter Interceptor Squadron out of Clark AFB in the Philippines. The squadron was temporarily assigned to several Southeast Asia bases, including Udorn, Thailand. On 3 February 1968, after departing Udorn, then 1LT WIGGINS was flying #2 in a section of F-102As on an escort and CAP mission over Route Pack IV. While the strike mission was diverted the F-102 section continued patrolling along the North Vietnamese border with Laos at 36,000-feet. The flight was jumped by an enemy MiG-21 and 1LT WIGGINS aircraft was hit by an air-to-air missile, the remains of which were observed by the flight leader to be embedded in the tail of 1LT WIGGINs F-102. As the flight headed for Laos and home base they were again jumped by two more MiG-21s and flight leader Major A.I. LOMAX turned in to meet the enemy and unleashed three AIM-4D Falcon missiles at the MiGs, who immediately retreated. When MAJOR LOMAX looked for 1LT WIGGINS he observed a fireball and debris falling to earth over Laos, 35 miles east of Sam Neua. There was no parachute. 1LT WIGGINS was listed as missing for several years and was promoted in absentia to major. His remains were recovered and returned to the United States in August 1978 and positively identified a few weeks later. He is remembered on this 50th anniversary of his last flight with respect and admiration for his sacrifice and service for our country.

The 509th F-102 squadron lost 14 aircraft in the Vietnam war: 8 were lost to accidents, 4 were lost to Vietcong Sappers at Danang, 2 were shot down by AAA and one, 1LT Wiggins, was downed by a MiG in a dogfight.

1LT WIGGINS was shot down by North Vietnamese Ace Nguyen Van Coc flying a MiG-21F. Humble Host recommends a great story on North Vietnam’s leading ace–with 7 or 9 kills depending on the source– at the following link:

http://fly.historicwings.com/2012/12/north-vietnams-leading-ace/

The article provides superb insight into the training of the North’s MiG pilots and the tactics they were using to take advantage of their superior radar coverage and control…

RIPPLE SALVO… #700… NYT, 01-Jan-31, Page 6: “TONKIN INQUIRY BY FULBRIGHT TO CALL McNAMARA” byline John W. Finney…

“The Senate Foreign Relations Committee decided today (Jan 30) to reexamine the Administration’s account of the Gulf of Tonkin incidents by calling Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara for further testimony. The decision by the committee was the outgrowth of a months long staff study, which in the opinion in the majority of the majority of the members, has raised serious questions about the Administration’s reaction to the reported attacks by North Vietnamese PT boats on two American destroyers in August of 1964.

“What started as an informal staff study has now turned into a formal committee inquiry with potentially far-reaching political implications. The Gulf of Tonkin incidents provided a turning point in the war. In retaliation, the Administration ordered the first bombing raids against North Vietnam and obtained Congressional approval of are solution endorsing ‘all necessary measures’ taken by the Administration to prevent ‘further aggression’ in Southeast Asia.

“Now, three and one half years later, the Senate committee is questioning whether the Administration presented or was aware of all the facts in the reported attacks when it asked Congress for the resolution, which Under Secretary of State Nicholas Katzenbach was later to describe as ‘a functional equivalent’ of a declaration of war against North Vietnam. The committee is not so much challenging whether the destroyers came under attack, although there are some doubts among committee members about the nature of the second attack, which took place on the night of August 4, 1964, against the destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy. the first attack about which there is no question, took place in daylight on August 2 against the Maddox.

“Rather the committee is raising questions as to whether the Administration had conclusive proof of the second attack before ordering, some eight hours later, retaliatory raids against North Vietnam and presenting Congress the next day with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The committee also is concerned over how and why the Administration sent the destroyers on a sensitive mission off the coast of North Vietnam. The committee obviously was approaching the Tonkin inquiry which has been under consideration for several weeks, with considerable caution.

“As committee members privately explained, they did not want to place themselves in the position of seeming to impugn the Administration in the midst of a war in Vietnam and another crisis involving the seizure of an American intelligence ship by North Korea. the caution was reflected in the comments of Senator William W. Fulbright, the committee chairman, who went to considerable lengths not to say anything that would indicate the committee was questioning the Administration’s integrity in its accounts of the Tonkin incidents.

“In announcing the committee’s decision, Senator Fulbright said the committee wanted Mr. McNamara to appear to ‘review certain aspects’ of the Tonkin incidents. When pressed by reporters as to precisely what the committee wanted to ‘review’ with Mr. McNamara, Senator Fulbright repeatedly replied ‘I don’t want to discuss that.’

“But Senator Eugene J. McCarthy of Minnesota, who is campaigning for the democratic Presidential nomination in protest against the Administration’s Vietnam policies, was not inhibited in the discussing the committee’s objectives. Talking to reporters after the meeting, Senator McCarthy said among other things that the committee wanted to find out if the destroyers were on a ‘routine mission in international waters,’ as repeatedly asserted by Mr. McNamara when he testified August 6 in support of the Tonkin Resolution.

“While Senator McCarthy declined to elaborate, he was apparently referring to statements by crew members, uncovered in a committee staff study, that shortly before the August 2 attack the Maddox had taken aboard in Taiwan a ‘black box’ of electronic equipment. Working from logs and messages supplied by the Pentagon the committee staff study also disclosed that prior to the August 2 attack the Maddox had been zigzagging in and out of the 12-mile territorial waters claimed by North Vietnam. The maneuvers of the destroyer, combined with the presence of secret electronic equipment, suggests that the Maddox was on an electronic intelligence mission, similar to that undertaken by the USS Pueblo off North Korea.”

RTR Quote for 3 February: RUDYARD KIPLING, Sussex:

“God gave all men all earth to love,

But since our hearts are small,

Ordained for each, one spot should prove

Beloved over all.”

Lest we forget…        Bear