Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #363… and LBJ CALLS FOR HELP… but first…
Good Morning: Day THREE HUNDRED SIXTY-THREE of a look back to the air war over North Vietnam fifty years ago…
3 MARCH 1967… HEAD LINES and Leads from The New York Times on a fair Friday in NYC…
Page 1: “Kennedy Asks Suspension of U.S. Raids On North: Administration Unmoved”…Senator Robert F. Kennedy proposed today (2 March) a suspension to open the way for peace talks. His proposal immediately heightened the debate on the possibilities for peace. In a major foreign policy speech on the Senate floor the New York Democrat offered a three-stage plan toward a settlement of the war. He suggested that an opportunity was being missed. But he supported the Administration policy of ‘limited war objectives’ and military restraint. In a 45-minute speech Mr. Kennedy laid out his three-step approach:
(1) Test the sincerity of Communist declarations by unilaterally halting the bombing of the North and saying we are ready to negotiate within a week
(2) If negotiations are started, seeking agreement with the Communists that during the negotiations neither side would substantially increase the scale of the war in South Vietnam by infiltration or reinforcement. Mr. Kennedy urged that an international group patrolling ports, borders, and roads oversee compliance with this provision, and
(3) With an international presence, gradually replace United States troops, the two sides should work toward a final settlement that would allow all major political elements in South Vietnam, Communists as well as non-Communists to participate in elections to select a national leadership and to determine South Vietnam’s future course.”… (See RIPPLE SALVO below for the LBJ reaction)…
Page 1: “Russians Agree to Talks On Curbing Missile Race; Offensive and Defensive”…”President Johnson announced today that Premier Aleksei Kosygin had agreed to discussions between the United States and the Soviet Union on limiting the arms race in both offensive and defensive missiles. The agreement was announced by the President at a brief impromptu news conference outside the White House. The President disclosed that he had written to the Soviet Premier on 27 January suggesting measures to limit the missile arms race…Premier Kosygin replied stating the willingness of the Soviet Government to discuss means of limiting the arms race in both defensive and offensive nuclear missiles.”… Page 1: “Ramsey Clark nomination as Attorney General was confirmed by the Senate today and Mr. Clark announced plans for an intensified drive to use the United State’s Attorney’s offices across the nation to combat local and regional price-fixing conspiracies.”… Page 1: “Austrian Seized By Brazil As Nazi”… “A 60-year old automobile mechanic identified by Brazilian and Austrian authorities as Franz Stangl, the Commandant of Treblinka and Sobibor concentration camps in Poland during World War II has been arrested in Sao Paulo. He had been living quietly in Brazil for 14 years as Paul Stangl. He denied any complicity in the mass murders or that he was responsible for the death of 700,000 Jews.”…
Page 2: “Vatican Scores Tradition of Captain Going Down With the Ship”…”The Captain who voluntarily goes down with his sinking ship is not a hero. The Vatican radio said today he is a suicide and a sinner. The broadcast commented on the Russian fishing ship that went down with 58 of the crew and the Captain. But it is legitimate to doubt the opportunity, nobility, and allowability of this tradition of the sea. The Captain deserves no blame if he has done all in his power, he then tries to save himself…’All moral theologians teach that the act is simply suicide and is therefore sinful.’ “... Page 6: “Serious Epidemic of Meningitis in Southern China”…”Travelers in Hong Kong report some deaths in Canton and four southern provinces of China.”… Page 6: “Department of Defense reported that 163 American servicemen were killed in action last week in Vietnam and 919 were wounded. The total strength of American troops in southeast Asia is now 415,000. South Vietnam has 620,000 troops in its fighting force. 1,108 enemy troops were killed.”
3 March 1967…The President’s Daily Brief...CIA (TS sanitized) NORTH VIETNAM: Moscow sees the new US military tactics against North Vietnam as an “added measure of the same,” rather than as an “escalation.” However the mining of Haiphong would be regarded as escalation. Soviet policy will be determined by the ear’s political and economic cost to Moscow–and not solely by US action against North Vietnam.
3 MARCH 1967…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… New York Times…No coverage of the air war over North Vietnam… “Vietnam: Air Losses”(Hobson) There were two American fixed wing aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 3 March 1967…
(1) A Marine O-1C Bird Dog from H&MS-16 and MAG-16 out of Marble Martin was on a visual reconnaissance mission and crash landed due to engine failure. The pilot survived.
(2) MAJOR FLOYD WHITLEY RICHARDSON and LCOL CHARLES DONALD ROBY were Killed in Action while flying an F-4C of the 497th TFS and 8th TFW out of Ubon on a Night Owl armed reconnaissance and interdiction mission northwest of Dong Hoi. On their second attack on boats in the Sou Giang river near Ba Don they were hit by ground fire and were unable to eject from the aircraft before it went into the ground. MAJOR RICHARDSON’s and LCOL ROBY’s remains were returned to the United States in November 1978. They are remembered with respect and admiration on this day, fifty years after they perished fighting in the van of their country.
RIPPLE SALVO… #363… When Senator Robert F. Kennedy took the floor of the Senate on the morning of 2 March 1967 to propose his three stage plan to secure a cease-fire and a path toward peace in South Vietnam, the President was listening. Then he was talking, and we know what he was thinking and saying and to whom he talked to–by phone– Senator Scoop Jackson in the cloak room of the Senate at 2:04 p.m. and Senator Richard Russell somewhere in the Capitol an hour later. These recorded, transposed and formerly Top Secret conversations are attached and worth a look. Harry Truman once said, “If you need a friend in Washington, get a dog.”… LBJ needed a hug on 2 March and went to Senators Jackson and Russell for a little catharsis and conversation (and a pat on the head?) to recover from the zinger Senator Kennedy delivered from the Senate floor earlier that day…
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d95 LBJ&Jackson
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v05/d96 LBJ&Russell
Lest we forget… Bear
