Bear Taylor 
RIPPLE SALVO… #762… A 1972 Cornell University study concluded that “a cessation of U.S. air activity would bring about a fairly quick collapse of the pro-Western forces there” and that air power– including Rolling Thunder during the years 1965-1968 — was America’s “best bargaining counter.”… but first…
GOOD MORNING: Day SEVEN HUNDRED SIXTY-TWO of a short course on OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER, one day at a time, fifty years after the fact…
HEAD LINES from the OGDEN, UTAH, STANDARD-EXAMINER (Associated Press/United Press International) for Saturday, 6 April 1968…
Page 1: “RACIAL RIOTING CALMS DOWN–DEATH TOLL STANDS AT SIXTEEN–TROOPS BOLSTER POLICE TO SLOW LOOTING, ARSON”… “Racial violence spawned by the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. subsided at dawn today in most cities wracked by disturbances. In the nation’s capital new looting was reported after a curfew was lifted. Sixteen persons have died in racial disorders since King was killed Thursday night, including nine in Chicago and four in Washington. Pats of both cities were severely damaged by fire. Two youths died in Detroit and one in Tallahassee. Police in Washington had at least a dozen reports of looting within 90 minutes of the lifting Saturday morning of a dark-to-dawn curfew imposed by city officials. In Pittsburg, roving bands of Negroes smashed windows and looted stores in several sections before police restored order. …about 90 arrests were made during the night….Chicago was hit by waves of fires, shootings and looting…Some 3,000 National Guardsmen shuttled from one trouble spot to the next. at least 210 buildings were burned to the ground..350 persons were injured, 2,000 arrested. Washington, Detroit nd Memphis were under curfew….Trouble was reported in Philadelphia, Wichita, Oakland, Palo Alto, Jefferson City, Mo., Albany, Freeport, NY, Buffalo, Toledo, south Bend, Trenton, Portland, OR, Kalamazoo, Pine Bluff, and Atlanta, among others…”… Page 1: “FEAR-FOUNDED RUMORS EXAGGERATE NATURE, EXTENT OF RACIAL RIOTS”… “Racial violence in several of America’s big cities brought disorder, destruction and death Friday, but the wild rumors which circulated carried tales which far exceeded the facts. New York, Chicago and Washington were particularly plagued with rumors.”…
Page 1: “HUGE SEARCH SPREADS FOR KING SLAYER”… “A massive federal manhunt spread through the South today for the assassin who killed Dr. mar\tin Luther King Jr and plunged the nation into mourning. It appeared that the sandy-haired, sharp-nosed rifleman had fled Tennessee with a $155,000 price on his head. Attorney general Ramsey Clark said his investigation has ‘spread several hundred miles from the borders of Tennessee“… Page 1: “WEARY LBJ KEEPS EYE ON CRISIS–WESTMORELAND TALKS START–CONGRESS AND NATION AWAIT REPORT”… “President Johnson, weary and red-eyed from lost sleep, kept vigil over the national racial crisis today from a White House ringed with federal troops. as reports from tense cities around the nation streamed into the White House situation room–which normally keeps track of international upheavals, Johnson was never far away. Even the Vietnam war took a back seat to the domestic violence flowing from the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but Johnson nevertheless arranged to meet later with General William C. Westmoreland, the U.S. war commander. The top-level war review was to have been held in Honolulu, but Johnson canceled plans for the trip Friday and instead summoned Westmoreland to Washington. The President went on TV a second time Friday to address the nation telling his listeners: ‘America shall not be ruled by bullet’ and calling on Congress to hold a joint meeting to consider new measures he will propose to improve the lot of the Negro…”
Page 3: “PENTAGON SLOWS PACE OF CALL-UPS– EXPLANATIONS DIFFER ON REASON”… “The Pentagon is moving at an unexpectedly slow pace in carrying out the call-up of Reservists and National Guardsmen for the Vietnam war announced last Sunday by President Johnson…other priorities cited, unexpected response of North Vietnam to possible negotiation, recall of Westmoreland for talks…”.
6 APRIL 1968…THE PRESIDENT’S DAILY BRIEF…(CIA TS-SI): VIETNAM: While military activity in South Vietnam remains relatively light, we have gotten scattered and a very tenuous indications in intercepts that the Communists are modifying their tactics. Specifically, at least one artillery unit near the Demilitarized Zone was ordered on 3 April to suspend firing…. In Saigon, meanwhile the prospect of negotiations has brought Thieu and Ky closer together than ever before… The South Vietnamese are totally unprepared for negotiations… SOUTH KOREA: Leaders in both South Korea and Japan are worried that the US may pull back from its involvement in the Far East… JAPAN: Japanese Foreign Minister Sato is also worried–so much so that his government announced today that it would soon send a cabinet-level emissary to the US. The Japanese still tend to believe that the President’s renunciation of his candidacy must be a confession of responsibility for a mistaken policy in Vietnam, and they feel left out on a limb by the policy shift they see in his 31 March proposal…. NORTH VIETNAM: Peking warns Hanoi against negotiations: Peking’s news agency has released a Chinese statement entitled “Johnson Plays New Tricks of Inducing Peace Talks by Partial Suspension of Bombing.” Peking is thus reiterating its standard warning against a US ‘fraud’ designed to win in negotiations what cannot be achieved by military means. The Chinese have been setting the stage for the latest statement by repeatedly broadcasting Mao’s quotation that “by preserving in protracted war, the Vietnamese people will surely drive the US aggressors out of their country….Hanoi Blasts US Again. Hanoi has offered another strong criticism of what it terms the “limited US bombing halt” and has spelled out in some detail what it considers the “other acts of war” being committed by the US against North Vietnam. In a lengthy and authoritative “Commentator” article in the party daily, Nhan Dan, of 5 April, it claimed that despite the partial halt, the US was continuing to attack conditions to its peace offers and was “dead set” about pursuing “its aggressive design.” The statement pointed our that despite the limitation of the bombing, the US was intensifying the war in the South as well as mounting record raids against populated areas of the country….Hanoi Foreign Ministry Statement Protests US Bombing: The North Vietnamese foreign Ministry has joined the regime’s propaganda campaign to pressure the US into a full bombing halt. In a statement broadcast on 5 April, it took the same line as earlier bombing halt and in pointing out that the regions still subject to bombing contain populated areas. The statement also denounced the US for continuing aerial reconnaissance and for sending its “warships” into North Vietnamese coastal waters. The statement closed by reiterating Hanoi’s demand that the US stop “permanently and unconditionally” the bombing and all other acts of war in the whole of North Vietnam…. The Paul Doumer Bridge.: …as of late last week Paul Doumer Bridge was still not being repaired. However, material for getting the bridge back into service was being stockpiled on its approaches….work is to get under way on the bridge soon and that it is expected to be open for rail traffic in a month. Soviet helicopters, he said, are to be used to lift new bridge sections into place….
STATE DEPARTMENT.OFFICE OF THE HISTORIAN. HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS. 1964-68. VIETNAM: Document 185 is identified for your perusal. This is a Five STAR document. President Johnson was set for a muster of his Vietnam war brain-trust in Honolulu until Dr. King was assassinated. He reset the meeting for 6 April in the White House and called all hands on deck to participate in a lengthy meeting with General Westmoreland. The meeting started at 1:30 P.M. and went until 5:10 P.M. The document is labeled “Notes on Meeting,” and is just that. Qs and As are abbreviated and condensed… Read at…
185. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v06/d185
6 APRIL 1968…OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER… OGDEN S-E (AP/UPI) (7 Apr reporting 6 Apr ops) Page 1: “In air action… U.S. jets for the second day in a row limited their strikes against North Vietnam to below the 19th Parallel. President Johnson’s March 31 order limiting strikes set the 20th Parallel as the farthest point of bombing. The 19th Parallel is 75 miles farther south. There was no official confirmation, but reports in Saigon said American bombing possibly was being further restricted in order to further aid Johnson’s push for Vietnam peace talks.”… “Vietnam: Air Losses” (Chris Hobson) There was one fixed wing aircraft was lost in Southeast Asia on 6 April 1968…
(1) CAPTAIN WILLIAM DAVID CANUP was flying an F-100D Super Sabre of the 615th TFS and 35th TFW out of Phan Rang and downed by enemy ground fire while attacking a concentration of enemy troops about 35 miles west of Phu Cat. He was hit by automatic weapon fire on his second attack on the troop target and did not have time to eject from the aircraft before it hit the ground… CAPTAIN CANUP was killed in action on the second day of his third month of combat. The young warrior came home on his shield and rests in peace on this 50th anniversary of his death in a cemetery in Indianapolis….
From the compilation “34 TFS/F-105 History” by Howie Plunkett … “Waco flight from the 34 TFS hit a truck park in Laos. The flight took off at 0640 and returned after flying for 3 hours. The line-up was: #1 LCOL Robert Smith, 34TFS CO; #2 Captain Anthony F. Germann; #3 Major Sam Armstrong; #4 Captain Joseph Scehler. This was Major Armstrong’s 92nd combat mission.” Major Armstrong’s Log: “I logged two hours of weather on this one. I was by myself in the weather from take-off to just to reaching the tanker. we were fragged into Pack I but were diverted to Cricket to a Nail FAC in middle Laos. We hit a suspect truck park but didn’t get anything out of it. LCOL Smith asked for permission into the Package but it was denied. We started to head home with a non-counter when I suggested we contact ‘Hillsboro’ for clearance into the DMZ so I switched over to their frequency and they approved the request so we turned around and went in for a weather recce. Then we eased back to here (Korat) where it was raining.”
Humble Host flew #134. A night section armed reconnaissance mission to Route Pack II a few miles south of Vinh. Flew over Route 1 between Vinh and Hatinh looking for headlights. A fruitless search, dropped two pair of MK-24 paraflares over the highway hoping for a truck driving dark. Nothing on the road. Drop under my flares on the road. Hits of both wingman and me were on the road. Dropped two strings of 6 MK-82s. On way out got a reaction from gunners protecting the ferry crossing south of Vinh as streams of tracers came up looking for a Skyhawk… Back ship for night CCA and OK2…
RIPPLE SALVO… #752… A CONCLUSION OF A 1972 AIR WAR STUDY GROUP at CORNELL UNIVERSITY, Page 192 of “THE AIR WAR in INDOCHINA”)… I quote…
“THE BOMBING IS AMERICA’S BEST BARGAINING COUNTER”…
“No matter what the chances of success for American military policy in Indochina, it seems evident that a cessation of U.S. air activity would bring a fairly quick collapse of the pro-Western forces there. Those who have strong convictions about the immorality of American bombing may well insist that it should be discontinued unilaterally nonetheless. In this study we have not based conclusions on ethical premises, leaving those judgments to the reader, and thus we do not argue such a position. It is clear, however, that U.S. air power does represent an important bargaining counter in any negotiations for an end to hostilities on mutually acceptable terms.
“The important point about this bargaining counter however, is that this value is not necessarily lasting. While at one time it may be possible to obtain important negotiating concessions in return for a bombing cessation, the enemy may in due course accommodate to an indefinite prolonging of the air war. If the military situation for pro-Western forces in Indochina deteriorates, and the relative ineffectiveness of bombing decreases. If this should come to pass, the bargaining counter will have been wasted and there will remain, all too literally, only the ashes of destruction.”
The Cornell conclusion included a footnote: “Another consideration in weighing whether or not continuing use of air power represents an effective bargaining counter is how the other side views it in strategic terms. Roger Hilsman maintains: ‘The fact of the matter was that Asians tended to interpret the use of air power alone as a weak response, even though they feared air power. The United States has so often flirted with the idea of ‘immaculate’ war in Asia, war fought in the air above the muck and blood of jungle fighting, that Asians thought of air power alone as a bluff.”…. Roger Hilsman, Jr. was an American soldier, government official, political scientist, and author. He served in the WWII “Merrill’s Marauders,” and then in the Office of Strategic Services as a guerrilla leader….
RTR Quote for 6 April: EDMUND BURKE, a speech On Conciliation With America, 1775: “All government–indeed, every human benefit an enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act–is founded on compromise and barter.”…
Lest we forget….. Bear
