United States Air Force B-57 jet bombers staged 59 sorties on Communist positions in South Vietnam’s Phước Tuy Province today. Pilots reported that anti-aircraft fire was silenced.
The Johnson Administration is about to issue a long indictment of North Vietnamese “aggression” against South Vietnam to justify air attacks against the North. The white paper, portraying an “intensified Communist campaign to conquer South Vietnam, concludes that military efforts aimed solely at the Việt Cộng guerrillas in the south are no longer sufficient to meet the threat. It stops just short of predicting further air strikes against North Vietnam, but it Invites Hanoi, the North Vietnamese capital, to choose between peace and an “increasingly destructive” conflict. Publication of the document is scheduled for this weekend as part of a mounting Administration campaign to hold North Vietnam accountable for the guerrilla war in the South.
In policy terms, It represents a clear departure from the United States position that despite Hanol’s support of the guerrillas, the main problem lies inside South Vietnam. State Department and intelligence officials were still making last-minute changes in the paper today, but its essential policy statements and compilations of evidence against Hanol had been approved for distribution. In advance of its distribution, Johnson Administration sources gave the following account of the paper: It is a sequel to a similar indictment published in December, 1961, to justify the assignment of large contingents of United States military advisers to South Vietnam. The paper estimates the increase in the flow of men and arms from North to South Vietnam since then, and it describes political, economic and communication links between the Việt Cộng rebels and the Hanoi Government.
On the basis of Incomplete and previously published estimates, the paper concludes that 1964 was probably the year of the greatest infiltration of men, a majority native Northerners, into South Vietnam. It also reports an increase in the southward flow of “more sophisticated” weapons; the most conclusive proof was obtained 10 days ago after the sinking of a 100-ton cargo ship in a cove on Vũng Rô Bay, 235 miles northeast of Saigon. The vessel was said to have carried three North Vietnamese nautical charts, the health records of two North Vietnamese soldiers and other personal effects. Its cargo was said to have included 2,000 rifles of a 7.95mm Mauser type, 1,000 submachine guns, 500 other rifles, more than a hundred 7.62-mm carbines, more than 1,000 stick grenades, 500 anti-tank grenades, 500 pounds of TNT in prepared charges, a million rounds of small-arms ammunition, 2,000 rounds of 82-mm mortar ammunition, 1,500 rounds of 57-mm and 75-mm recoilless-rifle ammunition and 500 pounds of medical supplies manufactured in North Vietnam, Communist China, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, the Soviet Union, and other countries.
The capture of the shipment, the Administration said, “has made unmistakably clear that what is happening in South Vietnam is not an internal affair but part of a carefully directed and supported program of armed attack on a sovereign state and free people.” The White Paper also reports that explosive chemicals have been discovered near South Vietnam’s border with Cambodia in sacks bearing the markings of Cambodian companies. It relates this to an unusual increase in Cambodian imports of potassium chlorate, an oxidizing agent used in explosives: from 10 tons in 1960 to 107 tons in eight months of 1964, “far in excess of the country’s legitimate needs.” Professional smugglers may be involved, the paper suggests.
North Vietnam is said to have gone to elaborate lengths to conceal its efforts against South Vietnam through elaborate changes of uniform and the destruction of documents and markings on weapons. The paper says Hanoi has tried to avoid equipping the rebels with arms of exclusively Communist manufacture. Other evidence of ties between the Việt Cộng and Hanoi, the paper said, is provided by extensive communication links between them, by the operation of the Việt Cộng political apparatus as an extension of North Vietnam’s Communist party, by the “proprietary tone” in which Hanoi supports and guides the rebel effort, by the maintenance of a Reunification Department in the Central Committee of the North Vietnamese Communist party to supervise infiltration] and training, and by a concentration on efforts in the South by Hanoi’s Central Research Agency. A month ago, when it was decided to recess the war for a week during the Lunar New Year holiday, the paper reports, North Vietnam’s radio announced the cease-fire a day before the Southern-based National Liberation Front. Thus, the Administration concludes, in every significant respect North Vietnam’s effort to conquer the South has grown, not diminished.
President Johnson enlisted Henry Cabot Lodge today as special consultant on the Vietnam crisis. Meantime, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara said that a “few hundred” more American military men would be sent to South Vietnam and indicated that long-delayed plans to expand the South Vietnamese Army by 100,000 men would be carried out. Mr. Lodge, a Republican and Maxwell D. Taylor’s predecessor as Ambassador to South Vietnam, met with the President at the White House and then said he would serve as a consultant “for a few days,” probably three or four. Mr. Lodge said he would be briefed on the situation in Vietnam, would study it and then would report to Mr. Johnson. He said Mr. Johnson wanted to be “sure that we’re not overlooking anything we could do.”
He indicated he would study and make recommendations on military as well as political and civic action programs. His assignment would not involve a return to Vietnam. Mr. Lodge had asked for the appointment with the President. But Mr. Johnson was believed to be taking advantage of the meeting to associate a leading Republican with Administration policy. The former Ambassador, who was Republican Vice-Presidential candidate against Mr. Johnson in 1960, endorsed the recent air raids on North Vietnam and said of Mr. Johnson, “What he’s done has been very, very good.” He added that Mr. Johnson’s silence since the raids was wise. “He ought to have the opportunity to play his hand,” said Mr. Lodge. “I don’t think he ought to be pressured into saying what he would do” if provocations by North Vietnam continue, Mr. Lodge said. “That puts your adversary in the position of controlling what you do.”
Premier Aleksei N. Kosygin declared today that unless the United States halted its “aggressive actions,” the war in Vietnam would “inevitably transcend its original boundaries.” His declaration was interpreted by diplomatic observers here as an implied warning that the Soviet Union as well as Communist China would be drawn into the conflict if the United States carried the war into North Vietnam. The Premier reviewed previous Soviet calls for a withdrawal of American forces from South Vietnam and South Korea. He indicated that the Soviet Government felt that a resumption of American air attacks on North Vietnam would destroy whatever chances existed for negotiation of a peaceful settlement.
The United States sharply denied today Soviet accusations of military interference in the affairs of South Vietnam.
The first contingents of South Korean troops arrived in Saigon. Although assigned to non-combat duties, they would come under fire on 3 April.
Two hundred students met at the Saigon University Student Association today to “call for an end to this fratricidal war.”
A Buddhist-led movement for peace, in a manifesto issued today, called for an end to the war and the reunification of South and North Vietnam.
Indonesia announced today that she was taking over American-owned rubber plantations in North Sumatra. The value of the seized property was estimated at $80 million. The seizure was the latest move in a series of developments in Indonesia that included the closing of American libraries, withdrawal from the United Nations and the strengthening of economic ties with Communist China. The Minister of Estates, Frans Seda, read a decree signed by Foreign Minister Subandrio that announced the seizure of plantations owned by the United States Rubber Company of New York and the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio.
The decree marked the first time that Indonesia had directly seized American property. It is believed that moves will soon be made against other American holdings in Indonesia. The decree said that the estates would be managed by the Indonesian Government but that American ownership rights were “recognized.” Informed sources said Indonesian labor teams had been installed on the plantations. Dr. Subandrio and Dr. Seda returned today from a three-day visit to Medan, the capital of North Sumatra, to settle the takeover.
Previously, Indonesia nationalized Dutch and British businesses but prevented the outright take-over of American investments, which are worth $180 million. These investments include holdings by the Standard Vacuum Oil Company and Caltex and lesser holdings by the Union Carbide Corporation, the General Electric Company, the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, and the Singer Company. Earlier this week, President Sukarno informed the United States Ambassador, Howard P. Jones, that Indonesia had “no intention” of taking over the plantations. The Indonesian Herald, an English-language paper unofficially published by the Foreign Office, said foreign correspondents in Jakarta were “salesmen of hate” who could use mental examinations. “They would do us a great service if they would just pack up and leave,” the paper said.
President Gamal Abdel Nasser has reasserted his differences with world Communism, apparently to quiet Western fears that the United Arab Republic is veering dangerously toward the Eastern bloc. “We differ on many points with Communism,” Mr. Nasser was reported to have told members of the National Assembly last night a few hours after he had held formal talks with Walter Ulbricht, the East German chief of state. “Our differences with Communism are radical,” the Cairo press quoted President Nasser as having said. “We believe in religion and we reject the dictatorship of any class. We look forward to national unity. We do not liquidate any class by use of violence. But we do liquidate privileges enjoyed by any class.” Mr. Nasser’s reference to Arab national unity was seen as a reaffirmation of his stand in the discussion last May with Nikita S. Khrushchev, then Soviet Premier, who tried to persuade him to accept international solidarity of the working class rather than emphasize Arab unity.
West Germany ceases military aid to Tanzania. The West German government cut off all military aid to Tanzania after the African republic refused a request from Bonn to close down the East German consulate at Dar es Salaam.
The President of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios, is prepared to agree that the United Nations force in Cyprus should remain for three months beyond its scheduled March 26 withdrawal, it was reliably learned tonight. But he will insist that the size of the force be reduced, it was learned. The United Nations force is here by permission of the Makarios Government. But Greek Cypriot newspapers have complained recently that its presence favors Turkish Cypriots by continuing the present uneasy situation, and may lead to partition of the island. Just under 7,000 strong, the force is spread in small units over Cyprus to try to keep the Greek and Turkish Cypriots from fighting. The size of the force is now being discussed with United Nations representatives here.
The Chinese Communist party accused Soviet-bloc countries today of renewing the ideological war of words. Peking coupled this charge with the publication of thinly veiled attacks on Premier Kosygin and Leonid I. Brezhnev, First Secretary of the Soviet Communist party. Jenmin Jih Pao, the Chinese party organ, asserted in a frontpage commentary that it was necessary “to distinguish Khrushchevism without Khrushchev in order to carry the struggle against Khrushchev revisionism through to the end.”
Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta declared today that foreign intervention in the Congo not only had made peace more difficult to achieve there but was threatening to cause the war to spill over into neighboring countries.
A United States airman whose shooting of a 14-year-old Filipino boy on a Clark Air Force Base firing range last November 25 triggered a wave of anti-American sentiment in the Philippines, was sentenced today to three years’ confinement with hard labor.
The new Turkish Premier, Suat Hayri Urgulu, said today that Turkey would cooperate with her partners in the Atlantic alliance but would put more emphasis on an individual foreign policy, particularly in developing better relations with the Soviet Union.
François Perin established a new political party in Belgium, the Walloon Workers’ Party, on the premise that the Kingdom of Belgium should be a federation between the French-speaking Walloons and the Dutch-speaking Flemings. During the party’s brief existence, it would win one seat in Belgium’s Chamber of Representatives and then merge with the Walloon Front on June 26.
The Dutch government of Marijnen falls. The coalition government of the Netherlands resigned tonight after the Cabinet was unable to agree on a method of introducing commercial radio and television.
The European Social Charter, opened for signature on October 18, 1961, became effective on February 26, 1965, after West Germany had become the fifth nation (after Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Ireland) to ratify it. By 1991, the Charter would be effective in 20 nations which had ratified it, and by 2011, there would be 43 parties to a Revised Charter.
Jimmie Lee Jackson, a 26-year-old Black man who said he was shot by a state trooper as policemen broke up a civil rights march the night of February 18 at Marion, Alabama, died today in a hospital in Selma. The immediate cause of death was listed as infection and respiratory difficulty. Mr. Jackson had suffered a bullet wound in the stomach and a lacerated scalp the night of the march. His doctor was quoted today as saying that he had been badly beaten and that his back had been bruised. Blanchard McLeod, circuit solicitor (prosecutor) for the district that includes Perry County, said today that he had a signed statement from the man who shot Mr. Jackson.
Mr. McLeod said he would turn over the results of the investigation to the Perry County grand jury about March 10 and let the grand jury use its own judgment about returning an indictment. The prosecutor said he could not reveal the identity of the man or whether he was a state trooper. He said the man had cooperated in the investigation. “He came forward,” he said. Mr. McLeod said the man had told him that he had shot Mr. Jackson in self-defense. “He [the man who fired the shot] was struck several times,” Mr. McLeod said. It was predicted today that “the whole tempo of the voter registration drive will probably increase” as a result of Mr. Jackson’s death. The forecast came from the Rev. James Bevel, Alabama project director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. “We will probably shift into second gear in a dramatic way,” he said.
The same night Mr. Jackson was injured, several other Blacks were bloodied and bruised by state troopers with nightsticks, and three newsmen were attacked by white bystanders. About 3,400 Blacks have been arrested in Marion and Selma since Blacks began demonstrating in mid-January against restrictions on Black voting. Mr. Bevel said of Mr. Jackson’s death: “This type of thing is possible, with no recourse for Blacks, as long as we do not have a democratic government in this state.” He said it was likely that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, would preach at Mr. Jackson’s funeral. Dr. King is in California on a speaking and fund-raising tour. He is scheduled to return to Alabama Monday. Mr. Bevel said the funeral had been tentatively set for 2 PM Wednesday at Marion. Mr. Jackson was unmarried.
Mr. Bevel suggested at a mass meeting tonight at Selma that the Blacks of Selma walk to the Capitol at Montgomery 50 miles to the east, to protest Mr. Jackson’s death to Governor Wallace. “I tell you, the death of that man is pushing me kind of hard,” he told 600 people at Browns Chapel Methodist Church. The crowd answered with a moan. “The blood of Jackson will be on our hands if we don’t march,” he said. “Be prepared to walk to Montgomery. Be prepared to sleep on the highways.” He proposed no date for march. A demonstration at the Capitol had already been set for March 8 to urge Black voter rights and to protest the ban by Governor Wallace on night marches.
Mr. Jackson’s condition had been listed as critical since he was injured, but he had improved in recent days. However, he developed breathing difficulty and slipped into shock last night. He died at 8:10 AM at the Good Samaritan Hospital. An exploratory operation after midnight uncovered massive infection. The infection might have been worsened by a delay in getting him to the hospital the night he was injured, the hospital administrator said.
Mr. Jackson was taken first to the Perry County Hospital at Marion, then to the Good Samaritan Hospital, which is operated primarily for Blacks by the Roman Catholic Sisters of St. Joseph. Sister Michael Ann, administrator of the Good Samaritan, said three hours had elapsed when Mr. Jackson entered Good Samaritan for surgery. She said it was her information that he had been turned away from the Perry County Hospital because he was a Black. That was denied by a doctor at the Perry County Hospital. The doctor, who asked that his name not be used, said he had given Mr. Jackson emergency treatment but had not been able to perform surgery that night because of a lack of blood for transfusion. He added that the Perry County Hospital was not segregated and that 18 Blacks were there today.
Mr. Bevel, an intense man with a shaved head, spoke bitterly today of Governor George C. Wallace, who has started an investigation of the shooting. “He has no intention of doing anything about police brutality because he perpetrates it,” he said. “Police brutality is his program for keeping the Blacks in their place.” Other Blacks who were at the scene said a state trooper had shot Mr. Jackson. One Black youth said that a trooper had struck Mrs. Viola Jackson, Mr. Jackson’s mother, and that the son had then lunged at the trooper. “I tried to hold him back,” the youth said, “but the trooper took out his gun and shot.” Cager Lee, Mr. Jackson’s 82-year-old grandfather, was beaten by the police the same night.
Judge W. Harold Cox of the United States District Court ruled today that Sheriff Lawrence A. Rainey of Neshoba County and 16 other men must stand trial under a misdemeanor charge in the deaths of three civil rights workers last summer. He did this by upholding one count of an indictment charging all 17 with conspiring to violate a “color of law” statute of 1870. Judge Cox also dismissed three other counts of the indictment, charging actual violation of the law, for 14 of the accused. He left these additional counts standing against three law-enforcement officers named in the indictment — Sheriff Rainey, Deputy Cecil Price, and Richard A. Willis, a policeman in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Judge Cox said that all the defendants would be tried first for conspiracy and that the trials of the three officers on charges of direct violation would be held later.
Yesterday, Judge Cox dismissed a felony indictment brought against all 17 on the ground that the federal government had no jurisdiction. In Washington a spokesman for the Justice Department said: “While aspects of the decision today and yesterday raise certain legal questions which the department may decide to appeal, the trial can now be scheduled on issues unaffected by the decisions. Consequently, the department is now preparing for trial.” Judge Cox will decide a date and place for the trial. Normally, persons accused of federal crimes in Neshoba County are brought to trial in Meridian, where today’s order was filed. Maximum penalty under the indictment is one year imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. The indictment that was dismissed yesterday could have brought 10 years’ imprisonment and a $5,000 fine.
Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Black Muslims, warned followers of Malcolm X today that “we will fight” if necessary to combat assassination attempts and attacks on mosques, and to “protect ourselves.” With a sharp denunciation of his murdered rival, Muhammad roused several thousand Blacks to a chanting shout of “All praise to Muhammad!” He addressed an annual meeting of his cult after his son Wallace Delaney Muhammad recanted his defection from the Black Muslims and begged forgiveness for saying last July that his father had betrayed Allah’s teachings. At the same meeting two brothers of Malcolm vowed their faith in Muhammad and assailed their slain brother.
Their denunciation of Malcolm was the most dramatic moment during an afternoon when the tension in the gloomy arched arena could almost be tasted. One of them, Philbert X of Lansing, Michigan, warned, “Do not let the white man come between us.” He said he had vainly tried to convince Malcolm to change his “dangerous course.” In explaining why he would stand by Muhammad tomorrow rather than be at Malcolm’s funeral, he said, “Now that he is dead there is nothing I can do — or anybody else.”
Black Muslim guard Norman 3X Butler was arrested at his home in the Bronx, and charged with being one of the three gunmen who had shot Malcolm X earlier in the week. The arrest was made on the basis of statements by three witnesses who said that Butler had been present at the Audubon Ballroom at the time. He would later be convicted; then exonerated years later because the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence.
The Consumer Price Index rose one-tenth of 1 percent in January but can be expected to remain relatively stable throughout 1965, the Labor Department reported today. The increase, bringing the index to 108.9 percent of the 1957-59 average, was the fifth consecutive monthly advance. It was attributed mainly to higher costs of housing, gasoline, and automobile insurance. It brought a wage increase of a cent an hour to 950,000 automobile, farm machinery and aerospace employees whose contracts tie their wages to consumer prices.
William M. Martin, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, said tighter money policies may be needed to halt the dollar outflow.
A subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee was given subpoena power to investigate Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara’s plan to merge Army Reserve units into the National Guard.
A full-scale rehearsal of the flight crew countdown for Gemini 3 was conducted at the launch site. Procedures were carried out for moving the flight crew from their quarters in the Manned Spacecraft Center operations building in Merritt Island, Florida to the pilot’s ready room at Complex 16 at Cape Kennedy. Complete flight crew suiting operation in the ready room, the transfer to Complex 19, and crew ingress into the spacecraft were practiced. Practice countdown proceeded smoothly and indicated that equipment and procedures were flight ready.
U.S. Navy Lt. (j.g.) Larry Cooper was killed after a surface-to-air missile shot down his A-4 Skyhawk attack plane off the coast of California. Cooper, who had taken off from the USS Midway (CVA-41), had inadvertently flown into a restricted zone during “Exercise Silver Lance.” The American missile frigate USS Preble, operating 150 miles (240 km) southwest of San Diego, tracked his plane on radar and fired two Terrier missiles at him.
A flight of three U.S. Air Force B-47 bomber aircraft, and one KC-135 tanker plane, were en-route from Torrejon Air Force Base in Madrid, Spain, to Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The planes were returning to the U.S. after a three week deployment overseas. The B-47s were assigned to the 100th Bomb Group assigned at Pease, and the tanker was part of the 71st Air Refueling Squadron at Dow Air Force Base, but all were under the command of the 8th Air Force. As the formation was about 800 miles from the coast of Maine, the tanker began refueling operations. After refueling one of the B-47s, a second moved into place. At 9:40 AM Eastern Standard Time, a mid-air collision took place between the tanker and the second B-47 resulting in a massive fire ball. Both aircraft went down in flames and into the icy water. No parachutes were seen by crew of the other aircraft, and even though the planes carried life jackets and rubber rafts, Air Force officials doubted any survivors could last long in the frigid water and cold temperatures. Between both planes, eight servicemen were lost.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 903.48 (+3.58)
Born:
Alonzo Highsmith, NFL fullback (Houston Oilers, Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers), in Bartow, Florida.
Phil Grimes, NFL defensive end (Los Angeles Raiders), in Montgomery, Alabama.
Alison Armitage, English actress (“Acapulco HEAT”), in London, England, United Kingdom.
Died:
Jimmie Lee Jackson, 26, African-American civil rights protester, died eight days after being shot in Selma, Alabama.
Nine days to “Bloody Sunday” in Alabama.
This shot has been re-done many times over the years and is now an iconic San Francisco scene. In 1965, these Victorian homes were considered “unfashionable” and ugly, and many were demolished. They came back into vogue in the late 1970s. Now these old houses sell for millions of dollars.
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