On April 6, 1965 a U.S. Army helicopter UH-1B (tail number 63-08667) from the 114th Assault Helicopter Company was attacking an enemy position when it came under hostile .51 caliber weapons fire. The aircraft inverted and crashed, causing fatal injuries to all the crewmen aboard. The losses include aircraft commander 1LT Raymond E. Rupcic, pilot CAPT Charles G. Tucker, crew chief SP4 Clarence L. Jones, and gunner SGT Rafael Torres-Rivera. The helicopter burned after crashing and was a total loss.
1LT Raymond Ellsworth Rupcic is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Lorain, Ohio. He is honored on the Wall at Panel 1E, line 101.
McGeorge Bundy drafts and signs National Security Action Memorandum 328 on behalf of President Johnson; this “pivotal document” constitutes the “marching orders” developed in NSC meetings on 1-2 April: it authorizes U.S. personnel to take the offensive to secure “enclaves” and to support ARVN operations.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
April 6, 1965
NATIONAL SECURITY ACTION MEMORANDUM NO. 328
MEMORANDUM FOR
The Secretary of State
The Secretary of Defense
The Director of Central Intelligence
On Thursday, April 1, the President made the following decisions with respect to Vietnam:
- Subject to modifications in the light of experience, and to coordination and direction both in Saigon and in Washington, the President approved the 41-point program of non-military actions submitted by Ambassador Taylor in a memorandum dated March 31, 1965.
- The President gave general approval to the recommendations submitted by Mr. Rowan in his report dated March 16, with the exception that the President withheld approval of any request for supplemental funds at this time–it is his decision that this program is to be energetically supported by all agencies and departments and by the reprogramming of available funds as necessary within USIA.
- The President approved the urgent exploration of the 12 suggestions for covert and other actions submitted by the Director of Central Intelligence under date of March 31.
- The President repeated his earlier approval of the 21-point program of military actions submitted by General Harold K. Johnson under date of March 14 and re-emphasized his desire that aircraft and helicopter reinforcements under this program be accelerated.
- The President approved an 18-20,000 man increase in U.S. military support forces to fill out existing units and supply needed logistic personnel.
- The President approved the deployment of two additional Marine Battalions and one Marine Air Squadron and associated headquarters and support elements.
- The President approved a change of mission for all Marine Battalions deployed to Vietnam to permit their more active use under conditions to be established and approved by the Secretary of Defense in consultation with the Secretary of State.
- The President approved the urgent exploration, with the Korean, Australian, and New Zealand Governments, of the possibility of rapid deployment of significant combat elements from their armed forces in parallel with the additional Marine deployment approved in paragraph 6.
- Subject to continuing review, the President approved the following general framework of continuing action against North Vietnam and Laos: We should continue roughly the present slowly ascending tempo of Rolling Thunder operations, being prepared to add strikes in response to a higher rate of VC operations, or conceivably to slow the pace in the unlikely event VC slacked off sharply for what appeared to be more than a temporary operational lull. The target systems should continue to avoid the effective GCI range of MIGs. We should continue to vary the types of targets, stepping up attacks on lines of communication in the near future, and possibly moving in a few weeks to attacks on the rail lines north and northeast of Hanoi. Leaflet operations should be expanded to obtain maximum practicable psychological effect on the North Vietnamese population. Blockade or aerial mining of North Vietnamese ports need further study and should be considered for future operations. It would have major political complications, especially in relation to the Soviets and other third countries, but also offers many advantages. Air operation in Laos, particularly route blocking operations in the Panhandle area, should be stepped up to the maximum remunerative rate.
- Ambassador Taylor will promptly seek the reactions of the South Vietnamese Government to appropriate sections of this program and their approval as necessary, and in the event of disapproval or difficulty at that end, these decisions will be appropriately reconsidered. In any event, no action into Vietnam under paragraphs 6 and 7 above should take place without GVN approval or further Presidential authorization.
- The President desires that with respect to the actions in paragraphs 5 through 7, premature publicity be avoided by all possible precautions. The actions themselves should be taken as rapidly as practicable, but in ways that should minimize any appearance of sudden changes in policy, and official statements on these troop movements will be made only with the direct approval of the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of State. The President’s desire is that these movements and changes should be understood as being gradual and wholly consistent with existing policy. (signed) McGeorge Bundy
An improvement in the morale and performance of the South Vietnamese Government and its troops has been the chief discernible result of the last month’s air strikes against North Vietnam, a senior American military spokesman said today. He also reported that the number of actions undertaken by the Việt Cộng was increasing again, after a lull throughout much of March. Terrorist attacks against Americans are being intensified, he noted. There is no evidence that infiltration from the North has declined recently. The spokesman called the increase in morale and fighting performance “pretty big pluses.” He added that “30 days is a pretty short time.”
The United States Ambassador, Maxwell D. Taylor, is understood to have stressed increased hopefulness among the Vietnamese military and civilian population during his discussions with President Johnson on the effect of the air strikes. Assessing those strikes, specialists here on Asian affairs. said they believed that North Vietnam could absorb considerable punishment over an extended period without any decisive economic effect. The military spokesman, offering the United States Military Assistance Command’s monthly review of the war against the Communist guerrillas, reported that the number of weapons lost by government forces was slightly more than double the number lost by the Việt Cộng, 1,305 to 610.
In February government troops lost four times the number of weapons captured from the guerrillas. The ratio of fatalities also improved in the government’s favor last month, with almost 2,000 Việt Cộng reported killed, compared with 730 government deaths. The February ratio, with 870 government soldiers killed and 1,730 Việt Cộng dead, was about 12 to 1. The spokesman, lauding the aggressiveness of the South Vietnamese forces, quoted figures to show that the attacking unit generally wins the battle. “Out of the 11 significant government-initiated engagements last month,” he said, “the government won them all. But of the seven engagements initiated by the Việt Cộng, the enemy won five and lost only two.”
[Ed: We see here the beginnings of the U.S. Government’s ridiculous fascination with “body counts” as a war metric. When your SecDef is a fucking Bean Counter, everyone down the line faithfully learns to count (and miscount) beans. NONE of which got us anywhere in terms of winning the war.]
A fierce three-day battle in the swampy rice fields south of Saigon ended last night with 276 Việt Cộng killed and 33 captured, United States military spokesmen reported today. Six Americans died in the action.
United States B-57 jet bombers pounded Communist positions with tons of explosives during the first major encounter with the guerrillas in months in the Mekong Delta paddies.
Four United States servicemen perished when their helicopter exploded after a hit by Việt Cộng machine-gun fire. A United States Army officer advising a Ranger battalion and a Navy officer on a Vietnamese gunboat that hit a Việt Cộng mine were also killed.
South Vietnamese forces lost 16 men killed and 69 wounded in the water and air assault near Vĩnh Lộc, 130 miles southwest of Saigon in the heart of the Cà Mau Peninsula, government officials said.
At the opposite end of South Vietnam, policemen and troops carried out lightning raids in and around the city of Đà Nẵng, site of a strategic United States-Vietnamese airbase, in a hunt for Communist terrorists. A total of 122 suspected Việt Cộng agents were arrested, including the alleged leader of a guerrilla demolition team.
The accelerated pace of fighting in Vietnam is reflected in a rising casualty rate — American as well as Vietnamese — according to the latest official figures. At least 325 Americans have been killed in hostile action in Vietnam since January 1, 1961; at least 58 of them, not counting the six reported dead or missing in a bloody battle in the Mekong Delta today, have lost their lives in action since February 7. That was the date of the Việt Cộng raid on the United States military installation at Pleiku and the retaliatory air raid on North Vietnam.
In the seven days ended yesterday, eight Americans were killed, two were reported missing — both Air Force pilots who went down in bombing attacks on North Vietnam over the weekend and one man, a Navy pilot, was listed as “detained”: after he was seen to eject from. his plane over North Vietnamese territory. Forty-two Americans were killed in hostile action in the two months that ended February 1. In the report for October-November, 1964, 30 Americans were listed as killed in action. There has also been a sharp rise in battle casualties on the ground. In the week of March 20 to 27, the South Vietnamese forces were reported to have killed 325 Việt Cộng soldiers while losing 89; in the week of March 27 to April 3, the government forces claimed 794 Việt Cộng dead and listed a loss of 189.
United States policy in South Vietnam came under fire today in a report by a senior diplomat sent to survey the situation in Vietnam by Premier Eisaku Sato. The diplomat, Shunichi Matsumoto, expressed doubts as to Washington’s view that the Việt Cộng insurgency was predominantly a Communist movement. He implied that the American side was rigid in the belief that the conflict could be won by military means. The Japanese special envoy considered this view highly questionable. Concluding that the United States course in Vietnam would prolong the fighting, he said that “Japan has a duty to grasp a good opportunity to talk to the United States and to appeal to world opinion” in an effort to find a peaceful solution. Mr. Matsumoto, a former Ambassador to Britain, is an adviser to the Foreign Ministry. His views are highly significant here because of the influence they are likely to have on Japanese attitudes toward the American role in Vietnam, especially since his report seems to confirm the skepticism already felt in Tokyo.
Premier Chou En-lai has sent word to U Thant, the Secretary General, that any negotiations on peace in Vietnam must be undertaken directly with the Việt Cộng forces in South Vietnam and not with Communist China or North Vietnam.
French President Charles de Gaulle declared today that the peace of the world was in danger and that France had a great role to play in the eternal debate between war and peace. Speaking to the officers of the National Assembly representing the Gaullist party, the President said that 1965 would be an important year, perhaps a decisive one. The French people, General de Gaulle said, must be impregnated with the idea of the state. The coming Presidential election, he added, will be important, giving the people the opportunity to voice their views on what form the state should take.
General de Gaulle’s comments created considerable interest in diplomatic and political circles. The general’s emphasis on the danger of war, diplomats said, reflected the government’s profound uneasiness over the course of the war in Vietnam. This uneasiness is accompanied by a sense of frustration arising from the failure thus far of French diplomacy to induce either the United States or North Vietnam to move toward negotiations. The consensus in the diplomatic community is that General de Gaulle will not take further action until he has studied President Johnson’s speech tomorrow night.
The U.S. government has embarked on a multimillion-dollar program of developing 12 ports along the South Vietnam coast.
The President’s speech on Southeast Asia tomorrow night is expected to reflect the fact that he believes the time is right for a broadening of U.S. policy as a step toward peace in the Vietnam war.
Communist authorities temporarily blockaded the principal highway linking Berlin with West Germany again today in direct challenge of the Western allies’ right of free access to the former German capital. Concern in allied quarters rose as Soviet and East German officials enforced a complete stoppage from 9 AM to 1:30 PM on the 110-mile autobahn linking West Berlin with Helmstedt in West Germany. Allied military vehicles were turned back along with civilians’ cars.
The allied commanders in chief in Germany protested to their Russian counterpart against the “attempt to interfere with allied communications with Berlin” and called for “an immediate end to the harassment,” a Reuters dispatch from Bonn reported. They said their governments would hold the Soviet authorities responsible. In Washington, the Administration showed no undue concern over the harassment, which officials expect to end by Sunday.
Informed sources said measures were under consideration to deal with the repeated infringement of the access rights enjoyed by the United States, Britain and France as occupying powers. The three Western allied commandants of the city conferred on ways to defend allied interests in the awkward situation. A statement issued afterward condemned Communist interference with the normal life of the city. After their meeting it was announced that the commandants had each sent a letter to the Soviet military commander in East Germany, General Pyotr K. Koshevoi, warning that the Soviet Union would be responsible for any consequences arising from “the attempt to Interfere with allied communications to Berlin.” In ordinary diplomatic usage such a warning indicates an intention to take measures against the action in protest.
The Communist blockade is a reprisal for tomorrow’s scheduled meeting of the West German Bundestag (lower house of Parliament) in Berlin. The East Germans hold that Berlin is not part of West Germany and that Parliament has no right to meet here. The Communists have managed their harassment campaign in a skillful manner designed to make a clear reassertion of allied access rights difficult. The four-hour closings of the autobahn yesterday and the block today have been too brief for the Western side to organize a “confrontation” at which the Communists would have the choice of giving way or risking a grave international incident.
Hundreds of motorists smoked, talked and fidgeted through long weary hours on the autobahn near this border town today as they waited for the East German police to let traffic through to Berlin.
Russian tanks clattered along East Germany’s express highways today, pushing traffic off the road. Weary travelers coming from West Germany on the autobahn said several armored columns. had sped by in both directions. They said their cars had been thoroughly searched. One couple had to unload everything from their house trailer. “The tanks must have been doing 70 kilometers (43 miles) an hour and hurling up chunks of concrete pavement with their tracks,” a motorist said. “The roads are crawling with East German police,” a bleary-eyed driver said, “and whenever a tank column rumbles past they make all cars pull off the pavement, no matter on which lane the convoy is traveling.”
President Johnson asked the Senate today to ratify two amendments to the United Nations Charter that would increase the memberships of the Security Council (from 11 to 15) and the Economic and Social Council (from 18 to 27).
Twenty-nine Kenyan students told today, after their return from the Soviet Union, of misery, hostility, and beatings they suffered while at a university in Baku. “It was more of an indoctrination camp than a university,” one student said. “Most of our studies were taken up with brain-washing and learning the Communist doctrine.” “It was hell,” another exclaimed. “May God let us all forget that place.” “All the people hated us,” one student said. “They just didn’t like black people. If we went into restaurants, they refused to serve us. They don’t allow you to dance with white women and if we tried to dance with a Russian girl in a club we were beaten up.” He pulled up the sleeve of his jacket to show a scar he said was inflicted during an attack on him by a group of Russian youths.
The British Labor Government took stern measures today to reorganize Britain’s economy and to right her international balance of payments. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, James Callaghan, announced in the House of Commons what most experts considered the toughest budget in some years. He made clear that his main objective was to restore confidence abroad in the pound. The reaction in the United States among businessmen with interests in Britain was one of relief that the Labor Government appeared bent on retaining the pound at its present $2.80 level. The budget is expected to curb British consumption by the equivalent of $700 million a year, and Mr. Callaghan hopes to curb the outflow of capital by at least $280 million a year.
To reduce consumption at home, Mr. Callaghan imposed new excise taxes that would raise $608 million annually. These levies are in addition to the $694 million in tax increases announced last fall. Mr. Callaghan tightened controls on the use of foreign exchange by Britons, with the aim of cutting the figure by $280 million annually. He also moved to discourage long-term capital investment abroad by reducing tax advantages but did not estimate the immediate impact.
The United Kingdom enacted its first capital gains tax, a tax upon the profit realized from the sale of assets based on the sale price, minus the BDV (the “Budget Day Value” being the value of the property on April 6, 1965); the law initially applied to real estate and buildings.
The British government publicly announced cancellation of the BAC TSR-2 nuclear bomber aircraft project.
Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara announced that arrangements have been made for Great Britain to buy, if she so desires, $1 billion worth of U.S.-built F-111 tactical bombers.
The Turkish Cypriot leader, Dr. Fazil Kutchuk, accused Britain today of having failed to live up to her responsibilities to the Turkish community on Cyprus.
Mao Tse-tung has urged Arabs to boycott Europe and the United States “because the West likes neither us nor you.”
Pope Paul VI was reportedly preparing to abolish a requirement that non-Catholics marrying Roman Catholics promise in writing to raise the children as Catholics.
Six university students in Lisbon pleaded not guilty today to charges of conspiring for the Portuguese Communist party, which is outlawed.
John Diefenbaker, leader of the Conservative Opposition, opened debate on Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson’s new legislative program tonight with a move for a no-confidence vote.
Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella presented an $840 million budget for 1965 tonight. He said it represented a “transition” to Socialism.
An Administration spokesman threw cold water today on a Senate proposal to control air pollution attributed to automobile exhaust. The Johnson administration came out “at this time” against a proposed law to require California-type exhaust control devices on all new cars in the nation next fall.
President Johnson won major victories as his education and Medicare bills cleared committees for consideration today by the Senate and the House.
The Administration’s school-aid bill emerged unchanged from Senate committee today and moved to the floor for opening debate tomorrow. The $1.3 billion school-aid bill was approved by the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee without the change of a comma in the 80-page measure which passed the House March 26. Some GOP amendments will be offered, but Democratic leaders hope to push the bill to final passage unchanged and have it on the President’s desk by the end of the week.
House approval this week of the Administration’s program of medical care for the aged was virtually assured today as the Rules Committee sent the authorizing bill to the floor.
Indictments were returned today against an Army sergeant and a former Army sergeant accused of selling missile data and other defense secrets to the Russians for more than a decade. A Federal grand jury returned espionage indictments against Sgt. Robert L. Johnson, 43 years old, a Pentagon-based courier, and James Allen Mintkenbaugh, 46, a former Army sergeant described as a middleman. Each was indicted on three counts and their cases were transferred to Alexandria, Virginia, for trial. Also named in the indictments were Vitaly Ourjoumov, one-time attaché at the Russian Embassy in Paris and now reported to be back in the Soviet Union. Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation referred to him as a co-conspirator with Johnson and Mintkenbaugh in the alleged spying activities dating back to February, 1953.
Non-compliance with the new civil rights law may cost Alabama public schools millions of dollars in federal aid, the U.S. Office of Education warned the Alabama superintendent of schools.
Congressional critics of the voting rights bill got their first look at the revised version and came away with varying views.
James B. Carey announced that he would resign as president of the International Union of Electrical Workers. The Labor Department had asserted that his re-election was due to a miscount.
Former Governor Terry Sanford of North Carolina will direct a two year study to find ways of strengthening the role of the states in the federal-state relationship. Special attention will be given to education, a big and growing item in state budgets.
There were more versions today of the “flimflam” of Joseph T. Smitherman, the segregationist Mayor of Selma, Alabama, by a Black con man than participants in the episode, but all versions agreed that it was altogether a bit awkward.
Corruption involving “scores of millions of dollars” exists in the state government of Massachusetts, according to a report being prepared by the state’s Crime Commission.
Early Bird (Intelsat 1), a communications satellite, was launched as the first offering of the private Intelsat (International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium, initially a group of 11 member nations). “This launch marks the beginning of the global village linked instantaneously by commercial communications satellites”, an author would note later. Early Bird would be moved to a stationary geosynchronous orbit, 22,300 miles (35,900 km) above the Atlantic Ocean, on May 2. With 240 available circuits, the satellite could “relay signals in either direction between Europe and the United States virtually on a twenty-four-hour basis”; a satellite TV broadcast would reduce the available capacity for long-distance telephone and telegraph links by 75 percent.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 891.9 (-1.33)
Born:
Sterling Sharpe, NFL wide receiver (Hall of Fame, inducted 2025; Pro Bowl, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994; Green Bay Packers), in Chicago, Illinois.
Dave Cadigan, NFL guard and tackle (New York Jets, Cincinnati Bengals), in Needham, Massachusetts.
Gerald Diduck, NHL defenseman (New York Islanders, Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, Chicago Blackhawks, Hartford Whalers, Phoenix Coyotes, Toronto Maple Leafs, Dallas Stars), in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Rica Reinisch, East German swimmer (Olympic gold medal, 1980); world records for the women’s 100 meter and 200 meter backstroke at the age of 15; in Seifhennersdorf, East Germany.
Virginia Lee, Australian rower (Olympic bronze medal, Lwt W2X 1996), in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Black Francis (stage name for Charles Thompson IV), American alternative rock singer and songwriter (Pixies); in Boston, Massachusetts.
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