On April 11, 1965, Navy LT William E. Swanson was the pilot of an A-1H Skyraider aircraft that crashed while on an armed reconnaissance mission over Khammouan Province, Laos. Other Americans in the area reported seeing his aircraft being struck by enemy fire and no parachute was deployed prior to the crash. Recovery efforts were not possible due to enemy presence in the days following the crash. In October 2000, a joint U.S./Lao People’s Democratic Republic (L.P.D.R.) team was investigating a different crash in Khammouan Province. Local villagers reported an aircraft crash site nearby, in the mountains north of the town of Boualapha. The team surveyed the site and found small pieces of aircraft wreckage, and unexploded bombs and rockets of the same type that Swanson’s A-1H had been carrying. In 2009, a joint U.S./L.P.D.R. recovery team excavated the site and found material evidence and military equipment. In 2010, another U.S./L.P.D.R. team completed the excavation and recovered human remains and additional evidence. Two data plates, with numbers matching Swanson’s aircraft, were found at the site. Scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command used circumstantial and material evidence to identify Swanson’s remains.
LT William Edward Swanson is buried in section 27, site 885 of the Fort Snelling National Cemetery. He is honored on the Wall at Panel 1E, line 103.
Determined to gain control of Highway 1 through the contested central lowlands, ARVN troops disperse a concentration of Việt Cộng north of Bồng Sơn. They encountered the Communists while sweeping the area in the direction of the An Lão Valley, west of the highway. The Communist seizure of the valley had set off the winter offensive that threatened government influence throughout the II Corps area. Senior American officers now say the Communist offensive in the II Corps area has been defeated. The government has reopened the east-west Highway 9 and has been trying for 10 days to clear Highway 1, the main north-south road in the country.
In another operation south of Buôn Ma Thuột this morning, government soldiers also forced a Việt Cộng unit to retreat. The action, 150 miles north of Saigon, left 14 government soldiers killed and 17 wounded. Twenty Việt Cộng bodies were counted and reports from the scene said many of the Việt Cộng dead and wounded had been carried away.
The Vietnamese military situation appeared to be clarifying in Saigon tonight with the appointment of the successors to two suspended commanders. Brigadier General Lê Nguyên Khang, chief of the Vietnamese Marines, was named acting navy commander in place of Rear Admiral Chung Tấn Cang. Colonel Lam Sơn will serve as acting commander of the capital military district, replacing Brigadier General Phạm Văn Đồng. The former commanders were suspended pending an investigation of charges of malfeasance.
Several signs are evident of a recent favorable trend in the war against the Việt Cộng. United States officials view the change as modest and possibly ephemeral — not one that has turned the tide of the war or altered the prospect of a long, hard struggle. But they are publicly and privately and on all levels more optimistic than several months ago. Senior United States officers have reported that Vietnamese peasants are bringing in more intelligence information about activities of Việt Cộng forces. This is considered one of the more significant indexes of change.
Others are the improvement in the fighting performance of the South Vietnamese Army, an increase in the number of volunteers for the armed forces, more defectors from the Việt Cộng and the resumption of some foreign investment in the country. Officials in Saigon and the provinces attributed these encouraging signs to the decision of the United States to bomb North Vietnam and to commit its jet fighter planes in support of operations against the Việt Cộng. A top aide of the South Vietnamese Premier, Phan Huy Quát, said there had been a general improvement in morale, which presented a unique opportunity. But he added that the population still remained skeptical of the Saigon Government after the succession of military coups d’état that undermined confidence in the central administration.
Hanoi has sharply rejected President Johnson’s offer of unconditional discussions to end the fighting in Vietnam. Delivering North Vietnam’s first direct response to the President’s offer, Nhân Dân, the Communist Government’s official newspaper, described it yesterday as a toast to peace that “smells of poison gas.” It said Mr. Johnson’s proposal for a billion-dollar program of economic aid in Southeast Asia was the “bait” of “stupid pirates.” “The Vietnamese people have seen through Johnson’s true nature” an editorial in Nhân Dân said. “By constantly heightening their vigilance, indignation and determination to win, the Vietnamese people will surely defeat Johnson’s aggressive war and at the same time smash all his deceitful maneuvers.”
The paper also reiterated a recent statement of President Hồ Chí Minh that the United States must quit South Vietnam and stop attacking North Vietnam before there could be any settlement. That demand was issued before last Wednesday, when Mr. Johnson made his offer in a speech at Baltimore. President Hồ’s statement, made in an interview with a Japanese Communist journal, was publicized on Thursday — after the Johnson speech — in a move that appeared to foreshadow Hanoi’s official reaction.
Communist China, which has also denounced the United States offer of talks, declared today that the United Nations must have no role in any negotiations. It declared that under manipulation and control of the United States, the United Nations “has degenerated into a U.S. tool for aggression and has committed many evils.” An editorial in the official Peking newspaper Jenmin Jih Pao in effect advised the Secretary General, U Thant, that he was not welcome in China on a mediation mission. “Mr. Thant wants to come to China and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to seek a settlement of the Vietnam question,” the editorial said. “We would like to tell him in all seriousness to spare himself this trouble.” Jenmin Jih Pao said the Vietnam question had nothing to do with the United Nations.
Communist China accused the United States of resorting to direct military provocation against Red China by sending planes over Hainan Island and attacking Chinese planes that took off to meet them.
The Cabinet of Premier Phan Huy Quát issued a communiqué today to outline the circumstances under which it would agree to discussions with North Vietnam. The government said such discussions would not imply acceptance of a cease-fire in the war with the Việt Cộng without prior conditions. It said negotiations could take place if there had been prior acceptance of such conditions as a withdrawal of Việt Cộng troops and cadres from South Vietnam.
Soviet newspapers, for a second day, have attacked President Johnson’s negotiation offer as a propaganda device designed to fool the world.
The Cabinet of Premier Phan Huy Quát issued a communiqué today to outline the circumstances under which it would agree to discussions with North Vietnam. The government said such discussions would not imply acceptance of a cease-fire in the war with the Việt Cộng without prior conditions. It said negotiations could take place if there had been prior acceptance of such conditions as a withdrawal of Việt Cộng troops and cadres from South Vietnam.
Leaders in Indonesia are hinting to Ellsworth Bunker, President Johnson’s special envoy, that Indonesian-American relations might significantly improve if Washington would help Jakarta settle its dispute with Malaysia. Mr. Bunker arrived 12 days ago with the assignment of examining reasons for the worsening of relations between Indonesia and the United States. He has met three times with President Sukarno and Dr. Subandrio, the Foreign Minister, and has consulted with a number of other Cabinet ministers and military leaders. Meanwhile, President Sukarno made a major appeal in the domestic sphere. In an address before the opening session of the People’s Consultative Congress in Bandung, the President called for a “drastic reform” of Indonesia’s economy and the setting up of a special economic development board, which he would head.
Indonesian students surrounded Mr. Bunker and the United States Ambassador, Howard P. Jones, as the Americans left the Indónesian Congressional meeting today. The students booed and shouted “Yankee go home!” Antara, the official news agency, said that Indonesian security troops had quickly moved in to disperse the students.
A Foreign Office spokesman in Karachi said tonight that Pakistan had ousted Indians from territory she claims in the Rann of Cutch. He said that troops of Pakistan’s regular army “may have given assistance” to border forces in fighting Friday with regular Indian Army troops along the undemarcated frontier between southern West Pakistan and India’s Gujarat State. The Pakistani spokesman explained that the removal of Indian “encroachment from our territory” still left Indian forces in an area that had previously been a no-man’s land. The hostilities are taking place around a ruined mud fort at Karjarkot, about 140 miles southeast of Karachi in the desolate salt rann, or marsh, that marks the southwestern end of the Thar Desert.
Yugoslavian President Tito sailed for Algiers tonight to bolster Yugoslavia’s sagging relations with the government of President Ahmed Ben Bella. His visit comes at a time when the carefully knit foreign relations of this independent Communist country have been shredding in many directions. Even the trip to Algeria is causing a counter-stress in another area. Michael Stewart, the British Foreign Secretary, is scheduled to visit Belgrade soon, and London had expected Marshal Tito to receive him. But the Yugoslav leader will be absent, and this has angered British diplomats.
Yugoslavia’s main difficulty, however, is her ties with the nonaligned nations that she professes to lead. Algeria is a case in point. The Ben Bella Government has become more militant on international issues in recent months to an American-Asian conference regarded as likely to be dominated by Communist China. The Yugoslavs have found the Chinese competing with them for influence in Algeria. At the same time, French interests have increased there. President Tito began to think Yugoslavia was being squeezed out. Recently he ordered dozens of technicians to Algeria to underscore Yugoslav influence.
Road, air and water traffic moved smoothly into and out of West Berlin today for the first time in more than a week as the Communists ended their harassment of travel between the city and West Germany. Tie-ups on the autobahns into Berlin, which had kept some motorists waiting for more than 20 hours during the week, were nowhere to be seen. The Berlin police described traffic on all major transportation links as normal. Thus, at least one stage of the Communist reprisal for the meeting of the West German Parliament in Berlin appeared to be ended. The Communists, who contend that the West German meeting here was illegal. interrupted or slowed down road traffic from West Germany for more than a week.
They also harassed Western planes in the three air corridors linking Berlin with West Germany and cut off canal traffic into the city. Today there was no buzzing of West Berlin by Communist jets, an irritant that frayed nerves in the city early last week. But East German officials have indicated strongly in recent days that the reprisals are not ended. One opportunity for new harassment will come tomorrow, when thousands of West Berliners are planning to cross into East Berlin to visit relatives under a pass agreement with the East German regime.
President Johnson’s conference with Prime Minister Wilson in Washington this week is just the first of what promises to be a long and historic series of meetings on the transformation of the Atlantic alliance.
Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński charged today that Polish Government funds were being used to spread atheism through disciplinary action among Poland’s youth in schools, colleges and the army. “It is monstrous,” he said in a Palm Sunday sermon, “that we Catholics must reject God because there is a group of people, with power and public funds, wishing it. “Where is reason? Where is democracy? In the name of law must we reject God? It is a monstrosity to demand this from the nation. We must not keep silent.”
The Roman Catholic Primate of Poland cited as an example of the use of state funds for anti-religious propaganda a Rome dispatch in the Government-owned newspaper Zycie Warszawy reporting on Roman banks controlled by the church. He said the writer “is a man who resides in Rome on state funds [yet] he is so limited in his education that the only thing he sees in the church are banks. But the strength of the church is in Christ.”
Transport and communications projects of the Central Treaty Organization are at the point of making a significant impact on the peoples of the area — mainly the Turks, Iranians and Kurds.
James Bond (Secret Agent 007), who has fought-and made love to bad and beautiful Communist spies, was declared persona non grata by East Germany.
Panamanian President Marco A. Robles canceled plans to attend a world championship boxing match in Panama City on advice of security officials who feared an assassination attempt as part of a coup to upset Robles’ shaky government.
President Johnson signed the new $1.3 billion Elementary and Secondary Education Act into law in a ceremony near Stonewall, Texas, conducted in front of the school that he attended as a child. Present as an honored guest was his first schoolteacher, “Miss Kate” (by then, the 72-year-old Kate Deadrich Loney). For the first time, the federal government had power over the operation of American schools, “with the carrot of substantial federal aid now available” to schools that complied with mandates from Washington, and the reality that “the removal of federal aid could now serve as a stick to force compliance.”
Mr. Johnson sat at a rude wooden bench outside the building, which is covered in ancient galvanized metal siding meant to resemble cut stone. Flanking him were old wooden school desks and chairs, some of which had been in use when he attended the school. The President, who has sometimes used more than 100 pens to sign a bill, used just one and handed it to Mrs. Loney. She seemed not to realize that it was meant as a souvenir for her and left it on the table as she walked away.
Mr. Johnson recalled that he first began to go to the school at the age of 4 when his mother would ask the teacher to mind him while she worked at housecleaning. “They tell me, Miss Kate, that I recited my first lessons while sitting on your lap,” he said. He attended the school for three years. Mr. Johnson also recalled that he had been a teacher himself. He invited as guests to the ceremony some of the Mexican-American students he taught at Cotulla, Texas, in the late 1920’s.
At least 55 tornadoes caused destruction in the Midwestern United States, striking Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, killing 271 people, injuring as many as 5,000 and causing more than $250,000,000 in damages. Towns hardest hit were Pittsfield, Ohio, where all 15 homes and two buildings were destroyed, and nine of its 50 residents were killed; Russiaville, Indiana; and Alto, Indiana. The first twister was sighted at 1:30 p.m. in Dubuque, Iowa; flooding from the thunderstorms that followed caused further death and destruction in those states along the Mississippi River.
Business leaders questioned in a survey by The New York Times are giving solid support to President Johnson’s program for voluntary restraints on the outflow of corporate dollars abroad.
Representative Adam Clayton Powell said tonight that the nation’s antipoverty campaign had degenerated into “giant fiestas of political patronage” during its six months of operation.
Retired Rear Admiral William F. Raborn, Jr., was appointed as the new U.S. Director of Central Intelligence. Raborn had previously headed the develpment of the Polaris missile.
Attorney General Nicholas D. Katzenbach said he thought the Supreme Court probably would upset provisions of the proposed voting rights bill abolishing state and local poll taxes.
Blacks in Montgomery, Alabama attended Palm Sunday services in three white churches today, but were turned away at three others.
Robert Shelton, imperial wizard of the United Klans of America, proposed a meeting with President Johnson and appointment of a Klan member to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.
A government decision of 15 months ago will weigh heavily on millions of taxpayers this week despite a tax cut and steadily expanding prosperity.
Not only must the peacetime draft continue, but monthly calls must be far larger than last year, top military officials have told Congress.
The Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service said today that most persons with large income-tax bills this year should expect no official sympathy.
The West German cargo ship Transatlantic collided with the Dutch ship MV Hermes and sank in the Saint Lawrence River, near Trois Rivieres, Quebec. One of her 14 crew was killed and two were reported missing.
Soviet composer Rodion Shchedrin’s Second Symphony, noted for its “modernistic score”, was performed for the first time.
29th U.S. Masters Tournament, Augusta National Golf Club: Jack Nicklaus wins the 2nd of his 6 Masters titles with a tournament record 271 (−17); beats Gary Player and Arnold Palmer by a record 9 strokes
Born:
Brad Muster, NFL fullback (Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints), in Novato, California.
Al Wolden, NFL fullback (Chicago Bears), in Govnick, Minnesota.
Turner Ward, MLB outfielder (Cleveland Indians, Toronto Blue Jays, Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Arizona Diamondbacks, Philadelphia Phillies), in Orlando, Florida.
Lynn Ferguson, Scottish writer, comedian, and actress (“Chicken Run”), in Glasgow, Scotland.
Eelco van Asperen, Dutch computer scientist who contributed to the original World Wide Web project; in Rotterdam (d. 2013).
History Diaries 