OPINION:
I read the Washington Times regularly and appreciate the insightful articles and commentary. Andrew Salmon’s recent piece on Vietnam (“Vietnam celebrates 50th anniversary of national unification, capture of Saigon,” Web, April 30) was interesting. The section “A war America couldn’t win” brought back some memories.
In 1967, I was in a U.S. Navy fighter squadron aboard USS Forrestal. Also aboard was John McCain, who was in one of our Airwings’ attack squadrons. During our first days on Yankee Station, we were flying attack missions (dropping bombs on assigned targets) over North Vietnam. Some of these were done at night under flares, trying to hit trucks and barges carrying Soviet-supplied war materials down the Ho Chi Minh Trail and various canals to the Viet Cong in South Vietnam. After a few nights of likely not hitting many of these targets and several days spent watching the 40-odd ships deliver this material into Haiphong Harbor, we asked why the harbor hadn’t been mined and suggested that it should be.
Since the only way to support the war in South Vietnam was through the jungles of Laos and the northeast railway out of China (which was bombed on a regular basis), the major supply line was through Haiphong Harbor. The day after we inquired about the mining, our onboard flag staff reported that the response to the recommendation — which had also previously been proposed by John McCain’s father, the vice admiral in charge of the Pacific fleet — had been denied by then Secretary of Defense Bob McNamara, who said it would be considered an act of war. (Meanwhile, we were dropping bombs all over North Vietnam.)
Over the next five years, the Viet Cong’s military strength increased. Those of us who made the recommendation about the harbor believe the war would never have turned out the way it did (and that we would have saved thousands of American and other lives) if McNamara had listened to us at the time.
Fortunately, in 1972 President Nixon had the harbor mined. Two ships were trapped and no others ever entered. I was in another fighter squadron aboard the USS Saratoga on Yankee Station from May 1972 until January 1973, along with six other carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin until the ceasefire and subsequent peace agreement January 1973. The following years saw the political battle that ultimately stopped military aid to South Vietnam — and, no surprise, the North Vietnamese invaded Saigon April 30, 1975. In hindsight, the outcome of the war probably would have been very different had we mined Haiphong Harbor in the mid-1960s.
Mr. Salmon’s article would have been much more informative had he included some of the misguided activities of McNamara and other politicians, whose misguided decisions may well have been the reason we didn’t win.
BUD DOUGHERTY
McLean, Virginia
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