Conversation 724-009

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Call the local utility.

Tell her, yeah, when I'm visiting her, I'm going to run her around cheap things fast.

Actually, I see the concessions.

By the way, I had this being processed through the domestic council all night long.

Right, because I was too late.

You know what I mean?

So now we've made the order.

I must get over it.

Get shaved.

Grace, the name to say.

Be sure to look at the book.

It's got to be the book I have seen.

And she's, of course, raised the money.

That's all.

And she's had a strong hand in the decoration.

Because of that whole big decoration, she had to see who could change that light fixture and dining room up there.

Oh, yeah.

The problem was that they really needed the same light fixture back then.

I just thought they'd been sitting, checked out every goddamn place except a lot of pictures.

So, you know, well,

But they, I'll tell you, why do they just have no taste at all?

We, you know, someday I'll show you the original plans for that place.

They don't need a panel at all.

I see there's a fire line and when, you know, I said panel, get a panel.

No, no, no, let's don't do that.

With the light fixture, I know it's going to take a lot because they have to go back and rewire.

They can do that in a day, a couple of days.

But anything, I don't care what they do, just so they don't have those things happen.

I didn't want to raise it.

It seems pretty unfortunate, but that was fair.

I think it's going very well, sir.

continue fighting in the II Corps area, but the two regiments of the 23rd Division are doing damn well.

They're really racking them up.

They've got 200 more enemy today.

Yes, sir?

What do you .

In the I Corps situation, although I see the goddamn TV has been cynical about the Marines coming back so quickly, that is the way that we're scheduled to do it.

There are two attacks out to the west at Bastogne, and now they've gone beyond Bastogne to the first little fire base they lost.

So they're patrolling way out, and they've killed enemy.

The an-lock situation is...

It's still a little fuzzy because they're getting attacks by fire, but the... Are we still behind them?

Yes, sir.

Very heavy in there.

The 21st Division is now about seven kilometers south of Amok, so it looks like they should break through within the next day or two.

I think that'll be a good change there.

There's still quite a bit of heavy action over by the Parrot's Beacon in Three Corps, and we're doing extremely well there.

They just keep killing about 50 to 100 a day there.

Well, I think the ground situation looks quite good.

I'm not optimistic about the II Corps, but in the last two days, they've done exceptionally well with the enemy.

The difference is the enemy's not firing the kind of artillery you'd fire in the II Corps.

So these people come forward, and it's flat, open ground, and we're picking them up and retrieving them before they get to the positions.

Good.

I think the ground situation is beginning to turn.

How's the situation now?

Are we still hitting the railroads and all that?

Still hitting them, sir.

As you know, we're going to cut down on a Saturday morning in the Hanoi area.

But they'll keep hitting Haiphong, so they're going to hit in close in Hanoi to the bridge there that's about three or five kilometers from the center of town.

We didn't talk about those, sir.

those situations now.

Transformers?

Yes, sir.

They're hitting those.

They're going to hit some of those between now and Saturday in the Hanoi area.

There's one big transformer place that's right in the heart of the city, which is not a good one.

No.

Can you do the two of them for me?

Not in the city, sir.

Not in the city, but in the outskirts of Brazil?

Yes, they can, but I think they're doing so well with them, I wouldn't move them.

All right, fine.

They're the ones that are going to do it in the other areas, right?

They have really caused the deaths in the battlefield before these reports arrived.

They, every day they've got a very respectable...

They're working on it, sir.

One of the problems is in these areas where the tanks are spread out by many, many miles.

And they have three squatters and cavalry squatters in the perimeter of the way.

So we're looking at that.

I just want to be sure we don't have them slip down in our corps, that instead of hitting the way, they might try to surprise us and go into Da Nang or someplace else, because these patrols and these forces have gone way out today, and they really did run into some enemies, but not sizable numbers.

I know Mr. Laird, I saw him in the Baptist this morning, and he said in touch with Abrams, be damn sure that there aren't any surprises that pop up.

Not against us.

Not against us, right?

Yes, sir.

Let's face it.

This is the most important thing to do out there.

Anything, anything.

I'm not sure whether it was the tanks or anything we do.

It was just something they didn't expect.

What I'd like to see is them do an air mobile operation that gets way behind the enemy in the way area.

And now they've gone north not too far, but they put these damn B-52s in there before them and that

They don't fight.

Otherwise, their morale is broken for a period.

If these guys can win rapidly, they can really shock them.

Yeah, they can just get in action.

They might find that there's more confusion than they might have ever thought.

I'd like to see them do that at the antelope by going beyond the antelope.

Catch these bastards when they start moving north again.

Take them from behind.

Was a hell of a lot different from what it was a week ago.

It's very different.

Yes, it is.

The enemy's either been hurt or he's just laying low beyond the point that I think makes any sense, especially in three-quarter because the reins are gone.

He's only got really another week to two weeks before he's in trouble.

I think he shot his line on an end lock, and I think that's going to prove to be a very decisive battle.

Which the South has won.

Yeah.

That comes out of Ecuador.

Yes, sir.

Comes to Ecuador.

But we've got pretty good troops in there.

Good troops.

They perform very well.

And today they've been out to the west instead of to the north.

It's not a spectator because they went out on the ground.

Sorry.

Pretty good work, I think.

The thing I'd really like to see, sure, is a good strong raid up in North Bay, not by the south.

That's probably the plan for this now, this week.

Maybe they didn't know if you were not going to have a dramatic effect on us.

Oh, God.

That's what I think.

Even though it were just a small raid in force, if they did it around the bin area, I think we'd get all the psychological boost we could stand.

I think it would drive the enemy right up.

They'd be just scared to death.

They'd move that 325th down.

They've been identified down in my course after the DNC.

I think he was just afraid to take the kind of troops that that kind of an operation requires out of the line down south.

But we gave him some, we identified some people for Admiral McCain.

He's had people out in Saigon planning for him so he didn't get distracted from the main business.

I wish we could have an answer back.

just to do something has a hell of a dramatic effect on this whole computer.

Well, I agree.

And we're getting good press from here at home.

It keeps everybody quiet.

The retaking of the spaces in two core last night has helped.

That's gotten good press.

Correct.

I guess really now we can do that.

But the carrier's on the way.

Yes, sir.

We've got another carrier.

We've got these more squadrons will be going in, but they're going to go into Thailand.

So we don't get the static from opening up the base.

I think we're going to see a real turn here.

Yes, sir.

I do.

I'm just getting increasingly confident.

Better job than bombing in the three weeks, four weeks we've been at it now than they did in two years before.

He's got the pictures of them.

I'm here to get some over so you can see what they've done.

That one bridge has a major psychological barrier and I know I just bragged about it about a month ago that we've been unable to ever get it.

Do you think that's been damaged?

Yes, sir.

They dropped a whole span.

It sits in the water.

Hit it again.

That's agreed.

I do like it.

These bastards are really beginning to get hurt at home now.

I've read your memo very carefully and I'm sure she'll answer it.

Yes, sir.

And you're exactly right.

There's no question about it.

I was a note taker when General MacArthur briefed in John to the Joint Chiefs of Staff who went to Tokyo, and every one of them, except for the Navy Admiral Sherman.

Admiral Sherman, who has since died, he was a great man.

He said, we'll support you.

And the rest of them, Collins, Bradley, Vandenberg, said, absolutely not.

And he just stood up.

MacArthur listened to all this for an hour.

He stood up and he said, gentlemen, he said, I'm landing at H on September 13th, or you have a new commander here.

And walked in.

And they all collapsed.

Read that in a random character or whatever, because I know it's right.

It is right.

Not in the same way that you use tanks.

I don't know what you use.

Surprise.

I think, I know Abrams has gotten the message.

I can tell the way he's using the B-52.

And he's, that's the best thing we ever did, was to send that guy out there.

He's young, he knows your thing.

He's just 50.

Good.

And he's a gun-hole.

Beat the bastards.

Yes, sir.

Understand now, we're not the whole of the line.

We're not up to win.

That's the thing.

They've got to get across.

We're up to win.

We're out.

I agree with you.

Well, that's what they want.

OK.

Kick them in the ass.

If they start to retreat, if they pause, mainly when it's quiet, hit them when it's quiet.

Hit them when it's quiet.

I don't want them to leave until they get ready.

Once these guys get a couple of victories under their belt, as they have now, it's an entirely different game.

In the first place, they know they can knock the tanks off when they're doing it.

The tanks are no longer a problem.

The only problem is the artillery.

And they make it out of the patrol.

They don't get caught.

And they get out of the patrol like this and really push out.

That's what develops the targets.

And you bring the air in.

Well, this attrition, I just don't know how the hell they put up with it.

I really don't.

They're now up where the estimates are about 34,000 killed at the end.

That means 89,000.

That's right.

And you just...

There's no way they can take that.

No way.

I think it's going to be a problem.

I think when they come in, they're going to be tough.

But I think we're going to have the power now.

You've got all your air assets are over there, and we're just really getting the full benefit of that in the last two weeks.

It's there.

Oh, and now there's the seventh carrier.

I think it'll be another two weeks.

Oh boy.

But it's primarily to protect against any Soviet monkey business in the subway.

Everybody knows it's on the way.

It's on the way.

Well, they haven't announced that one yet.

Now, that'll be out probably tomorrow.

They announced the arrival of the Saratoga.

Announced the Saratoga carrier, but it's on the way to India.

It's very important.

We're recording it now.

They had, on the news tonight, they announced the arrival of 30 more destroyers, a cruiser, and they mentioned a six-carrier.

It's just now gotten out, but it's arrived.

So that's a psychological blow, and we get through each other's.

Good enough.

That was on the way.

Okay.

Well, we can go.

It's an hour ago.

It's an hour ago now.

We did the broadcast.

Yeah, and we're ashamed of it.

It's changed.

It's changed for the better.

And I can tell you, you know, my son has a plea with West Point.

He said the night you gave the speech that the kids started yelling in the barracks.

Did they?

They weren't quiet until 3 in the morning.

Really?

That's right.

Mars.

It stirred them up?

It stirred them up.

That whole place, he said, it's just a new place.

Right.

That's good.

Those guys did good.

They told me that on the ship he was on, Christ had already held his dream on.

And they were, you know, they said, thank God we're going to find him.

I haven't, you know, even Saturday night I saw the Swiss ambassador.

And his wife said, you know, you won't be told, but she said, every one of the diplomatic corps here, even the Iron Curtain people, are solidly behind this.

They think America has demonstrated for the first time the kind of leadership that they want and expect of in this war.

That's right.

It was really a festering problem.

They wondered if we really would have put it to them, and we finally did.

We put it to them, and they were all damn glad.

But I think, you know, the Romanian was there.

He didn't like it, but he knew what it was, why it was done and why it was necessary.

We take a lot of our problems, they've got a whole lot of problems.

Pardon me, Howie.

They're really tough, you have to get them grasped.

That's right.

You've got your time.

But they're willing to die every one last man in the British name.

Why not?

On the other hand, there comes a point.

For what?

What are they dying for?

I don't know what they are dying for.

And I don't think they know.

We've got a few hardcore people.

It's just to move another level of political power up.

I'll give you some more info on that and some concerns.

It's hard going out there.

You're just getting hammered, particularly when they're quiet.

And then when they're quiet at all, then it just gets jerky.

So when they're quiet, what do they do?

They bomb the bashes.

They just sit there and all of a sudden they're bombed.

Well, they've really been pouring it in.

I think they've been hitting 12.

Last three days they've been up to 12.

They've gone full bore.

B-52s never, it's either 74 or 75 every day.

That's a nice effort this year.

We're all heavy on 52s.

3-corps, 2-corps, high-corps, where?

Now the heaviest ones are in 2-corps.

because they are under attack in Khantoum.

But he did that three-day where he massed everything.

We didn't get it read that way because we had two half-days, but he put the massive effort, except for 18 in I-Corps one day, they put 18 down because of the AN-LOC battle.

So they had 75 plus 18.

He had 75 in III Corps at ANLOC, and then he had 75 in II Corps.

So he's done that concentration thing and moved right up.

Now tomorrow they're scheduled to be pretty well split with the major effort in II Corps.

You don't really think II Corps could be saved, huh?

Oh, I do.

Yes, sir.

I think they're only going to get it.

That's how soon now.

If they take it, that's as far as they'll go, I think.

But right now, I'm encouraged that they've held two days against pretty heavy attacks and turned them back.

Without a major, they lost two little bases, which they retook immediately.