TheList 5324

The List 5324 TGB


Some Bits and pieces



Thanks to Dr. Rich

Animal odd couple

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=570khFoaE4s



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Thanks to Felix …and Dr Rich



Fly along with Rob Holland at the NAS Pensacola Airshow … you might want to take some Dramamine first though!!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMKmJzBs_ZQ&fbclid=IwAR1tyThwWsxIpbSlTgqC3DJJPIpeNf5Jko5lKTW5BW9LGVqpKPi09vzMWVg



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Thanks to Dr. Rich

Thanks to Willie via Burt … fascinating!

My friend Willy Suitor is the guy who, ~ 50 years ago, flew the rocket belt during Opening Ceremonies at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WWDnOiQR7A



Burt

From: william suito

Subject: Re: Aircraft Carrier Ambush!

Date: May 13, 2020 at 3:53:40 AM PDT

To: Burt Rutan



I heard from a "reliable source", that my friend David Mayman (NOT David Clarke)....there are two Australian "Rocketmen", Mayman has the Jets, Clarke is still using his peroxide machine very carefully. Maymans motors are from Netherlands and are of (in my opinion) questionable reliability , they're for drones....not man rated.



As I was told, Mayman was all set up with a TV show like Myth Busters, as he began his ground spool up one engine failed, they changed to a spare.......again the spool up,the other failed....save me !



He wants me to take part in a on line (whatever) "show", just talking about all things "jetpaks" with all the groupies around the world, nice idea BUT I don't think I want to have my name come up after the first fatality, I'm trying to think of a way to say no .Sure as rain in Spain there will sooner or later be a fatality, I want to keep my skirt clean......I mean my kilt....I'm not a cross dresser !



willy



On Tuesday, May 12, 2020, 08:34:12 PM EDT, Burt Rutan <burtrutan@me.com> wrote:

Half the thrust is the fixed jet on his back. So only 1/4 his weight on each arm.

Burt

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoFlqIaDJ8U&feature=youtu.be>





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Two articles about Lyndon Johnson The first is new but it make the second even more believable



From Dutch

Lyndon Johnson, age 20, beat a child student just because the kid imitated LBJ in a funny way Lyndon Johnson, age 20, beat a child student just because the kid imitated LBJ in a funny way

thanks to GM



Nothing we didn't already know or suspect, but neatly compiled . . .

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Friday, May 8, 2020 4:37 PM,
> From a colleague ---
>
> So what would LBJ do to the Kennedys when he found out in the fall of 1963 that they were ought to utterly destroy him, not just knock him off the 1964
> Democratic ticket.
>
> Lyndon Johnson, age 20, once beat a child student because he did not like the child imitating him while LBJ was out of the room – either in fall 1928 or spring 1929, while LBJ was teaching at Cotulla, TX
>
> QUOTE
>
> Once, moreover, while Johnson was out of the room, Danny Garcia went to the front of the classroom and began imitating the teacher – a performance easy to make funny because of Johnson's awkward walk. Suddenly the class stopping laughing, and when Garcia turned around,
> there was the teacher in the doorway. Grabbing the boy by the hand, Johnson took him into an empty room. "I though I was going to get
> a lecture," Garcia recalls, and instead, "He turned me over his knee and whacked me a dozen times," and as Garcia felt the force of the blows,
> he realized that Johnson was angrier than he had ever seen him. And when he re-entered the now hushed classroom, Johnson said
> something that the students considered quite striking.
> As Amanda Garcia recalls it, he asked them how they could make fun of him: "He told us we were looking at the future President of the United States."
>
> UNQUOTE
>
> [Robert Caro, The Path to Power, p. 171]
>
> Scroll to the very bottom and see McGeorge Bundy compare Lyndon Johnson to Joseph Stalin.
>
> Longtime LBJ aide George Reedy on what a Narcissist, Bully, Sadist & Lout Lyndon Johnson was
>
> Reedy worked for LBJ from 1951-1965
>
> "He was notorious for abusing his staff, for driving people to the verge of exhaustion- and sometimes over the verge; for paying the lowest
> salaries for the longest hours of work on Capitol Hill; for publicly humiliating his most loyal aides; for keeping his office in a constant state of
> turmoil by playing games with reigning male and female favorites."
>
> "There was no sense in which he could be described as a pleasant man. His manners were atrocious- not just slovenly but frequently
> calculated to give offense. Relaxation was something he did not understand and would not accord to others. He was a bully who would
> exercise merciless sarcasm on people who could not fight back but could only take it. Most important, he had no sense of loyalty- at least,
> not the kind of loyalty I learned on the Irish Near North Side of Chicago, where life was bearable only because people who had very little in
> the way of wordly goods had very much in the way of mutual trust. To Johnson, loyalty was a one-way street: all take on his part and all give
> on the part of everyone else- his family, his friends, his supporters."
>
> [Reedy, p. x]
>
> "He was cruel, even to people who had virtually walked the last mile for him. Occasionally he would demonstrate his gratitude for extraordinary
> services by a lavish gift- an expensive suit of clothes, an automobile, jewelry for the women on his staff. The gift was always followed by an
> outpouring of irreverent abuse (I believe he thought his impulse was an example of weakness for which he had to atone) and a few members
> of his entourage noted that gift was invariably tax deductible on his part. Furthermore, some of the most lavish presents frequently went to
> members who had performed no services other than adulation. And when his personal desires were at stake, he had absolutely no consideration
> for the situation in which other people found themselves. They were required to drop everything to wait upon him and were expected to forget
> their private lives in his interests. He even begrudged one of his top assistants a telephone call to his wife on their wedding anniversary, which
> the assistant was spending on the LBJ ranch and his wife at their home in Washington, D.C." [Reedy, xiv]
>
> "He had a habit of adopting all useful thoughts as his own, and often the originator of highly important ideas would forget his or her own
> authorship in a matter of hours and be ready to swear that the whole thing originated in the brain of "the Leader." [Reedy, xvi]
>
> "He had a remarkable capacity to convince himself that he held the principles he should hold at any given time, and there was something
> charming about the air of injured innocence with which he would treat anyone who brought forth evidence that he had held other views in
> the past. It was not an act. His whole life was lived in the present and he was tenacious in his conviction that history always conformed to
> current necessities." [Reedy, p. 2]
>
> "To complicate the picture, his own view of what had happened frequently shifted. To the outside world, this appeared as a form of mendacity.
> It is my firm belief, from close association over a number of years, that the man never told a deliberate lie. But he had a fantastic capacity to
> persuade himself that the "truth" which was convenient for the present was the truth and anything that conflicted with it was the prevarication
> of enemies. He literally willed what was in his mind to be reality and, as he was a master at imposing his will upon the people, the society, and
> the world around him, he saw no reason for history to be exempt from the process."
>
> [Reedy, p. 3]
>
> "That other man had to be Robert Kennedy, whom he regarded as the focal point for all the forces who sought the downfall of Lyndon
> Johnson." [Reedy, 6]
>
> "As a rule, his language colorful, pointed, and what can most charitably be described as "earthy." His "humor" was based chiefly on the
> contents of toilet bowls and he was addicted to "pie-in-the-face" practical jokes. His favorite spectator sport was watching bovine copulation and he gloried in summoning fastidious males to his
> bathroom, where conference and excretion could be intermingled. His consumption of beverage alcohol was for purposes other than
> sacramental and in quantities that did not accord St. Paul's "a little wine for thy stomach's sake." [Reedy, p.34-35]
>
> "They had to be young, they had to be cheerful, they had to be malleable, and it helped if they were slightly antagonistic to him at the
> outset. He dearly loved to convert an anti-Johnson liberal with a slightly plump figure and a dowdy wardrobe into a lean, impeccably clad female whose face was masked in cosmetics
> and who adored the ground he walked on (or, at least, told him she adored the ground he walked on). To her, he would pour out all his dreams
> and aspirations in what (as it was described to me later by one woman with a sense of humor) was an incredibly potent monologue. The motif
> was that he trusted her loyalty and needed her wisdom and she had to come with him to occupy the top spot in his organization. It was an
> offer rarely refused.
>
> The reality was somewhat different. The best the woman could hope for was a position as his private secretary. She learned very quickly that it
> was not the post of a top "advisor." He had no respect for the political intelligence of any woman except his wife- and, unfortunately, he usually
> listened to her only when he had done something stupid and had to find a bail-out maneuver.
>
> There were many compensations for the reigning favorite. She could look forward to travel under plush conditions, attendance at glamorous
> social functions with the Johnsons (he would always find a "safe" male for an escort), expensive clothes, and frequent trips to New York, where
> a glamorous make-up artist would initiate her into the mysteries of advanced facial make-up, resulting in cosmetics so lavishly applied that
> they became a mask."
>
> [Reedy, p. 36]
>
> "Very few reigning favorites were allowed to run the office for any great length of time. One of them, who held his attention longer than the
> rest and for whom he exhibited some really deep feelings, was married off, probably because a continued relationship was incompatible with
> the vice presidency.
>
> The others dropped back into the pool known to the male staff members (speaking under their breaths) as "the harem." His greatest joy was
> traveling with a large number of women over whom he could fuss- buying their clothes, supervising their diets, and admonishing them at every
> public stop to "put on some fresh lipstick." It was quite a show. He may have been "just a country boy from the central hills of Texas" but he had
> many of the instincts of a Turkish sultan of Istanbul."
>
> [Reedy, p. 37]
>
> "The result of all of this was an office in a constant state of turmoil. A new reigning favorite meant a period of several weeks in which workable
> routines would be upset; morale would fall to all-time lows; efficiency would go out the window."
>
> (Reedy, p. 37)
>
> "He was rarely candid, and when he spoke of personal matters his words were such a mixture of fantasy, euphemism, and half-truth that it was impossible to separate out the nuggets of revelation. In this case, however, the facts are compelling. As it became clearer that
> inexorable forces were pushing him into the small circle of men from whom the nation picks its chief executives, he developed a pattern of
> conduct that indicated beyond a doubt a desire to revert to childhood. He intermingled, almost daily, childish tantrums; threats of resignation
> (which I realize in retrospect were the equivalent of the small boy who says he will take his baseball and go home); wild drinking bouts; a
> remarkable nonpaternal yen for young girls; an almost frantic desire to be in the company of young people."
>
> [Reedy, p. 56]
>
> "A few weeks after his heart attack in 1955, he summed up the whole problem when he told a conference of doctors, gathered to evaluate
> his condition, that he enjoyed nothing but whiskey, sunshine, and sex. Without realizing what he was doing, he had outlined succinctly the
> tragedy of his life."
>
> [Reedy, p. 56]
>
> "The drinking bouts became increasingly heavy and increasingly frequent. When he was with staff members, there would usually be a point
> at which he would launch a tirade reviling an assistant for a long series of fancied wrongs and assumed inadequacies. ...
>
> They were invariably preceded by a wild drinking bout. He was not an alcoholic or a heavy drinker in the commonly accepted sense of those
> words. But there were occasions when he would pour down Scotch and soda in a virtually mechanical motion in rhythm with the terrible
> tension building visibly within him and communicating itself to his listeners. The warning signs were unmistakable and those with past
> experience tried to get away before the inevitable flood of invective. As they found out, it was rarely possible.
>
> [Reedy 56-57]
>
> "As the 1960 campaign drew closer, the drinking bouts surpassed all previous records.... The 1960 campaign was a nightmare for the
> staff- a weird collage of beratings, occasional drunken prowls up and down hotel corridors, and frantic efforts to sober him up in the
> mornings so he could make the speaking engagements. Here again he came close to disaster. He spent a whole night in a hotel room
> in El Paso pouring invective upon the head of a bewildered advance man...On the stump he had very few peers. But in his rooms at night,
> the drinking patterns continued as did the threats of leaving the campaign." [Reedy, pp. 58-59]
>
> "Someone had told him about the theories of subliminal conditioning then making the rounds and his methodology was to mutter "sincere"
> over and over in the presence of journalists. When he could insert the word into a sentence, he would do so even when it had to be dragged
> in by the heels, kicking and screaming. When he could find no sentence that was suitable, he would repeat "sincere" under his breath, over and
> over to the absolute bewilderment of his audience. Fortunately, he dropped the effort before articles could appear questioning his sanity."
>
> [Reedy, p. 68]
>
> "This occurred when he was vice president and obsessed with the idea that Bobby Kennedy was directing an anti-LBJ campaign. His elevation
> to the presidency made absolutely no difference. Brush after brush took place with the journalists who, in the early days of his
> administration, accepted him as a miracle worker to be treated with downright reverence. Eventually, however, his conviction that they
> were opposed to him created an opposition- always the outcome of paranoia. He did not attribute this to his own shortcomings but to
> the machinations of the man he regarded as his arch foe. At this stage of the game, Bobby was helpless to do him much mischief but
> LBJ still believed that there was a plot for which the press was the principal instrument." [Reedy, p. 70]
>
> "In a very important sense, LBJ was a man who had been deprived of the normal joys of life. He knew how to struggle; he knew how to
> outfox political opponents; he knew how to make money; he knew how to swagger. But he did not know how to live. He had been
> programmed for business and for business only and outside of his programming he was lost." [Reedy, p. 81]
>
> "I never fully understood this or other similar episodes. In the back of his mind, it is possible that he believed these visits were inspired
> by Bobby Kennedy as part of a "plot" to delete the name LBJ from the ticket in 1964. This had become an obsession with him- a conviction
> that peopled the world with agents of the president's brother all seeking to do him in. Someone- I never found out who- very actively fed
> this belief and kept him in a perpetual state of anxiety. This reached major proportions with the outbreak of the Billy Sol Estes and Bobby
> Baker scandals....
>
> There was absolutely nothing to keep Johnson's name in the Billy Sol Estes story except the LBJ refusal to deal with the press. He covered
> up when there was nothing to cover and thereby created the suspicion that he was involved somehow. His reasoning was simple: The whole
> thing existed as a Bobby Kennedy plot and to talk about it to the press was to help Bobby Kennedy.
>
> About the same thing happened in the Bobby Baker scandal except that in this instance he was really close to the central figure in the expose.
> He had considered Bobby as virtually a son and succeeded in promoting him to be secretary of the Senate Majority at an age when Bobby
> should have been in knee britches."
>
> [Reedy 134-135]
>
> "But Johnson refused to accept the obvious explanation. He insisted that it stayed in the press because of conscious pressure from Bobby
> Kennedy, who, he claimed, was holding daily briefings with the sole purpose of knifing LBJ in the back. He was so convinced of the existence
> of these meetings that I made a personal effort to check on them myself. There was not the least bit of evidence that they were taking place
> or had taken place. I am not a master spy but it is hardly likely that during that period the attorney general of the United States could have
> engaged in such an organized effort without one of my newspaper friends tipping me off.
>
> This viewpoint did not impress Johnson in the slightest. He merely said I was "naive" and that he would demonstrate the truth to me. The
> next time the two of us were together with a correspondent, he lectured the man on how wrong it was to ask stooge questions and then
> said: "I know all about those briefings downtown." It became apparent at once the correspondent did not know not know about them but
> that did not stop LBJ. He continued his lectures to other correspondents- a practice that led to some speculation as to his mental stability.
> Fortunately, the speculation did not appear in print.
>
> These episodes were merely ludicrious. Much more serious was his interpretation of all his relations with the administration as involved
> with "plots." He resisted- to the point of hysteria- the round the world trip which later became famous for his discovery of Bashir, the camel
> driver, in Karachi.... He raved, at least to me, that Bobby Kennedy was trying to set him up.
>
> [Reedy, pp. 136-137]
>
> "Those of us who had to deal with what few substantive matters characterized the vice presidency found it increasingly difficult to secure
> decisions from him. The consumption of booze increased as did the number of hours he would spend in bed at home just staring at the
> ceiling and growling at anyone who came into the room... There was some demon within the man himself that would have operated in
> any position short of the presidency."
>
> [Reedy, pp. 139-140]
>
> "Why Jack Kennedy offered Lyndon Johnson the vice presidency and why Lyndon Johnson accepted it, I will never know. Frankly, I
> doubt whether anyone will ever know now that the principal protagonists are dead. My guess is that it represented a shrewd political
> judgement on Kennedy's part."
>
> [Reedy, p. 141]
>
> "Behind the scenes, however, the campaign was grinding agony for a staff which felt a duty to the campaign to keep the seamy side
> from showing. There were some terrible moments- drunken, aimless wanderings through a hotel corridor in Chicago (fortunately
> blocked off by police) in which he tried to crawl into the bed of the female correspondent (I got the impression as we led him away
> that he was seeking comfort, not sex); a wild drinking bout in El Paso in which he spent the night cursing and raving at a good friend;
> continuous torrents of abuse directed at his staff. It was amazing to watch him go out in public and make truly compelling speeches
> off-the-cuff after such episodes."
>
> [Reedy, p. 142]
>
> "Whatever the reality, however, the LBJ paranoia continued to mount. He was convinced that Bobby Kennedy had virtual control over
> the nation's press and that this control was being used to pave the way for a "dump LBJ" campaign in 1964. This was a period in which
> he proceeded to "hang around" the outer offices of the White House- something like a precinct captain sitting in the anteroom of a
> ward leader hoping to be recognized. It was not a very prepossessing sight and certainly not worthy of a man of his stature."
>
> [Reedy, p. 147]
>
> "He was not a man of thought and, instead, it became for him the period of intense misery. He obviously had not found what he had
> expected to find in the vice presidency, and while his intellect was keen, it was not of the variety that could grant him inner serenity.
> What could have been to a philosopher an era of growth was, in his eyes, a time of shame and failure.
>
> [Reedy, p. 147]
>
> "Johnson campaigned as though there were a real contest with the outcome in doubt. In time I came to understand that the act of
> campaigning had importance to him that was totally unrelated to the goals. There was some form of vitalizing force in frenzied crowds
> that drove him into a state of ectasy...
>
> "What was even more interesting was the scene that invariably followed a session with a crowd. Despite his tapping technique, some
> people would always be able to grasp his palm for a fleeting moment. In such instances, it would be necessary for him to tear loose- leaving
> long scratches on the back of his hand. He loved those scratches. A medical attendant aboard Air Force One was ready with some soothing
> ointment for a gentle massage. LBJ would insist that everyone on the plane cluster around during the massage period and he would point
> lovingly to each scratch, describing in detail the person responsible for it. The first time I witnessed the performance, it seemed to me that
> he was thinking in terms of the Stigmata from the Cross. But the performance was much too sensual for such an interpretation. There was
> something post-orgasmic about the scene. A psychiatrist could have had a field day."
>
> [Reedy, p. 152]
>
> "The trouble was that Johnson himself became a victim of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. It froze him into a totally uncompromising position
> where he had no alternatives- or thought he had no alternative- to feeding more and more draftees into the meat grinder. He had never, in
> his entire life, learned to confess error, and this quality- merely amusing or exasperating in a private person- resulted in cosmic tragedy for a
> president. He had to prove that he had been right all along. And this meant that he had to do more of what he had been doing despite the
> demonstrable failure of his Vietnam policies."
>
> [Reedy, p. 165]
>
> "There were a few key traits to his personality and it is unlikely that he shed them. As a human being he was a miserable person- a bully, sadist,
> lout and egoist. He had no sense of loyalty (despite his protestations that it was a quality that he valued above all others) and he enjoyed
> tormenting those who had done the most for him. He seemed to take a special delight in humiliating those who had cast their lot in with him.
> It may well be that this was the result of a form of self-loathing in which he concluded that there had to be something wrong with anyone who
> would associate with him."
>
> [Reedy, p. 171]
>
> "His lapses from civilized conduct were deliberate and usually intended to subordinate someone else to his will. He did disgusting things
> because he realized other people had to pretend that they did not mind. It was his method of bending them to his designs.
>
> [Reedy, pp. 171-172]
>
> Arthur Schlesinger from his Journals
>
> 1952-2000
>
> January 6 1963
>
> The New Year opened quietly, with the President [JFK] still in Florida. On Friday, January 4, I went to the National Archives for the opening of
> an exhibition celebrating the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. Bobby gave the speech - it was derived from a speech I had written
> for the President for use on January 1 by television from Palm Beach, but which the President had decided not to use on the grounds that a
> segregated city was hardly the best place from which to make an emancipation speech. It was a good speech; and, at the end, Joe Rauh passed
> me a note saying, "Poor Lyndon." I asked Joe what he meant. He said, "Lyndon must know he is through. Bobby is going to be the next President."
>
> [Schlesinger, Journals, p. 185]
>
> October 13 1963
>
> Frank Wisner and Mac Herter went into a long bit about how terrible it was for Jackie Kennedy to go off on the Onassis yacht. Wisner said
> that "everyone" in Europe knew that Lee Radziwill was having an affair with Onassis, and that Jackie was along as cover. The gossip of the
> idle rich is exceedingly boring.
>
> [Schlesinger, Journals, p. 201]
>
> March 25 1964
>
> "There is nothing more dangerous, so far as I can see, than being accepted by Johnson as one of his own. I think he has been meticulously
> polite to those in the White House whom he regards as Kennedy men. But, when he starts regarding them as Johnson men, their day is over.
> He begins to treat them as Johnson men, which means like servants. This is what is happening to Pierre Salinger. Of all the Kennedy people,
> he seemed to make the transition most easily - which meant that LBJ began shouting at him, ordering him around and humiliating him just
> as if he were Jenkins or Valenti. Teddy White told me a terrible story in which Johnson made Salinger eat a plate of bean soup at a White
> House luncheon out of pure delight in the exercise of authority. As soon as people become Johnson men, he seems to stop listening to
> them and to use them only as instruments of his own desires."
>
> [Schlesinger, Journals, p. 225]
>
> "June 16 1964
>
> I went to New York on Tuesday night for a dinner in honor of Jackie to thank contributors to the Library. Afterward we went to the Smiths'.
> I had a long talk with JBK. She started to tell me about the trip back from Dallas and the effort made to get her to change her dress when
> Jim Fosburgh came up and we had a change of subject. A few nights ago (June 5) at the French Embassy, Godfrey McHugh gave me a long
> account of that ghastly afternoon. Godfrey told me that they did not know the Johnsons were on Air Force One. He and Kenny kept asking
> the pilot to take off, and were told that the plane had to wait for Mrs. Johnson's luggage - a mysterious excuse, since none of them knew
> that the Johnson's were already occupying the presidential apartments in the back of the plane. Godfrey also said that LBJ was in a panic at
> the hospital, convinced that there was a conspiracy and that he would be the next to go. Godfrey also gave me a horrendous account of his
> visit to the LBJ Ranch before the [Ludwig] Erhand visit in December - Johnson's crudeness, discourtesy, drunkenness, etc."
>
> [Schlesinger, Journals, p. 227-228]
>
> July 23 1964
>
> Bobby seemed philosophical about the vice presidency. His thoughts are still turning to the idea of spending a year at Oxford reading and writing.
>
> We talked a good deal about his relationship to LBJ. Obviously Johnson's actions in the first 24 hours after JFK's death left wounds which will take
> a long time to heal. Bobby commented that Sarge Shriver had taken it on himself to harmonize the situation then and had only made it worse.
> Bobby said, "I told Sarge that if I wanted him to intervene I was capable of asking him to do so." His references to Sarge were fairly cool, and he
> seemed scornful of the notion that Sarge might be a serious possibility for the vice presidency.
>
> After a silence Bobby said, "You know the worst thing Johnson has said? ... Once he told Pierre Salinger, 'When I was young in Texas, I used to
> know a cross-eyed boy. His eyes were crossed, and so was his character. Sometimes I think that, when you remember the assassination of Trujillo
> and the assassination of Diem, what happened to Kennedy may have been divine retribution.'"
>
> [Schlesinger, Journals, p. 227-228]
>
> [My note: John Kennedy had a lazy eye and was a bit cross eyed.]
>
> October 30 1966
>
> "[RFK] talked a bit about campaigning with Johnson. He said that, after a day together in New York, he said to Johnson back at the hotel, "Did
> you enjoy the day?" Johnson looked at him earnestly and said "Of all the things in life, this is what I most enjoy doing." Bobby said it to us
> incredulously" "Imagine saying that, of all the things in life, this is what you like the most."
>
> At Clark's we talked about the [William] Manchester book [The Death of a President], and this led on to a discussion of the autopsy
> photographs and then of the Warren Report. RFK wondered how long he could continue to avoid comment on the report. It is evident
> that he believes it was a poor job and will not endorse it, but that he is unwilling to criticize it and thereby reopen the whole tragic business."
>
> [Schlesinger, Journals, p. 254]
>
> December 10 1967
>
> Dick [Goodwin] suggested that LBJ, if reelected, would use all his wiles and powers to prevent RFK's nomination. (Bobby interjected,
> "He would die and make Hubert President rather than let me get it.") Ted felt that he would try this, but his capacity to do damage would be limited."
>
> [Schlesinger, Journals, p. 268]
>
> March 13 1968
>
> "I went to dinner [Tuesday] at Ham Armstrong's - the Anthony Edens, Jack McCloys, Bill and Judith Moyesr, Nin Ryan. I had a fascinating
> talk with Bill. He thinks that LBJ is now well sealed off from reality; the White House atmosphere, he said, is "impenetrable." He also feels
> that LBJ explains away all criticism as based on personal or political antagonism; Bill used the word "paranoid." He said that he had himself
> such a personal debt to Johnson that it had taken him a long time to reach these conclusions, and even longer to say them; but he felt that
> four more years of Johnson would be ruinous for the country."
>
> [Schlesinger, Journals, p. 280]
>
> April 4 1968
>
> David Karr called today. He had spent an hour yesterday with LBJ and says that it was "terrifying." Johnson was, first of all, filled with self-pity. He seemed very hurt over the Kennedy attitude toward him and kept talking about his "partnership" with JFK. "Then my partner
> died, and I took over the partnership. I kept on the eleven cowhands [the cabinet]. Some of the tenderfeet [Arthur Schlesinger, Jr?] left
> me. But I kept on. If he is up there in heaven looking down, I know that he knows what I have done."
>
> He was bitter about RFK. He said for example, "On civil rights I was stronger than he was," instancing some issue about the guarantee
> of home mortgage loans, which, he said, Bobby would not put into the civil rights bill; ... He also talked about Bobby in connection with
> the Bay of Pigs (with which Bobby had no connection) and said that the credibility gap began then in the Kennedy administration and
> not in the Johnson administration. And he kept talking about an alleged affair RFK had with Candy Bergen in Paris.
>
> [Schlesinger, Journals, p. 286-287]
>
> January 14 1969
>
> I took part with Bill Moyers, Jack Valenti, Eric Goldman and Ted Sorensen (in Kansas City) in a National Education Television commentary.
> Afterward Bill and I went over to the Algonquin for a drink. We talked a bit about the problem of writing about Johnson. Bill said, as he
> has said to me before (and Dick Goodwin has said even more often), that one great trouble was that no one would believe it. He said
> that he could not see how one could write about Johnson the private monster and Johnson the public statesman and construct a credible
> narrative. "He is a sick man," Bill said. At one point he and Dick Goodwin became so concerned that they decided to read up on mental
> illness - Dick read up on paranoia and Bill on the manic-depressive cycle."
>
> [Schlesinger, Journals, p. 306]
>
> January 15 1971
>
> Last night I spoke at the annual dinner of the Century. I sat next to Mac Bundy and we discussed, among other things, the Khrushchev
> memoirs. I remarked on the curious resemblance between Khrushchev's account of the life around Stalin - the domineering and obsessive
> dictator, the total boredom of the social occasions revolving around him, the horror when invited to attend and the even greater horror
> when not invited - and Albert Speer's account of the life around Hitler. Mac said, "When I read Khrushchev, I was reminded of something
> else in addition - my last days in the White House with LBJ."
>
> [Schlesinger, Journals, p. 333]
>
> McGeorge Bundy compared the Lyndon Johnson of 1966 to Joseph Stalin (1971) and former top aide Bill Moyers said he was a "Sick man." (1969)



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FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN THIS BEFORE....LBJ, AND McNAMARA, A COUPLE OF REAL WINNERS!!



· 29 April 2015, was the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. This short story has been around before and is a reminder of what could have been a viable solution to ending the Vietnam War, ten years prior to the tragic end of Saigon.

This is one of those rare insights to a critical turning point for America . This was the briefing to Lyndon Johnson that sealed the fate of more than 55,000 lives of American soldiers and wasted the vast treasure of the USA. The story is short and so compelling, you will not forget it.

Lt. Gen. Charles Cooper, USMC (Ret.) is the author of "Cheers and Tears: A Marine's Story of Combat in Peace and War" (2002), from which this article is excerpted. The article recently drew national attention after it was posted on MILINET. It is reprinted with the author's permission.

"The President will see you at two o'clock."
It was a beautiful fall day in November of 1965; early in the Vietnam War-too beautiful a day to be what many of us, anticipating it, had been calling "the day of reckoning." We didn't know how accurate that label would be.
The Pentagon is a busy place. Its workday starts early-especially if, as the expression goes, "there's a war on." By seven o'clock, the staff of Admiral David L. McDonald, the Navy's senior admiral and Chief of Naval Operations, had started to work. Shortly after seven, Admiral McDonald arrived and began making final preparations for a meeting with President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

The Vietnam War was in its first year, and its uncertain direction troubled Admiral McDonald and the other service chiefs. They'd had a number of disagreements with Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara about strategy, and had finally requested a private meeting with the Commander in Chief-a perfectly legitimate procedure. Now, after many delays, the Joint Chiefs were finally to have that meeting. They hoped it would determine whether the US military would continue its seemingly directionless buildup to fight a protracted ground war, or take bold measures that would bring the war to an early and victorious end. The bold measures they would propose were to apply massive air power to the head of the enemy, Hanoi , and to close North Vietnam 's harbors by mining them.

The situation was not a simple one, and for several reasons. The most important reason was that North Vietnam 's neighbor to the north was communist China . Only 12 years had passed since the Korean War had ended in stalemate. The aggressors in that war had been the North Koreans. When the North Koreans' defeat had appeared to be inevitable, communist China had sent hundreds of thousands of its Peoples' Liberation Army "volunteers" to the rescue.

Now, in this new war, the North Vietnamese aggressor had the logistic support of the Soviet Union and, more to the point, of neighboring communist China . Although we had the air and naval forces with which to paralyze North Vietnam , we had to consider the possible reactions of the Chinese and the Russians.

Both China and the Soviet Union had pledged to support North Vietnam in the "war of national liberation" it was fighting to reunite the divided country, and both had the wherewithal to cause major problems. An important unknown was what the Russians would do if prevented from delivering goods to their communist protege in Hanoi . A more important question concerned communist China , next-door neighbor to North Vietnam . How would the Chinese react to a massive pummeling of their ally? More specifically, would they enter the war as they had done in North Korea ? Or would they let the Vietnamese, for centuries a traditional enemy, fend for themselves? The service chiefs had considered these and similar questions, and had also asked the Central Intelligence Agency for answers and estimates.

The CIA was of little help, though it produced reams of text, executive summaries of the texts, and briefs of the executive summaries-all top secret, all extremely sensitive, and all of little use. The principal conclusion was that it was impossible to predict with any accuracy what the Chinese or Russians might do.

Despite the lack of a clear-cut intelligence estimate, Admiral McDonald and the other Joint Chiefs did what they were paid to do and reached a conclusion. They decided unanimously that the risk of the Chinese or Soviets reacting to massive US measures taken in North Vietnam was acceptably low, but only if we acted without delay. Unfortunately, the Secretary of Defense and his coterie of civilian "whiz kids" did not agree with the Joint Chiefs, and McNamara and his people were the ones who were actually steering military strategy. In the view of the Joint Chiefs, the United States was piling on forces in Vietnam without understanding the consequences. In the view of McNamara and his civilian team, we were doing the right thing. This was the fundamental dispute that had caused the Chiefs to request the seldom-used private audience with the Commander in Chief in order to present their military recommendations directly to him. McNamara had finally granted their request.

The 1965 Joint Chiefs of Staff had ample combat experience. Each was serving in his third war. The Chairman was General Earle Wheeler, US Army, highly regarded by the other members. General Harold Johnson was the Army Chief of Staff. A World War II prisoner of the Japanese, he was a soft-spoken, even-tempered, deeply religious man. General John P. McConnell, Air Force Chief of Staff, was a native of Arkansas and a 1932 graduate of West Point . The Commandant of the Marine Corps was General Wallace M. Greene, Jr., a slim, short, all-business Marine. General Greene was a Naval Academy graduate and a zealous protector of the Marine Corps concept of controlling its own air resources as part of an integrated air-ground team. Last and by no means least was Admiral McDonald, a Georgia minister's son, also a Naval Academy graduate, and a naval aviator. While Admiral McDonald was a most capable leader, he was also a reluctant warrior. He did not like what he saw emerging as a national commitment. He did not really want the US to get involved with land warfare, believing as he did that the Navy could apply sea power against North Vietnam very effectively by mining, blockading, and assisting in a bombing campaign, and in this way help to bring the war to a swift and satisfactory conclusion.

The Joint Chiefs intended that the prime topics of the meeting with the President would be naval matters-the mining and blockading of the port of Haiphong and naval support of a bombing campaign aimed at Hanoi . For that reason, the Navy was to furnish a briefing map, and that became my responsibility. We mounted a suitable map on a large piece of plywood, then coated it with clear acetate so that the chiefs could mark on it with grease pencils during the discussion. The whole thing weighed about 30 pounds.

The Military Office at the White House agreed to set up an easel in the Oval Office to hold the map. I would accompany Admiral McDonald to the White House with the map, put the map in place when the meeting started, then get out. There would be no strap-hangers at the military summit meeting with Lyndon Johnson. The map and I joined Admiral McDonald in his staff car for the short drive to the White House, a drive that was memorable only because of the silence. My admiral was totally preoccupied.

The chiefs' appointment with the President was for two o'clock, and Admiral McDonald and I arrived about 20 minutes early. The chiefs were ushered into a fairly large room across the hall from the Oval Office. I propped the map board on the arms of a fancy chair where all could view it, left two of the grease pencils in the tray attached to the bottom of the board, and stepped out into the corridor. One of the chiefs shut the door, and they conferred in private until someone on the White House staff interrupted them about fifteen minutes later. As they came out, I retrieved the map, and then joined them in the corridor outside the President's office.

Precisely at two o'clock President Johnson emerged from the Oval Office and greeted the chiefs. He was all charm. He was also big: at three or more inches over six feet tall and something on the order of 250 pounds, he was bigger than any of the chiefs. He personally ushered them into his office, all the while delivering gracious and solicitous comments with a Texas accent far more pronounced than the one that came through when he spoke on television. Holding the map board as the chiefs entered, I peered between them, trying to find the easel. There was none. The President looked at me, grasped the situation at once, and invited me in, adding, "You can stand right over here." I had become an easel-one with eyes and ears.

To the right of the door, not far inside the office, large windows framed evergreen bushes growing in a nearby garden. The President's desk and several chairs were farther in, diagonally across the room from the windows. The President positioned me near the windows, then arranged the chiefs in a semicircle in front of the map and its human easel. He did not offer them seats: they stood, with those who were to speak-Wheeler, McDonald, and McConnell-standing nearest the President. Paradoxically, the two whose services were most affected by a continuation of the ground buildup in Vietnam-Generals Johnson and Greene-stood farthest from the President. President Johnson stood nearest the door, about five feet from the map.

In retrospect, the setup-the failure to have an easel in place, the positioning of the chiefs on the outer fringe of the office, the lack of seating-did not augur well. The chiefs had expected the meeting to be a short one, and it met that expectation. They also expected it to be of momentous import, and it met that expectation, too. Unfortunately, it also proved to be a meeting that was critical to the proper pursuit of what was to become the longest, most divisive, and least conclusive war in our nation's history-a war that almost tore the nation apart.

As General Wheeler started talking, President Johnson peered at the map. In five minutes or so, the general summarized our entry into Vietnam , the current status of forces, and the purpose of the meeting. Then he thanked the President for having given his senior military advisers the opportunity to present their opinions and recommendations. Finally, he noted that although Secretary McNamara did not subscribe to their views, he did agree that a presidential-level decision was required. President Johnson, arms crossed, seemed to be listening carefully.

The essence of General Wheeler's presentation was that we had come to an early moment of truth in our ever-increasing Vietnam involvement. We had to start using our principal strengths-air and naval power-to punish the North Vietnamese, or we would risk becoming involved in another protracted Asian ground war with no prospects of a satisfactory solution. Speaking for the chiefs, General Wheeler offered a bold course of action that would avoid protracted land warfare. He proposed that we isolate the major port of Haiphong through naval mining, blockade the rest of the North Vietnamese coastline, and simultaneously start bombing Hanoi with B-52's.

General Wheeler then asked Admiral McDonald to describe how the Navy and Air Force would combine forces to mine the waters off Haiphong and establish a naval blockade. When Admiral McDonald finished, General McConnell added that speed of execution would be essential, and that we would have to make the North Vietnamese believe that we would increase the level of punishment if they did not sue for peace.

Normally, time dims our memories-but it hasn't dimmed this one. My memory of Lyndon Johnson on that day remains crystal clear. While General Wheeler, Admiral McDonald, and General McConnell spoke, he seemed to be listening closely, communicating only with an occasional nod. When General McConnell finished, General Wheeler asked the President if he had any questions. Johnson waited a moment or so, then turned to Generals Johnson and Greene, who had remained silent during the briefing, and asked, "Do you fully support these ideas?" He followed with the thought that it was they who were providing the ground troops, in effect acknowledging that the Army and the Marines were the services that had most to gain or lose as a result of this discussion. Both generals indicated their agreement with the proposal. Seemingly deep in thought, President Johnson turned his back on them for a minute or so, then suddenly discarding the calm, patient demeanor he had maintained throughout the meeting, whirled to face them and exploded.

I almost dropped the map. He screamed obscenities, he cursed them personally, he ridiculed them for coming to his office with their "military advice." Noting that it was he who was carrying the weight of the free world on his shoulders, he called them filthy names-shitheads, dumb shits, pompous assholes-and used "the F-word" as an adjective more freely than a Marine in boot camp would use it. He then accused them of trying to pass the buck for World War III to him. It was unnerving, degrading.

After the tantrum, he resumed the calm, relaxed manner he had displayed earlier and again folded his arms. It was as though he had punished them, cowed them, and would now control them. Using soft-spoken profanities, he said something to the effect that they all knew now that he did not care about their military advice. After disparaging their abilities, he added that he did expect their help.

He suggested that each one of them change places with him and assume that five incompetents had just made these "military recommendations." He told them that he was going to let them go through what he had to go through when idiots gave him stupid advice, adding that he had the whole damn world to worry about, and it was time to "see what kind of guts you have." He paused, as if to let it sink in. The silence was like a palpable solid, the tension like that in a drumhead. After thirty or forty seconds of this, he turned to General Wheeler and demanded that Wheeler say what he would do if he were the President of the United States .

General Wheeler took a deep breath before answering. He was not an easy man to shake: his calm response set the tone for the others. He had known coming in, as had the others that Lyndon Johnson was an exceptionally strong personality and a venal and vindictive man as well. He had known that the stakes were high, and now realized that McNamara had prepared Johnson carefully for this meeting, which had been a charade.

Looking President Johnson squarely in the eye, General Wheeler told him that he understood the tremendous pressure and sense of responsibility Johnson felt. He added that probably no other President in history had had to make a decision of this importance, and further cushioned his remarks by saying that no matter how much about the presidency he did understand, there were many things about it that only one human being could ever understand. General Wheeler closed his remarks by saying something very close to this: "You, Mr. President, are that one human being. I cannot take your place, think your thoughts, know all you know, and tell you what I would do if I were you. I can't do it, Mr. President. No man can honestly do it. Respectfully, sir, it is your decision and yours alone."

Apparently unmoved, Johnson asked each of the other Chiefs the same question. One at a time, they supported General Wheeler and his rationale. By now, my arms felt as though they were about to break. The map seemed to weigh a ton, but the end appeared to be near. General Greene was the last to speak.

When General Greene finished, President Johnson, who was nothing if not a skilled actor, looked sad for a moment, then suddenly erupted again, yelling and cursing, again using language that even a Marine seldom hears. He told them he was disgusted with their naive approach, and that he was not going to let some military idiots talk him into World War III. He ended the conference by shouting "Get the hell out of my office!"

The Joint Chiefs of Staff had done their duty. They knew that the nation was making a strategic military error, and despite the rebuffs of their civilian masters in the Pentagon, they had insisted on presenting the problem as they saw it to the highest authority and recommending solutions. They had done so, and they had been rebuffed. That authority had not only rejected their solutions, but had also insulted and demeaned them. As Admiral McDonald and I drove back to the Pentagon, he turned to me and said that he had known tough days in his life, and sad ones as well, but ". . . this has got to have been the worst experience I could ever imagine."

The US involvement in Vietnam lasted another ten years. The irony is that it began to end only when President Richard Nixon, after some backstage maneuvering on the international scene, did precisely what the Joint Chiefs of Staff had recommended to President Johnson in 1965.

Why had Johnson not only dismissed their recommendations, but also ridiculed them? It must have been that Johnson had lacked something. Maybe it was foresight or boldness. Maybe it was the sophistication and understanding it took to deal with complex international issues. Or, since he was clearly a bully, maybe what he lacked was courage. We will never know.

But had General Wheeler and the others received a fair hearing, and had their recommendations received serious study, the United States may well have saved the lives of most of its more than 55,000 sons who died in a war that its major architect, Robert Strange McNamara, now considers to have been a tragic mistake.





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Some world News For 13 May thanks to Military Periscope



USA—DARPA Eyes 1st Blackjack Satellite Launch Defense Advanced Research Projects Agenc | 05/13/2020 The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) says that it plans to launch the initial satellites for its Project Blackjack demonstration program by the end of the year. The initial launches are scheduled as rideshares, with the payloads carried into low-earth orbit (LEO) by other missions, DARPA said in a Tuesday release. The first demonstration mission, designated Mandrake 1, will consist of a cubesat carrying supercomputer processing chips. The second mission, Mandrake 2, will consist of a pair of small satellites carrying optical inter-satellite links that will demonstrate technology for an optically meshed computer network in LEO. The final payload announced by DARPA is the Wildcard risk-reduction payload. This is a data fusion experiment designed to host third-party algorithms and will be included in the Loft Orbital mission. The launch dates and vehicles have not been finalized, reported Space News. Project Blackjack is a DARPA effort to demonstrate a military proliferated constellation in low-earth orbit using small satellites and sensors costing less than $2 million per payload. As many as 20 satellites could be launched by 2022.



USA—Air Force Selects 3 Firms To Demonstrate Long-Range Radar Prototypes U.S. Air Force | 05/13/2020 The U.S. Air Force has chosen three firms to show off their long-range radar prototypes for the Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar (3DELRR) program. The rapid prototyping effort, also known as the "SpeedDealer" radar demonstration, seeks to evaluate available radar technologies for the replacement of the Air Force's AN/TPS-75 long-range radars, the service announced on May 11. Each company received a $500,000 deal. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman were awarded Other Transaction Agreements while CEA Technologies in Australia received a Foreign Comparative Test contract. Each company is expected to demonstrate their radar's capabilities, maintenance concepts and performance by September 2020. The 3DELRR program is the second effort by the Air Force to replace the AN/TPS-75 radar, noted Air Force magazine. Raytheon won out over Lockheed and Northrop in 2017, but the program stalled amid several protests and growing technical challenges, reported Defense News. The Air Force concluded its work with Raytheon in January and released a new solicitation for the program on March 2. Following an industry day, the Air Force determined that the companies had production-ready systems that could be evaluated this year. At the conclusion of the prototyping effort, the service may select one firm to move forward for integration and potential production contracts. The Air Force believes a production-ready radar could reach initial operational capability late in fiscal 2024.



Germany—Nuclear-Sharing Mission Critical To Germany's NATO Role, Says Secretary-General Defense News | 05/13/2020 NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has argued that Germany's continued participation in NATO nuclear-sharing arrangements is critical to maintaining its strategic role in the alliance, reports Defense News. Stoltenberg made the argument in an op-ed published Monday on the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung website in response to the current debate in Germany over whether it should remain a part of the alliance's nuclear-sharing arrangement. Germany has long participated in NATO's nuclear deterrent by operating nuclear-capable Tornado fighter aircraft that would carry U.S. B61 nuclear bombs in a conflict. The bombs are reportedly located at Buchel Air Base in the western Rhineland-Palatinate state. Several other alliance members without their own nuclear weapons have similar arrangements. The issue has come to the fore as Germany seeks to replace its aging Tornado jets, which are expected to reach the end of their service lives by 2030. The German Defense Ministry has recommended the procurement of 30 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets for the nuclear mission. The Super Hornet would be easier to modify to employ U.S. nuclear weapons than the Eurofighter Typhoons that Germany plans to buy to replace much of its Tornado fleet. Some German politicians say that this is the time to exit the nuclear-sharing arrangement, which they argue has outlived its usefulness. Doing so would weaken NATO's collective nuclear security at a time when Russia has increasingly integrated such weapons into its military strategy and used such weapons to threaten multiple NATO members, Stoltenberg warned. "All allies have agreed that as long as nuclear weapons exist, NATO will remain a nuclear alliance," the secretary-general said.



Poland—New National Security Strategy Sees Russia As Greatest Threat Polish National Security Bureau | 05/13/2020 Polish President Andrzej Duda has approved Poland's new National Security Strategy, reports the Polish National Security Bureau. On Tuesday, Duda approved the strategy, which replaces the previous strategy published in 2014, reported Defence24 (Poland). The document names Russia as the most serious threat to Polish security, citing its invasion of Georgia, annexation of Crimea and support for rebels in eastern Ukraine. Russia is also developing new offensive capabilities, extending its anti-access/area denial systems and hosting aggressive military exercises, the document says. Moscow can be expected to continue to employ hybrid warfare in an effort to undermine NATO, including disinformation and cyber operations. The strategy warns that the cohesion of the NATO alliance and European Union are at risk, posing a threat to Polish security. To address these threats, the document calls for defense spending to be increased 2.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2025. New and improved capabilities should also be developed in areas such as command and control, air and missile defense, precision long-range strike, cyberspace and special operations to counter hybrid and terrorist activity. Under the strategy Poland will also work to strengthen its ties within NATO and the E.U. and particularly with the United States.



Sweden—Military Conducts Snap Coastal Defense Exercise Swedish Armed Forces | 05/13/2020 The Swedish air force and navy have conducted an unannounced coastal defense exercise, reports the Swedish Armed Forces. Last week's exercise demonstrated joint anti-surface warfare capabilities, the military said on Monday. The operational readiness exercise included joint naval and air operations against naval sea surface threats. Ground units also launched RBS 15 anti-ship missiles. A video of the exercise showed at least two targets being struck by missiles nearly simultaneously. The exercise was to have been part of the Aurora 20 exercise that was postponed due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The coastal defense exercise went forward after being deemed necessary as part of regular readiness training for conscript soldiers and sailors.



South Korea—Delayed Peacekeeping Detachment Set To Depart For S. Sudan Yonhap | 05/13/2020 South Korea is set to rotate its peacekeepers assigned to the U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) after delays caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, reports the Yonhap news agency (Seoul). The detachment of 300 personnel was originally scheduled to replace the current members of the Hanbit Unit in South Sudan in March. South Sudan requested that the rotation be delayed due to the outbreak. Part of the detachment returned to South Korea on March 27. Several dozen troops remained behind to continue to perform basic surveillance duties until a relief unit could be sent. The fresh troops will be deployed in two waves, with the first scheduled to depart on May 18, and the second on June 1. The move comes after South Sudan made an exception to its ban on entry to foreigners. This will be the 12th South Korean deployment since it began sending troops to South Sudan in 2013.



North Korea—Military Intelligence Agency Has New Leader Yonhap | 05/13/2020 North Korea is believed to have replaced the head of its military intelligence agency, which handles clandestine operations against the South, reports the Yonhap news agency (Seoul). Army Lt. Gen. Rim Kwang Il replaced Jang Kil Song as chief of the Reconnaissance General Bureau in December, according to a "who's who" book on North Korean leadership published annually by the South Korean Unification Ministry. He is also thought to have joined the ruling party's central military committee around the same time. The Reconnaissance General Bureau is believed to be responsible for many of North Korea's secret operations against the South, including the 2010 torpedo attack on the South Korean corvette Cheonan that killed 46 sailors. Rim, born in 1965, was promoted to lieutenant general in 2017. There has been no confirmation of the change in North Korean state media.



Taiwan—S. China Sea Island Defense Continue To Be Strengthened Amid Reports Of Chinese Drill Central News Agency | 05/13/2020 Taiwan says it has contingency plans following reports that China is preparing for an exercise that would simulate assaults on outlying Taiwanese islands, reports the semi-official Central News Agency (Taipei). On Tuesday, Maj. Gen. Lin Wen-huang, who heads an operations and planning office at the defense ministry, said that Taiwan was monitoring the movement of "hostile forces" and had plans in place to strengthen defenses on Taiping Island and the Dongsha Islands. His remarks were made after the Kyodo news agency in Japan reported that the Chinese military was preparing for a large-scale beach landing exercise in August that would simulate the takeover of the Dongsha Islands. The islands are located between Taiwan and China's southeastern island province of Hainan, about 260 miles (420 km) southwest of Taiwan, meaning that Chinese vessels often pass them on their way to the Pacific. Taiwanese coast guard assets are deployed to the islands, which consist of an island, two reefs and two banks. Another 200 personnel are deployed on Taiping Island, farther south in the South China Sea.



Japan—After Long Delay, Initial Osprey Tiltrotors Delivered Flightglobal | 05/13/2020 The first two of 17 V-22B Osprey tiltrotors for the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force have arrived in Japan, reports Flight Global. The tiltrotors were unloaded on May 8 at a pier at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni just outside Hiroshima, reported Defense News. The aircraft were transported there via a commercial car carrier. The Ospreys will undergo assembly, check-out and test-flights at the air base before being flown to another facility in Japan. Four of the Ospreys ordered by Japan have been ready for transfer since 2018, according to Bell, the manufacturer, but the move was delayed by internal disputes over the basing of the tiltrotors. Initial plans called for the aircraft to be stationed in Saga outside Nagasaki where the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, which will employ the Ospreys, is based. Local government officials opposed the move due to the perception that the Osprey is unsafe due to problems earlier in the program that led to crashes. The Ospreys will be temporarily based at Camp Kisarazu outside Tokyo where the 1st Helicopter Brigade is stationed and the U.S. Marine Corps and Air Force conduct maintenance on their Japan-based Ospreys.



Philippines—2 Suspected NPA Fighters Killed In South Abs-Cbn | 05/13/2020 Two suspected communist militants have been killed in the southern Mindanao region of the Philippines, reports ABS-CBN News (Manila). On Monday, soldiers from the 53rd Infantry Battalion received a tip about militants from the New People's Army (NPA) operating north of the municipality of Midsalip in Zamboanga del Sur province, said a military spokesman. The militants fled after a 15-minute gun battle, reported the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Two AK-47s were recovered from the scene. A cease-fire between the government and NPA ended on May 1 amid mutual accusations of violations and insincerity.



Burma—Military Detains Soldiers Accused Of Abuses In Viral Video Irrawaddy | 05/13/2020 The Burmese military says it will discipline soldiers filmed abusing five civilians in the western Rakhine state, reports the Irrawaddy (Burma). On Wednesday, a military spokesman confirmed that the military believed the video was authentic and said that the soldiers in question had been detained because the interrogation was "not in accordance with the law." The video, which began circulating on May 9, shows five men bound at the hands and feet, being questioned and struck repeatedly. It is believed that the events took place on April 21, when the men were transferred to Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine, reported Agence France-Presse. The military spokesman said that the victims were believed to be members of the Arakan Army, an armed group that recruits from the Rakhine community. The Burmese military has been accused of violating numerous norms and laws in its military operations against armed groups, particularly in western Burma.



Afghanistan—ISIS Claims Attacks In Kabul, Nangarhar, Demonstrating Resilience Voice Of America News | 05/13/2020 The Islamic State (ISIS) affiliate in Afghanistan has claimed responsibility for recent deadly attacks in Kabul and the eastern Nangarhar province, reports the Voice of America News. On Tuesday, ISIS-K said it was behind a suicide attack at the funeral of a local police chief in Nangarhar province that killed at least 24 people. The previous day, the terrorist group took responsibility for explosions targeting a convoy in Kabul. That attack was designed to kill a high-ranking Afghan intelligence official, said ISIS-K. The group has been able to keep up attacks despite several setbacks, including the capture of three senior officials earlier this week. Operations in Nangarhar in November were estimated to have cut ISIS-K's strength in half, to about 2,500 fighters.



Afghanistan—Ghani Orders Troops To Resume Offensive Against Taliban TOLONews | 05/13/2020 Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has ordered government forces to return to offensive operations against the Taliban following a series of attacks across the country, reports the Tolo News (Kabul). In a televised speech on Tuesday, Ghani said that troops would move from an "active defensive" mode to an "offensive" mode. The president's decision followed four deadly attacks across the country on Tuesday, which he blamed on the Taliban and Islamic State, reported Agence France-Presse. In a statement, a Taliban spokesman said that the group only responded to government advances and attempts to establish security posts, reported the Khaama Press (Kabul). The Taliban would respond to any government offensive, the spokesman said. Afghan troops were ordered to maintain a defensive posture in late February, after the U.S. signed an agreement with the Taliban intended to reduce the U.S. presence and set the stage for peace talks with the Afghan government. The Taliban has stepped up attacks on Afghan forces since the deal was signed.



Afghanistan—Former Provincial Police Chief Joins Taliban Deutsche Presse-Agentur | 05/13/2020 The former police chief in Farah province in western Afghanistan has defected to the Taliban, reports Deutsche Presse-Agentur. The Afghan Interior Ministry revealed the defection of retired Maj. Gen. Abdul Jalil Bakhtwar on Sunday. The Taliban confirmed that Bakhtwar had joined them. Bakhtwar served as the provincial police chief between 2002 and 2004. He would be the highest-ranking government official to defect since the U.S. invasion in 2001. He is believed to have joined militants operating in the province's Bala Bulok district, which has been controlled by the Taliban for years. Bakhtwar's son, the current deputy governor of the province, denied that his father had joined the Taliban. His defection may further hurt morale in the Afghan security forces, which have suffered significant casualties in fighting despite the peace deal between the Taliban and U.S., noted the Washington Post. Defections have reportedly increased significantly since the agreement was signed.



Niger—75 Suspected Boko Haram Members Killed In Joint Ops In Tri-Border Area Agence France-Presse | 05/13/2020 At least 75 suspected Boko Haram fighters have been killed in multinational operations in the area where the borders of Chad, Niger and Nigeria meet, reports Agence France-Presse. On Monday, Nigerien troops assigned to the multinational force battling Boko Haram killed 25 suspected militants during a reconnaissance operation along the Komadougou River about 45 miles (74 km) south of the city of Diffa, the Nigerien government announced on Wednesday. Two soldiers were lightly injured during the operation, in which a vehicle, four motorbikes and weapons were recovered. Separately, 50 other militants were killed in coalition air and artillery strikes in the Tombon-Fulani area in northeastern Nigeria. Shelters and logistics sites were also destroyed, the government said. The operations followed a series of cross-border attacks by Boko Haram, noted Reuters.



South Africa—Arms Export Rules Revised After Months Of Lobbying Reuters | 05/13/2020 South Africa has updated its arms exports controls after months of lobbying from defense industry and trade unions who argued that restrictive inspection requirements could cost thousands of jobs, reports Reuters. In an update in the government's official gazette on Monday, the defense ministry substituted language requiring inspections of weapons by "an inspector designated by the minister" with a broader inspection requirement agreed through a "diplomatic process." The inspections are intended to verify that buyers are not transferring weapons to a third party. Sources told Reuters that the new language was more agreeable to international customers like the United Arab Emirates, which is a major buyer of South African defense equipment. The restrictive inspection requirements had stalled several potential weapons export deals.