Zumwalt
Page 62
83. Bud’s first six weeks on the job coincided with the final six weeks of SALT II meetings, which ended Aug. 14, 1970.
84. SALT, ZTT.
85. Zumwalt, On Watch, 283.
86. Sept. 10, 1970, letter to Abrams, ZPP.
87. On Sept. 18, 1970, Abrams responded with a positive note that they need to accept the budget realities and “devote our best judgment and imagination to making it all turn out right.” ZPP.
CHAPTER 10: ZINGERS
1. Letter, Jan. 1, 1970.
2. The goal for reenlistments after a first hitch had been 35 percent. “In 1970 the actual figure was 9½%.” Zumwalt, On Watch, 167.
3. Washington Post, Dec. 10, 1972.
4. Letter from CNO, July 22, 1970, NHHC.
5. “Morale,” undated speech by Bud Zumwalt, 00 Files, NHHC.
6. The first flurry of sixty-nine was followed by twenty-three in the next six months, then by ten and eleven in Bud’s third and fourth half years.
7. “Zingers is about the best name I’ve heard yet for the Z-Grams.” Letter to Lew Glenn, Sept. 21, 1970, Executive Correspondence, NHHC.
8. Letter, Sept. 9, 1970, Executive Correspondence, NHHC.
9. Letter, Sept. 1, 1970, Executive Correspondence, NHHC.
10. Rear Admiral Dave Bagley (older brother of Worth) headed the new office. He would be replaced by Charles “Chick” Rauch.
11. NAVOP-091457Z.
12. Cited in Van Atta, With Honor: Melvin Laird in War, Peace, and Politics, 254.
13. Stockdale note, Mar. 25, 1973, NHHC and ZFC.
14. ZFC.
15. Letter, Jan. 15, 1971, NHHC.
16. Letters, Aug. 3, 1971, and Oct. 19, 1971, from Blanche Seaver. “Have you completely given up on the great heritage left us by our Founding Fathers who fought and bled and died, giving us the great uncompromising principles, which have made our country so enviable.” NHHC.
17. Letter, Nov. 13, 1972, to Mrs. Seaver, NHHC.
18. Letter, Feb. 3, 1971, NHHC.
19. Letter, Dec. 23, 1970, NHHC. He must have heard incorrectly. The Battle of Trenton occurred on Christmas Day, and the “British” defeated there were Hessians—German mercenaries.
20. Letter, Jan. 6, 1971, NHHC.
21. Letter, Nov. 16, 1970, NHHC.
22. Chafee told Pacific Stars and Stripes that he fully supported Zumwalt’s liberalization policies and Z-grams.
23. Letter, Dec. 3, 1970.
24. For example, Z-04 gave thirty days’ leave between assignments.
25. Issued July 29, 1971.
26. Issued Dec. 23, 1970.
27. Dec. 26, 1970, NHHC.
28. Holloway letter, Executive Correspondence, Dec. 23, 1971, NHHC.
29. Letter, July 19, 1971, NHHC.
30. Letter, Jan. 12, 1976, to Jack Connery, NHHC. First-term reenlistments were less than 10 percent, and on aircraft carriers, less than 4 percent. After just thirteen days, Petty Officer Allen Buckalew thanked Z, for “in every Z gram you instilled and reinforced a new courage and pride in our Navy.”
31. Wolfgang Saxon, “Adm. John Hyland, 86, Dies; Championed Naval Air Power,” New York Times, Nov. 1, 1998.
32. Paul Stillwell interview, p. 488.
33. Hyland reply, Sept. 27, 1970. Hyland was replaced by Admiral Bernard A. “Chick” Clarey.
34. Letter, Oct. 15, 1970, personal, Sensitive, Eyes Only, NHHC.
35. Miller Oral History, 591, USNI oral histories, www.usni.org/heritage/oral-history-catalog.
36. Ibid.
37. Letter, Aug. 8, 1970. Bud told Chon that he was trying to help on a few fronts, like getting a U.S. headquarters for Operation Helping Hand going and making every effort to increase the caliber of advisors being sent. ZPP.
38. Author interview with Admiral Charles “Chick” Rauch.
39. Letter to Harvard Law School Admissions Department, Dec. 30, 1970, ZPP.
40. Letter, Dec. 10, 1970. Antle possessed “an invaluable capacity to assimilate and correlate facts in a logical decision matrix.” ZPP.
41. Zumwalt, On Watch, 171; and Halperin interview with Rice, ZPP.
42. Letter, July 21, 1970, ZPP.
43. Zumwalt, On Watch, 172.
44. Letter, Jan. 19, 1972, to “Howie,” ZPP.
45. Letter, Jerry Carr, AMS2 [Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department], ZFC.
46. Dick Nicholson, letter, Sept. 4, 1970. He gives the example of Lieutenant Commander Rolf Clark, the group’s analyst, “who has changed his mind about a career.”
47. Jan. 11 (year is obscured, but circa 1970–1973); ZFC; confirmed in author interview with Halperin.
48. Zumwalt, On Watch, 168.
49. John Darrell Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy: Racial Unrest in the Fleet during the Vietnam War Era (New York: New York University Press, 2007), 11. I have drawn extensively from Sherwood’s pathbreaking work.
50. ZTT 21, side A, part 3.
51. Stillwell, Reminiscences by Staff Officers, 291.
52. Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy.
53. Ibid., 47.
54. See Wallace Terry, Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans (New York: Random House, 1984). Also see Norman and Zumwalt accounts of this session on Zumwalt tapes, “Retention,” ZTT.
55. Norman account, ZTT, “Retention.”
56. Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy.
57. ZTT 35, side A. The action list was presented at their Nov. 9, 1970, meeting.
58. Letter, Taylor Branch, Nov. 18, 1970, ZPP.
59. Zumwalt, On Watch, 43.
60. Ibid
61. Bill Thompson memoirs.
62. Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy, 45.
63. Bill Norman tapes, tape 36, side A, ZTT.
64. Gerald Astor, The Right to Fight: A History of African Americans in the Military (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1998; New York: Da Capo, 2001), 466.
65. David Halperin was initially the only white person involved.
66. Letter, Dec. 19, 1970, NHHC.
67. Astor, The Right to Fight, 453–54.
68. Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy, 48.
69. Bill Norman tapes, tape 36, side A, ZTT.
70. Ibid.
71. Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy, 49.
72. Bill Norman tapes, tape 36, side A, ZTT.
73. Letter for the record upon Norman’s resignation, NHHC.
74. Another program paying exceptional dividends was the Personal Services Division, which focused on sports, travel, and other opportunities. On May 9, 1973, Lew wrote in his second situation report (SITREP), “Let me express the appreciation of every member of DESRON [Destroyer Squadron] TWELVE for your quick action in resolving the problem of landing our liberty parties.” NHHC.
75. Letter, June 2, 1973, NHHC.
76. Letter, Mar. 10, 1972, NHHC.
77. Letter, Apr. 24, 1972, NHHC.
78. Time, Mar. 1, 1982.
79. Zumwalt, On Watch, 265.
80. Letter to Anna Cox, Nov. 8, 1994, ZFC.
81. Zumwalt, On Watch, 262.
82. A 1978 Supreme Court ruling declared unconstitutional the law blocking assignment of women to ships. Owens v. Brown, 455 F.Supp. 291 (1978).
83. Rosemary Mariner, “Adm. Zumwalt Changed My Life,” Washington Post, Jan. 9, 2000, B07. She closed by saying, “Cheers and thanks, Admiral.”
84. June 1972, NHHC.
85. Ms., Aug. 1982.
86. Letter, June 29, 1974, ZPP.
87. Letter, Oct. 10, 1995, ZFC.
88. Hazard retirement speech, Sept. 1972, provided to author by Admiral Hazard.
CHAPTER 11: ROUGH SEAS
1. ZTT 21, side B, part 6. Thermidor refers to the coup of 9 Thermidor 2 (July 27, 1794), the end of the Reign of Terror, after which Maximilien Robespierre was guillotined. For historians of revolutionary movements, Thermidor has come to mean the phase in some revolutions when the political pendulum swings back toward something resembling a prerevoluti
onary state, and power slips from the hands of the original revolutionary leadership. See, e.g., www.wordiq.com/definition/Thermidor.
2. Letter, Feb. 17, 1972.
3. It was difficult to comprehend or understand other people’s perceptions of discriminatory practices. “We frequently are taken aback by the intensity of feeling revealed over some issue or practice we had long assumed to be perfectly innocuous or unrelated to Equal Opportunity affairs,” wrote Bud. ZPP.
4. There was a concerted effort by antiwar organizations to get literature aboard ships encouraging mutiny as part of the effort to stop the war machine. See Gregory Freeman, Troubled Water: Race, Mutiny, and Bravery on the USS Kitty Hawk (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 258; and Leonard F. Guttridge, Mutiny: A History of Naval Insurrection (Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 1992), 255.
5. Four days after the Kitty Hawk, the crew of the USS Hassayampa, a fleet oiler docked at Subic Bay Naval Base, was informed by the executive officer that the ship would not sail unless money stolen from the wallet of a black sailor was returned. Five white sailors were assaulted, and eleven black sailors were put ashore. The news coverage suggested that Z-66 and Z-113 had contributed to an attitude that protest and mutiny were permissible. Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy.
6. Mark Clodfelter, The Limits of Air Power: The American Bombing of North Vietnam (New York: Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan, 1989).
7. Stillwell, Reminiscences of Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Jr., 554.
8. What followed was the most successful use of air power during the war and one of the largest aerial bombardments in world history. Targeting roads, bridges, rail lines, troop bases, and supply depots, the attack utilized precision-guided laser bombs for the first time in modern aerial warfare.
9. Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy, 52.
10. Bill Thompson, memoir provided to author.
11. Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy, 53.
12. Thompson memoir, 393.
13. Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy, 53.
14. John F. Lehman, Jr., On Seas of Glory: Heroic Men, Great Ships, and Epic Battles of the American Navy (New York: Touchstone, 2001); and John F. Lehman, Jr., Command of the Seas (Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 1988).
15. Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy, 56.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid., 58.
18. Captain Cloud had this to say about the reluctance of whites to enter black areas: “People in those areas were sort of off limits because that’s where the minorities chose to live and chose to live in happiness. So if they’re happy, leave them alone.” Ibid., 58.
19. Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy, 85.
20. Guttridge, Mutiny, 265.
21. Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy, 91.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid., 101.
24. Ibid., 91.
25. Forty-seven men, all but six of them white, were treated for injuries; three required medical evacuation.
26. Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy, 93.
27. Ibid., 94.
28. Ibid., 95.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid.
31. Zumwalt, On Watch, 222.
32. Ibid.; and Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy, 140.
33. Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy, 142.
34. Ibid., 143.
35. Guttridge, Mutiny, on the beach detachment, 275.
36. Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy, 155.
37. Ibid.
38. Ibid., 146.
39. Ward had been able to identify 15 men who were “making a definite effort to distort actions of the command just to create hate and dissension,” but 132 members (120 blacks and 12 whites) of the dissident group (all but 2 nonrated) were established as a shore detachment and moved to barracks at NAS North Island. Eventually, 24 would be returned to ship. In all, 120 were removed from the roster and investigated, resulting in 46 discharges, 36 honorable; 74 were given new assignments. Earl Caldwell, “Kitty Hawk Back at Home Port; Sailors Describe Racial Conflict,” New York Times, Nov. 29, 1972.
40. Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy, 158.
41. Ibid., 157.
42. Ibid., 155.
43. All three wanted the protesters treated evenhandedly—neither threatening them nor kowtowing to them.
44. Letter, Nov. 4, 1972, from Rear Admiral Draper L. Kauffman, NHHC and ZPP.
45. Cited in Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy, 159.
46. Memorandum of conversation, Nov. 9, 1972, ZPP.
47. Memorandum of conversation, Nov. 8, 1972. The shore party had been staying in barracks, which Bud ordered closed so there would be no place to stay except the ship. Doing so “might help some of them come back rather than going and buying a hotel room.” ZPP.
48. Memorandum of conversation, Nov. 9, 1972. “I gave this to John Warner after he refused to act. He would not keep it, insisted on returning it, but did finally approve my recommendation.” ZPP.
49. Ibid.
50. “I had first met John Warner when he came to South Vietnam in 1969 to visit our forces there. He appeared to be a man of charm, young looking for his age, and handsome. One’s first impression of him was quite favorable.” ZTT.
51. Memorandum of conversation, Nov. 7, 1972, ZPP.
52. Memorandum of conversation, Nov. 10, 1972, “Sensitive,” ZPP.
53. Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy, 168.
54. Letter from Humphrey, Nov. 15, 1972.
55. Letter, Nov. 14, 1972.
56. Nov. 15, 1972 [column 46], “Zumwalt Sets Navy on Course.” The new seven-point program to end racial discrimination and enforce compliance through the Office of the Inspector General offered a promising new beginning.
57. Response dated Dec. 2, 1972, ZFC and NHHC.
58. Thompson memoirs, 394.
59. Robert Salzer Oral History Interview, 653.
60. Ibid., 653.
61. H. R. Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House (New York: Putnam, 1994), 533.
62. ZTT 31, sides A and B.
63. Sherwood, Black Sailor, White Navy, 170.
64. Bud told Murphy that Kissinger went from “hostile to moderately hostile” once he showed a little muscle.
65. Telephone conversation, Nov. 11, 1972, ZPP.
66. Zumwalt, On Watch, 308.
67. ZTT, undated and unnumbered.
68. Executive Correspondence, Aug. 19, 1970, and Dec. 1, 1970, NHHC.
69. June 7, 1971, Executive Correspondence, Zumwalt Papers, NHHC.
70. Henry Kissinger, White House Years (Boston: Little, Brown, 1979), 810.
71. “I have heard him express privately his great disenchantment with the President but while in the presence of the President playing the role of total sycophant.” ZTT, “Henry Kissinger.”
72. ZTT, “Kissinger”; also see the “Thermidor” tape.
73. Memorandum of conversation with Clarey, Nov. 11, 1972. Bud said that he hadn’t spoken or heard from Warner and his staff “is worried about his uncertainty.” Bud wanted to speak with John Ehrlichman, whom he had gotten to know. “That would be dangerous,” said Murphy. “He would not trust him as far as he could throw him, and he thinks the CNO would be courting trouble.” ZPP.
74. Telephone conversation, Nov. 13, 1972, ZPP.
75. Birthday greeting note, Nov. 29, 1972, NHHC.
76. L-gram (Laird memo), Nov. 29, 1971, NHHC.
77. Handwritten note, Executive Correspondence, Nov. 24, 1972, NHHC.
78. Telephone conversation, Nov. 14, 1972, ZPP.
79. Arleigh Burke Oral History, 312.
80. Telephone conversation, Nov. 14, 1972, ZPP.
81. Telephone conversation, Nov. 17, 1972, ZPP.
82. ZTT 17, side B.
83. Ibid.
84. Anderson Papers, box 62, Apr. 3, 1974. In a letter to journalist Hanson Baldwin, Anderson noted, “I am still shocked every time I see the appearance of our enlisted men and many junio
r officers in the Mediterranean area.” Anderson Papers, box 62, Sept. 12, 1973, NHHC.
85. Anderson Papers, Nov. 7, 1972, NHHC.
86. Anderson Papers, May 1, 1973, NHHC.
87. ZPP.
88. Zumwalt responded on Dec. 22, 1972, “God bless you for your courage, your Americanism and your support.” Handwritten note, Nov. 19, 1972, NHHC.
89. Letter, Nov. 30, 1972; reply, Dec. 12, 1972, NHHC.
90. A further sampling of the hate mail: “Spending $600,000 for race relations to force the ‘niggers’ further on to the whites is paralleling that of our school systems that are brainwashing the young and innocent to eventually bed down with the black. How do you personally feel about eating with these nauseating Bastards and having your daughter go to bed with them. It is the nature of these arrogant slobs to take a mile for every inch given them. 000, box 86, folder 4. Undated letter from another racist: “Zumwalt: How the hell any white man can sell his own race of people ‘down the river’ to the niggers is hard to understand.” 000, box 86, folder 4. From F. B. Ward, Nov. 15, 1972: You are “a traitor to your race and the position of leadership you hold.” From Columbus, Georgia, a group of concerned citizens wrote, “This is a white man’s country and no negro is going to take it away from us.” Mrs. Albertina Pimental, San Pedro, California, Nov. 11, 1972, referring to Zumwalt’s dressing down of flag officers: “. . . slaps all whites in the face. . . .” A letter, Nov. 15, 1972, signed “class of 34”: “Zumwalt you have reduced the greatest Navy the world has ever known to the laughing stock of the world. You and your black will never reduce the great traditions of our great Navy to your level. Name withheld for my protection, not from you, but from your blacks. We are taking action to get rid of you. You can expect to be moved in the near future.” All from NHHC.
91. Nov. 11, 1972, 000, box 86, folder 4, NHHC.
92. Nov. 15, 1972, 000, box 86, folder 4, NHHC.
93. Nov. 26, 1972, 000, box 86, folder 5, NHHC.