Tonkin Gulf Redux? DARK SIGNALS draft finished -- 68,000 words

I guess I should be bouncing up and down with literary joy. I have just completed a new, 68,000-word draft of my next book, DARK SIGNALS: A Navy Radio Operator in the Tonkin Gulf, 1964-1965. I can now send it to the publisher and take a couple of weeks off while I wait for feedback and the inevitable requests for changes and corrections.

It's funny (or maybe not so funny) how history repeats itself. While writing this book, I kept thinking: Well, this is old news. Not many people will even remember or care about what happened in the South China Sea and Tonkin Gulf in the mid-1960s, just when the Vietnam War was heating up.

Now, suddenly, there has been breaking news from those very waters. An unarmed American "ocean survey" ship, the USNS Impeccable, recently was surrounded and harrassed by several Chinese vessels in the South China Sea. And the Impeccable's crew had to open "fire" with fire hoses to try to keep the Chinese boats from colliding with them.

The Chinese charged that the U.S. ship was violating international laws with its "surveys."

Some disputed parts of the South China Sea and Tonkin Gulf have been repeatedly "surveyed" by U.S. naval ships since the late 1950s and early 1960s, initially sent there by Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. The goal, in those long-ago days, was to try to stop the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia.

In 1964, U.S. surveillance operations along the North Vietnamese coast helped lead to some confrontations and miscalculations that caused the Vietnam War to flare up and drag on for many years. That was how I ended up in the South China Sea and Tonkin Gulf for almost a year aboard a destroyer.

The Soviet Union also operated some "ocean survey" ships in those waters, including the spy trawler Gidrofon. It often tried to get in the way of aircraft carriers launching bombing raids on North Vietnam. Sometimes, my ship had to get in the Gidrofon's way and keep it out of a carrier's way.

Will there be a new Tonkin Gulf crisis that will make my military memoir suddenly timely again--after 45 years? It's a scary thought.

-- Si Dunn

Washington to Average Americans: "Bail Yourselves Out, Turkeys"

By Si Dunn

Thank runaway deregulation and greed for this: a free-market freefall that will cost the federal government (meaning us) upward of a trillion dollars. Suddenly, the only way to stop major banks and other financial institutions from collapsing under the weight of their own bad debts and stupid decisions is to throw mountain ranges of cash at them.

That cash, of course, will not be coming from a Strategic Money Reserve hidden deep under a Colorado mountain. It will come straight from our pockets, straight from programs we support or desire, and straight, no doubt, from China's Central Bank. (Someday we may discover that China now owns us, and we are just another province.)

With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also draining billions of dollars per month, the next Administration, Obama or McCain, won't be able to afford to offer us much of anything except platitudes and fervent appeals for us pull ourselves up by our frayed and knotted bootstraps.

Here, without any fanfare for the comman man, is the kind of bailout plan we can expect to receive on Main Street: (1) raise cash by selling your household goods on eBay; (2) raise more cash by selling off your personal library on Amazon; and (3) sell whatever is left over at a garage sale. And if anything remains after steps 1, 2, and 3, donate those items to Goodwill, so you can get a generous tax deduction of, say, fifty bucks or so. Then use the fifty bucks to buy a tank of gas so you can drive away from your foreclosed house.

Oh, and by the way, pay no attention to the golden parachutes now blossoming open all over the sky. It's just those silly clowns from the financial sector, still trying to get us to look up to them.

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Obama-Richardson or Obama-Clark?

Some political observers started floating the idea of an Obama-Richardson ticket well before Barack Obama announced his run for the White House. Indeed, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson would be a potent vice-presidential candiate, because he has Washington insider experience and a wide-ranging international resume. He is a former U.S. Energy Secretary and U.N. Ambassador who also has been a capable U.S. negotiator during difficult and sometimes dangerous situations involving North Korea, Iraq and Cuba.

At least one other former Presidential candidate may also get a hyphenated shot at the White House, however. Retired four-star Gen. Wesley K. Clark was NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe from 1997 to 2000 and a Democratic candidate for President in 2004. He has extensive combat experience and has held numerous command posts during his 34-year Army career. His civilian-life credentials now range from investment banker to book author, as well as tireless fundraiser and promoter for Democratic candidates and causes. Gen. Clark has endorsed an old friend, Hillary Clinton, and has worked hard to help get her elected. But if her campaign falters in the next primaries, he may be free to entertain offers from the Obama camp.

The next President, whether Obama or Clinton, likely will need Clark's unique background to help oversee the complex process of getting the U.S. out of Iraq. Indeed, Clark and Richardson both might play major roles in the next Administration, even if neither gets a vice presidential offer and John McCain unexpectedly wins the presidency.

Gov. Richardson might not want to be Energy Secretary again, but the nation now faces enormous challenges in its energy future. It would be a bigger and more crucial job this time.

Gen. Clark might not want to be Secretary of Defense, but America's military is exhausted and short-handed at a time when other international powers, such as China and Russia, are rising again. Someone who knows how to regroup, reorganize, re-equip and re-energize fighting forces will need to have the next President's trust and attention.

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