The increased U.S. aerial offensive against North Vietnam that had started August 11 continues. According to U.S. State and Defense officials, the offensive had slowed the flow of war supplies from Communist China to Hanoi. Intelligence overflights revealed that the bombing of bridges had halted the movement of military material on the key rail line from Dong Dang, near the Chinese border, to Hanoi. However, U.S. officials conceded that Communist military equipment was reaching Hanoi by other means.
In Congress, dissention continued over the bombing issue. Senator John Sherman Cooper (R-New York) urged the United States to take the “first step” toward negotiations with an “unconditional cessation” of the bombing of North Vietnam. Senator Gale McGee (D-Wyoming) defended the Vietnam policies of the Johnson administration saying the “stake is not only Vietnam but all the nations in Southeast Asia.”
