Operation Rolling Thunder was a bombing campaign that began on the 2nd March 1965 lasting for over 3 years, although the plan was for Operation Rolling Thunder to last only eight weeks. During the 3-year catastrophe, the US Navy and Air Force dropped an estimate of 650,000 different explosives, more than the explosives and air strikes launched over the entire duration of WW2. The principal consequence of Operation Rolling Thunder was the negative media that it sparked in contradiction to the United States and their “unethical” military tactics. This caused an even bigger split in the population in terms of their perspectives of the war. Although there was a variety in the type of explosives dropped during the campaign, the US Air Force also …show more content…
After the first several weeks, the purpose of the operation began to change. By the end of 1965, Operation Rolling Thunder was carried out through air power as an attempt to change North Vietnamese policy. The campaign was economically a failure, since the USA was immeasurably more financially at a loss than Vietnam. In 1968, roughly $300 million Dollars of damage was done to Vietnam. During Operation Rolling Thunder, taking in account of the 650,000 explosives and the 700 US aircrafts a total estimate of $900 million had been spent on this campaign alone. Operation Rolling Thunder was, generally, a failure. Although managing to eliminate around 1.3 million Vietcong fighters, the financial loss made it so that every enemy killed, the USA lost $575,000 dollars. Not only was it economically a disadvantage, the campaign caused a huge media riot, influencing more potential soldiers to decline draft, it also caused more demonstrations and protests especially after the famous picture of a girl burning in the streets (Phan Thi Kim Phuc) during in 1972 which deemed anyone responsible ‘unethical’ and
1. What do you think of when you drive by that big B-52 at the museum? Being the history buff that I am, I think about Vietnam, where that old “Buff” was used the most. “Why should I care about Vietnam?” you ask yourself. Well, last time I checked there’s a history section in the PFE guide, so there might be a test later! The intent of this paper is to inform you about Operation Linebacker II. I’ll explain the events leading up to the operation, discuss the strategy, and finally I’ll sum up the results of a bombing campaign Sir Michael Knight characterized In the book Strategic Offensive Air Operation as “...may have played a role not unlike two B-29s over Japan 27 years earlier”. (Knight: 77) I’ll start by explaining why President Richard Nixon gave the order to begin this new bombing campaign.
The Vietnam War was the most publicized war during its era; moreover, this was the most unpopular war to hit the United States. All over the country riots began to rise, anti-war movement spread all over the states begging to stop the war and chaos overseas. This truly was a failure on the political side of things. For the public, all they saw was a failed attempt in a far away country. Events such as the Tet Offensive where the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong established an all out attack on key locations around Vietnam, and although the Viet Cong was virtually wiped out, this still had a large affect psychologically on the troops as well as the populist back in the United States.
“Operation Rolling Thunder.” Military Analysis Network. 1998. Federation of American Scientists. 20 Dec. 2003< http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/ops/rolling_thunder.htm>.
It was a very bloody war, with more than 58,000 American soldiers having perished in combat. Also, during the decade of direct U.S Military participation in Vietnam, during early times of the year, 1964 the U.S treasury spent over 140 billion dollars on this war. “This was enough money to fund urban projects in every major American city” (history.com). As this war affected the American’s, it affected the Vietnamese people too. This war affected both the American’s and the Vietnamese, because in the year 1973 the United States began withdrawing troops.
...h Americans used planes and helicopters to deploy sustained heavy bombardment over Vietnam. During this one operation there were more bombs dropped than in the entire WW2 – 864,000 tonnes in total.
The United States launched an operation known as Operation Desert Shield, also known as the Persian Gulf War, in August of 1990 in response to Saddam Hussein’s order to the Iraqi forces to take over Kuwait. President George Herbert Walker Bush made the decision to send American troops to Saudi Arabia to form an international coalition that would eventually turn into an operation known as Operation Desert Storm. The United States Army had not witnessed an event of such international and Homefront importation since the Cold War.
The Anglo-American bomber force was divided in terms of strategy. Bomber Command believed it was too risky to bomb by day, while the Americans believed it was too difficult to bomb by night. Initially both forces lacked accurate navigational equipment, which deterred them from precision bombing.
Firstly, This war took place from 1962 and finished in 1975 (Australian War Memorial, n.d) and saw a “welcome home” for the soldiers like never before. The Prime Minister at the time was Robert Menzies who believed that we should send troops to Vietnam to help America stop the ‘domino theory’, a theory in which America believe that when one country becomes a communist, surrounding countries will become communist as well, causing the world to become communist and America would no longer be able to trade any material or weapons to other countries to make money, forcing America to become a communist country as well. However a differing view of the Opposition Leader, Arthur Calwell, was equally passionate against sending troops to Vietnam to fight. In Arthur Calwel’s speech, Calwel stated in the Governments’s announcement “We do not think it will help the fight against Communism” (House of Representatives, 1965). The Public opinion was divided over this war and had never been displayed as overtly as it was during ...
Due to the volatile conditions of the Vietnam War, the protestors believed that they should not be involved in a war that they cared so little about. Public opinion heavily swayed during the war as only one senator dissented from the overwhelming opinion to fight the war (Amter 45). However, as President Johnson escalated the war and the Draft increased by 25% in 1968, those youths being conscripted were infuriated (Dougan 118). Not only this, the North Vietnamese began a ruthless offensive on American soldiers by merciless attacking our bases. This resulted in US victories, but also US casualties (Dougan 116). Also, the marines stationed at the bases began to use offensive attacks to deter Viet Cong assault against the wishes of General Taylor (Karnov 443). With these new less defensive strategy, Nixon announced plans to start operations in Cambodia, and to increase the bombings overall in Southeast Asia (Dougan 180). Some missions even began t...
The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, all of the surrounding countries would also become communists. This is the main reason America was involved in the Vietnam war. Another reason was that America wanted to spread their “political ideas around the globe”. They wanted to do this so that their anti-communism stance was clear. The public also wanted to keep communism from spreading. To soldiers, the war was like a crusade, a great journey to purge the communists from Vietnam. Sadly, this is not what happened. The Viet Cong (VC) had far better tactics than the US. The VC was told to 'nibble at the enemy' so that he could 'neither eat or sleep'. This worked very well. Another demoralizing tactic the VC used was their landmines; they were designed to blow the limbs off the soldiers without killing them. This tied up hospital beds and meant the soldiers had to carry the wounded back to the base.
In May 1961, John F. Kennedy sent investigators to Vietnam, thus turning the tide in favor of the United States and South Vietnam. Unfortunately, with the flow of infiltrators and weapons from North Vietnam, the United States and South Vietnam lost their upper hand (Tucker). Conclusively, 2.5 million Americans served and about 58,000 lost their lives in Vietnam (Vietnam Veterans Memorial). On April 30, 1975 Vietnam was finally reunited under a communist government. Once the war ended, Vietnam was devastated. Both the South and North Vietnamese economies were in shambles and they suffered from the chemical pesticides. The Vietnamese also lost about 3 million soldiers and civilians during the war. The United States also suffered due to the fact that the military was completely shattered and had to be rebuilt. The inflation was at an ultimate high from the failure to fact the actual costs of war. These situations forced Washington D.C. to reevaluate the power of the United States
“The Operation Rolling Thunder bombing campaign began on March 2, 1965, partly in response to a Viet Cong attack on a U.S. air base at Pleiku. The Johnson administration cited a number of reasons for shifting U.S. strategy to include systematic aerial assaults on North Vietnam. For example, administration officials believed that heavy and sustained bombing might encourage North Vietnamese leaders to accept the non-Communist government in South Vietnam. The administration also wanted to reduce North Vietnam’s ability to produce and transport supplies to aid the Viet Cong insurgency.”(History.com,
Introduction The development and usage of the first atomic bombs has caused a change in the military, political, and public functionality of the world today. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki revolutionized warfare by killing large masses of civilian population with a single strike. The bombs’ effects from the blast, extreme heat, and radiation left an estimated 140,000 people dead. The bombs created a temporary resolution that led to another conflict.
Due to the prevalence of anti-aircraft missiles in the North, B-52s only attacked targets in South Vietnam during Rolling Thunder. Even here, their role was limited. The B-52 fell under Strategic Air Command (SAC) and was part of the nuclear deterrence triad. Every B-52 in the Southeast Asian Theater was one less bomber performing nuclear deterrence. This harmed American credibility when it came to nuclear capabilities and increased the reluctance of SAC to give their aircraft to an outside theater commander. Furthermore, in the event of a strategic crisis, it would take far too long to transfer these aircraft back into SAC command, further reducing the impact B-52s made on Rolling Thunder. To offset the lack of strategic bombers, small, single-engine aircraft had to pick up the majority of the heavy lifting. At the peak of Rolling Thunder, 200 Air Force fighters stationed across Thailand and throughout South Vietnam attack the North along with Navy fighter wings from two aircraft carriers in the South China Sea. A further 400 Air Force fighters bombed targets in South Vietnam. In total, more than five times as many bombs hit targets in the South than in the North. More bombs were dropped during Rolling Thunder than the campaigns against Japan and Germany in World War II. By 1968, the Air Force flew 12,000 sorties in a month. When Rolling Thunder came to a disappointing end in October 1968, the
After years of fighting, the North Vietnam army had taken more and more land from the south. After command of the American president Lyndon Johnson the US send their own troops to Vietnam, and then in early in August 1964, a US Navy destroyer were attacked by Vietnamese P-4 torpedo boats, after it had been on patrol, gathering information on North Vietnamese and Chinese military activities.