US Aircraft over North Viietnam

The U.S. launches Rolling Thunder, in which 100 U.S. Air Force planes and 60 South Vietnamese planes bomb North Vietnam. These are the first air raids against North Vietnam that are not in direct retaliation for Communist attacks. Rolling Thunder continues on and off from 1965 to 1968. In all, the U.S. flies 304,000 fighter bomber sorties and 2,380 B-52 bomber sorties over North Vietnam, loses 922 aircraft and drops 634,000 tons of bombs.

 

Operation Rolling Thunder was a sustained bombing campaign conducted by the United States against North Vietnam from March 1965 to November 1968. Its primary objective was to weaken North Vietnam’s ability to support the insurgency in South Vietnam by targeting industrial sites, transportation networks, and military facilities. Over the course of nearly four years, U.S. aircraft carried out more than 300,000 sorties, dropping hundreds of thousands of tons of ordnance on North Vietnamese targets.

Despite its scale, Rolling Thunder was tightly controlled by political leadership in Washington, with specific targets and mission parameters often approved or denied directly by President Lyndon Johnson and the Department of Defense. This centralized micromanagement limited the campaign’s strategic effectiveness. U.S. pilots were frequently prohibited from striking key military or industrial targets for fear of provoking Soviet or Chinese intervention, resulting in a gradual, incremental escalation that allowed North Vietnam to adapt its defenses over time.

The North Vietnamese, supported by the Soviet Union and China, responded with a rapidly improving air defense network, including radar-guided surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and advanced anti-aircraft artillery. American losses were substantial, with over 900 aircraft lost and hundreds of pilots killed or captured. Ultimately, Operation Rolling Thunder failed to achieve its goal of compelling North Vietnam to cease its support for the Viet Cong. Instead, it hardened North Vietnamese resolve and drew the United States deeper into a protracted and controversial conflict.

 

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