Operation+Rolling+Thunder

Operation Rolling Thunder (1965-1968)

Operation Rolling Thunder was the U.S. air bombing campaign against targets in North Vietnam that spanned over three and a half years, day to day, with limited interruptions. There were several reasons for Operation Rolling Thunder; one was to try to cut supply lines, another reason was to try to destroy the morale of North Vietnamese soldiers and convince them to negotiate for an end to the war. An estimated 643,000 tons of bombs were dropped on North Vietnam just from this operation between 1965 and 1968. These daily bombing gave North Vietnam the need for a lethal air defense system. North Vietnam developed one and it shot down hundreds of U.S. planes, the pilots of these shot down planes accounted for many of America's prisoners of war.

President Johnson and Robert McNamara decided to leave out some targets from the bombing including; power plants, oil storage facilities, and military airfields. They did this so the North Vietnamese would see the threat of those valuable areas being destroyed and this would help convince them to negotiate. This method didn't help the North Vietnamese decide to negotiate and neither did Operation Rolling Thunder in general. The operation was a failure in the sense of the bombing trying to decrease morale. Operation Rolling Thunder actually increased the Vietnamese enthusiasm toward defeating the United States. The bombings increased anti-American feelings and made Ho Chi Minh’s job of getting support for the war easier by saying the war was a battle between the Vietnamese and a foreign invader.

Many pilots thought the Operation was dangerous and not worth it. The Operation was very dangerous for pilots and the numbers supported it, 835 pilots were killed, captured, or missing after the operation which is almost 1 pilot casualty a day. Operation Rolling Thunder cost a lot of time, money, and pilots for not accomplishing its goal of decreasing the morale of the North Vietnamese. Operation Rolling Thunder could easily be viewed as morale bombing.

Next (March 8, 1965)

__ Citations __

Hillstrom, Kevin, and Laurie Hillstrom. //Vietnam War Almanac// . 1st ed. United States of America: UXL, 2001. 93-96. Print.

Swogger, Michael. Mr. Swogger's History Page. 2010. School World, Web. 11/22/10.