A Concise History of the US Air Force - Air Force Historical Studies ...

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targets were merely geographical coordinates superimposed over the vast green jungle of Southeast Asia. Others were the smoke and dust kicked up by enemy forces as they moved down the trail by day. At night, they were campfires, hot engines, and other man-made infrared signatures picked up by airborne sensors. Fighters soon compelled the enemy to move only by night, when gunships took over. But using $10 million aircraft to destroy $10,000 trucks was no solution. Three Soviet ZIL-157 six-wheel drive trucks or 400 bicycles carrying 75 pounds each could provide the fifteen tons of supplies to Communist forces in South A close up rear view of an AC-130 gunship at Ubon Air Base, Thailand, showing both the interior and exterior positioning of a 105-mm howitzer. Vietnam each day. More came from plundered American and South Vietnamese storehouses. On January 30, 1968, enemy units launched the Tet Offensive, striking cities and other targets throughout South Vietnam. In February alone, Air Force units launched 16,000 strike sorties in support of ground operations, helping to blunt the offensive. The focus of the Air Force’s operations, however, was the besieged firebase at Khe Sanh, where 6,000 Marines faced three North Vietnamese divisions. President Johnson told General Westmoreland that he did not want another “damn [Dien Bien Phu].” Air power would have to hold off Communist attacks. Three months of Operation NIAGARA totaled 24,000 fighter-bomber and 2,700 B-52 strikes, 110,OOO tons of bombs, and nightly assaults by gunships. Additionally, the Air Force airlifted 12,000 tons of supplies to the surrounded Marines. Air power guaranteed that there would be no repeat of the French disaster at Dien Bien Phu. 65
The Tet offensive proved a military defeat for the Communists, who lost between 50,000 and 80,000 soldiers, but it represented a politi- cal victory that galvanized the antiwar movement in the United States. It led many other Americans to question the war’s objectives, especially in the face of General Westmoreland’s announcement just before its launch- ing that he could see “the light at the end of the tunnel.” The Tet offensive (and a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary) convinced President Johnson not to run for reelection. It also brought to the Oval Office a new president, Richard Nixon, committed to ending American involvement in the war and turning it over to the South Vietnamese. F-5 Freedom Fighters strengthened the South Vietnamese Air Force while Nixon withdrew American ground units. On March 30, 1972, the North Vietnamese Army invaded South Vietnam with 12 divisions from the north and west. Although South Vietnamese forces were no match for the invaders, the Spring offensive was a major miscalculation. American ground forces were gone, but U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy aviation remained. For the first time in the war, the Air Force was up against the kind of conventional war it could win. Eighteen thousand fighter-bomber and 1,800 B-52 sorties stiffened South Vietnamese resolve. In the des- peration of the moment, fighter pilots found themselves aiming 2,000- pound laser-guided bombs at Communist tanks-not cost effective, but effective nevertheless. The massive employment of air power bought more time for South Vietnam. Although American air power had repelled the invasion, implica- tions for Nixon’s Vietnamization strategy were clear. American hopes for ending the war revolved around the Air Force’s applying greater pressure on North Vietnam to influence its negotiators to return to the Paris peace talks. The LINEBACKER I bombing campaign from May to October 1972 was a major escalation of the war and included the mining of Haiphong and other ports. Bridges that had resisted bombing now fell before precision laser-guided and electro-optically-guided bombs. Before LINEBACKER, peer pressure and pride drove American aircrews, even as they asked: “What the hell is this all about?’ During LINEBACKER they had a clear and limited objective-forcing the regime in Hanoi back to Paris. In Paris some progress was made, but in December 1972 Com- munist negotiators became recalcitrant. Their delaying tactics prompted President Nixon to order the most concentrated bombing campaign of the war-LINEBACKER 11. For 11 days beginning on December 18, with a Christmas break, SAC B-52s struck at rail yards and other targets in the outskirts of Hanoi and Haiphong. On the first mission, 129 B-52s pene- 66
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A Concise History of the U.S. Air F
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The Genesis of American Air Power T
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vivid contrast to aerial achievemen
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For sale by the US. Government Prin
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In the United States an outpouring
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commander, General John Pershing, c
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Early Military Aviation Leaders The
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served him well at St. Mihiel in Se
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No one in the Air Service was parti
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Page 22 and 23: Interwar Aircraft In amazing techno
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Page 26 and 27: World War 11-Global Conflict Despit
Page 28 and 29: 35 percent of America’s total inv
Page 30 and 31: Principal American participants at
Page 32 and 33: ought to bear against attacking fig
Page 34 and 35: scheduled by the Allies for late sp
Page 37 and 38: Despite heroic efforts to restore p
Page 39 and 40: Molding the Line in the Pacific Top
Page 41 and 42: America’s Air War in Asia Right,
Page 43 and 44: Hansell’s XXI Bomber Command, the
Page 45 and 46: nance, radar, jets, rockets, and a
Page 47 and 48: The newly independent U.S. Air Forc
Page 49 and 50: In addition, vast distances to targ
Page 51 and 52: Principal American air commanders a
Page 53 and 54: Korean War fighters. North American
Page 55 and 56: Air Force attacked 78 cities and to
Page 57 and 58: Atlas, lef, and Titan I, right, int
Page 59 and 60: off at a moment’s notice; another
Page 61 and 62: Union. A more capable SR-71 Blackbi
Page 63 and 64: clude, “We’re eyeball to eyebal
Page 65 and 66: Vietnam-based Viet Cong, the other
Page 67 and 68: ombed, the two most famous were the
Page 69: Transport Aircraft in Vietnam The U
Page 73 and 74: The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird strate
Page 75 and 76: meant that warheads could be smalle
Page 77 and 78: Beginning in March 1985, Soviet Com
Page 79 and 80: on an enemy army to isolate it on t
Page 81 and 82: America’s Air War in the Gulf
Page 83 and 84: tionally-televised attack by two F-
Page 85 and 86: 2 percent of combat sorties. Their
Page 87 and 88: in the next. An innovator behind fi
Page 89: Hallion, Richard P. Rise of the Fig
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