1. University of Virginia, www.millercenter.org/president/Nixon/foreign-affairs.http.
2. Ibid.
3. “Henry Kissinger,” Wikipedia, Wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry Kissinger.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 75–90.
7. Ibid., 76.
8. Ibid., 90.
9. “China and the United States: Nixon’s Legacy After 40 Years,” Brookings-Tsingua, February 23, 2012, www.brookings.edu/up-front/2012/02/23/china-and-the-united-states-nixon’s-legacy-after-40-years/http.
10. Author analysis, U.S. Fixed-Wing Losses in Southeast Asia.
11. Correll, The Air Force in the Vietnam War, 14.
12. John T. Correll, “Lavelle,” Air Force magazine, November 2006, www.airforcemag.com.
13. Wayne Thompson, To Hanoi and Back: The U.S. Air Force and North Vietnam, 1966–1973 (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2010), 203.
14. G. H. Turley, The Easter Offensive, Vietnam 1972 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute, 2010), 307.
15. Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 268–283.
16. Ibid., 255.
CHAPTER 17. “YOU AIN’T HIT THE TARGET YET”
1. “Bombs for Beginners,” www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/into-bombs.htm.
2. Tom Clancy and John Gresham, Fighter Wing: A Guided Tour of an Air Force Fighter Wing (New York: Berkley Books, 1995), 151.
3. Peter deLeon, The Laser-Guided Bomb: A Case History of Development (Santa Monica, CA: Rand, 1974), v.
4. Paul G. Gillespie, Precision Guided Munitions: Constructing a Bomb More Potent Than the A-Bomb, dissertation, Air Force Institute of Technology, 115.
5. “Weldon Word,” People magazine archive, May 30, 1991, http://people.com/archive/weldon-word/http.
6. Clancy and Gresham, Fighter Wing, 155.
7. Thomas G. Mahnken, Technology and the American Way of War Since 1945 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), 293.
8. Brockway McMillan, Henry G. Booker, et al., Radiation Intensity of the PAVE PAWS Radar System (Washington, DC: National Research Council, 1979).
9. Mahnken, Technology and the American Way of War, 293.
10. “We Were Dropping a Cadillac,” www.sgspires.tripod.com/Paveway—History/Usage/usage.html.
11. Donald J. Blackwelder, The Long Road to Desert Storm and Beyond: Development of the Precision Guided Bombs (Maxwell AFB: Air University, 1992), 25.
12. Tails Through Time, December 1, 2009, www.tailsthroughtime.com/2009/12/first-laser-designation-system-used-on.html.
13. Clancy and Gresham, Fighter Wing, 190.
14. Dr. Carlo Kopp, “Smart Bombs in Vietnam,” Defense Today, September 2009, www.ausairpower.net/PDF-A/MS-PGMs-in-NVN-Sept-2009.pdf.html.
15. Blackwelder, The Long Road to Desert Storm and Beyond, 26–27.
16. Failor, cited in Gillespie, Precision Guided Munitions, 168.
17. “Cadillacs over Southeast Asia,” http://sgspires.tripod.com/usage.html.
18. John Clark Pratt, Vietnam Voices: Perspective on the War Years, 1941–1975 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2010), 195–196.
19. Captain Lonny McClung, USN (Ret), conversation with Tillman, 2015.
CHAPTER 18. BACK TO NORTH VIETNAM
1. “Vietnam War Casualty Statistics,” National Archives, www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics.html.
2. Turley, The Easter Offensive, ix.
3. Ron Rowen, emails to Tillman, March 2017.
4. Spencer C. Tucker, ed., The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1998), 233.
5. “Brigadier General Carl. S. Miller,” U.S. Air Force, www.af.mil/AboutUs/Biographies/Display/tabid/225/Article/106212/brigadier-general-carl-s-miller.aspx.
6. Richard Hilton, There Are No Sundays: A Youngster from Oklahoma Finds a Home in Jet Fighters (Phoenix, AZ: Privately printed, Alphagraphics, 2014), 319; Richard D. Hilton, email to Tillman, April 4, 2017.
7. Author analysis of Air Force victories credited in Southeast Asia 1965–1968; Dr. Frank Olynyk, United States Credits for Destruction of Enemy Aircraft in Air-to-Air Combat Post–World War 2 (privately printed, 1968).
8. Richard D. Hilton, emails to Tillman, March–April 2017.
9. James D. Franks, email to Tillman, April 17, 2017.
10. Harry Edwards to Phillip Chinnery, Full Throttle: True Stories of Vietnam Air Combat, Told by the Men Who Lived It (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1988), 276.
11. William Thaler, email to Tillman, May 4, 2017.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. HC-7 website.
15. Thaler, email to Tillman.
CHAPTER 19. POUNDING THE NORTH
1. “Transcript of President Nixon’s Address,” New York Times, May 9, 1972, www.nytimes.com/1972/05/09/archives/transcript-of-president-nixons-address-to-the-nation-on-his-policy-in.html.
2. John Darrell Sherwood, Fast Movers: Jet Pilots and the Vietnam Experience (New York: St. Martin’s, 2001), 85–86.
3. Mark 20 Rockeye was a free-fall, unguided cluster weapon weighing about 480 pounds. The clamshell dispenser contained 247 dual-purpose, armor-piercing bomblets weighing 1.3 pounds each. When the dispenser opened after a preset number of seconds, the bomblets dispersed into an oval pattern. Each bomblet, shaped like a dart, contained a shaped-charge warhead of .4 pounds of high explosive capable of penetrating up to seven and a half inches of armor. If the bomblet hit a soft target, it detonated as an antipersonnel device, spraying shrapnel. The pattern density could be doubled by dropping two at a time and elongated by training off multiple weapons. Rockeye was very effective against AAA, tanks, trucks, ammo and fuel dumps, and SAM sites. The weapon became operational in 1968. “MK-20 Rockeye,” Global Security, Globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/mk20.htm.
4. Randy Cunningham with Jeffrey L. Ethell, Fox Two: The Story of America’s First Ace in Vietnam (Mesa, AZ: Champlin Fighter Museum Press, 1984), 100.
5. Ibid., 108.
6. Ibid., 110.
7. Steven Ritchie, interview with Coonts, 1995. See also Stephen Coonts, “The Last Ace,” from War In the Air (New York: Pocket Books, 1996).
8. Clancy and Gresham, Fighter Wing, 150.
9. Lavalle, Tale of Two Bridges, 85.
10. Richard Hilton, emails to Tillman, March–April 2017.
11. Ibid.
12. Eighth Tactical Fighter Crew Assignments of May 13, 1972, compiled by Dean Failor.
13. Author’s transcript of May 13 mission tape, provided by Colonel Richard Hilton, 2017.
14. Melvin F. Porter, Linebacker: Overview of the First 120 Days (Headquarters: Pacific Air Forces, September 1972), 50, https://archive.org/stream/projectcheco-ADA487179/ADA487179—djvu.txt.
15. Hilton, emails to Tillman, April 2017.
16. Hilton, There Are No Sundays, 318.
17. Porter, Linebacker, 51.
18. Bart Flaherty and Russ Ogle, emails to Tillman, January 2016.
CHAPTER 20. “WE DROPPED THE BRIDGE”
1. Paul Ringwood, emails to Tillman, March 2016.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. John T. Smith, The Linebacker Raids: The Bombing of North Vietnam, 1972 (London: Cassell, 2000), 75.
5. James E. Wise, At the Helm of USS America: Its 23 Commanding Officers, 1965–1996 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2014), 128.
7. Leighton Smith, interview with Tillman, April 29, 2017.
8. Sherwood, Afterburner, 280–281.
9. Smith, interview with Tillman, April 29, 2017.
10. Ibid.
11. Joseph Satrapa, phone conversations with Tillman, April 19 and 22, 2017.
12. Smith, interview with Tillman, April 29, 2017.
13. Leighton W. Smith Jr.
Distinguished Flying Cross citation, 1972, provided to authors by Smith.
CHAPTER 21. THE VIOLENT CRESCENDO
1. Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 354.
2. “Lyndon B. Johnson: Address at Johns Hopkins University: ‘Peace Without Conquest,’” The American Presidency Project, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=26877.
3. Kissinger, Ending the Vietnam War, 354.
4. Ibid., 379.
5. Ibid. p. 409. In his books White House Years and Ending the Vietnam War, Kissinger discussed Nixon’s personality at numerous places. Kissinger was brilliant, a master negotiator, and highly skilled at reading people. Nixon was paranoid, secretive, and didn’t work well with people. He avoided confrontation wherever possible. His obsessions led to Watergate and his resignation, yet America owes him a great deal. Nixon had the moral courage to use every diplomatic and military means to extract America from a tragic war. Lyndon Johnson, for all his bluster, never had the backbone to accomplish it.
6. Hiep Son et al., The Capital, Hanoi: History of the Resistance War Against the Americans to Save the Nation, 1954–1975 (Hanoi: 1991). Translated for the authors by Merle Pribbenow, by permission.
7. Michael Yarvitz, “Pics: The Day the Senate Told Ford No More War in Vietnam,” MSNBC, June 13, 2014, www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/pics-the-day-the-senate-told-ford-no-more-war-vietnam.
8. Andrew J. Bacevich, “A Requiem for Vietnam,” American Conservative, February 7, 2018, www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/a-requiem-for-vietnam.
9. “Vietnam Evacuation: Operation Frequent Wind,” https://media.defense.gov/2012/Aug/23/2001330098/-1/-1/0/Oper percent20Frequent percent20Wind.pdf.
INDEX
Abbott, Greg, 118
Air Force
combat training and, 36, 49
pilot assignments and (1965), 57
“protective reaction strikes” and, 203
shortages/maintenance technicians, 109–110
“sortie war” (with Navy), 174–175
statistics on sorties (1965/1966), 123
Wild Weasels and, 54, 55, 56–57, 112, 160, 161, 221, 262
Air Force Cross, 50, 56, 63
Air Force–Navy joint Dragon’s Jaw attack, 176, 178–180
photo reconnaissance/problem, 176–177
photo reconnaissance (second), 180
planning/equipment, 175–176
Air Force Special Air Warfare (SAW) Center, 131
Air Plan, 91–92
air power (North Vietnam overview)
aircraft, 17–18
aircraft statistics (1968), 173
antiaircraft artillery, 19–20
defense system (overview), 18–20
dogfighting and, 19, 36
goal, 16–17
pilot’s experience and, 17
pilots/life, 17–18, 36–37
air power (US overview)
aircraft descriptions, 14–15
bomb fusing, 16
bombs/bomb diving descriptions, 15–16
combat training and, 36, 49
dogfighting and, 17, 19, 36, 75
pilot assignments description (1965), 57
pilot experience and, 17
pilot hours and, 37
plan, 12–13
World War II comparisons, 15
aircraft carriers
accident rates/innovations and, 70
air conditioning and, 94
antiwar movement/sabotage, 95
arrested landing and, 68–69, 70
attack carrier air wing, 72–73
before jets, 68
berthing areas, 93
British innovations and, 68, 71
drug use, 95
Essex class, 72, 74, 107, 150, 151
fires/firefighting efforts, 157–158
flight decks description, 92
Forrestal class, 72, 107, 150
innovations for jets, 68–72
landings at night and, 70
Midway class, 72
sailing/maintenance and, 92
sailors working together, 95
shifts and, 92
skippers, 79
social/racial tension, 94–95
water and, 93–94
wing commanders, 79
Alberton, Bobby J., 140–141
Aldrin, Buzz, 189–190
Alpha strikes description, 82
Alvarez, Edward, Jr., 12
Anderson, Gareth, 163
Anderson, Mike, 118
angled flight deck innovation, 68–69
antiwar movement/criticism, 67, 188
Democratic Convention (1968), 184–185
draft and, 172–173
grade inflation (college/late 1960s), 172
increase from 1965 to 1968, 110–111, 159
antiwar movement (continued)
Linebacker II and, 264
purpose of war and, 173
sabotage and, 95
veterans reception in US and, 172, 266
Apollo Eight accomplishments, 185
“Arc Light” missions, 124
Armstrong, Neil, 189
Atomic Energy Commission, 132
Austin, Ellis, 117
Bac Giang Bridge, 126
Baldwin, Marvin, 252, 253
Bassett, James R., 54
Batson, J.E.D., Jr., 87
Doremus and, 87, 99
Dragon’s Jaw attack/MiG and, 87, 88, 91, 99
Bay of Pigs incident, 5, 6
B.C. comic strip, 163
Bennett, Frank E., 37
Dragon’s Jaw attack/death and, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42
Bennett, Robert, 37
Benoit, Johnny A., 138
Bergman, Bill, 127
Skyknight/strike and, 127, 128
Berlin division, 6–7
Blake, Robert, 239
bombs/bombing (US)
“Arc Light” missions, 124
BN importance and, 120–121
bomb shortages/canceled missions, 124–125
carpet bombing, 261, 262
“chasing the wind”/“going to school on Lead” and, 35
Chocolate Mountain bombing range, 125
computer and, 121
dive-bombing deflection errors, 31
dive-bombing, 208–209
electric fuses/premature detonation, 96–98
Giulio Douhet’s theory on aerial bombing, 66
laser-guided bombs, 209–216
M118 bombs, 62–63
measure of accuracy, 208–209
at night, 119–120
pilot concentration and, 120
proximity fuses, 30, 31
radar and, 119, 120, 121
restrictions on areas, 26, 60
speed and, 119–120, 121
using old fuses first and, 28, 49
World War II and, 209
See also air power; laser-guided bombs
Boyd, John, 40
“hit the brakes” maneuver and, 40
Bracci, Pete, 223
“bridge too far, the,” 1
bridges, 1. See also specific bridges
Bringle, William F. (“Bush”), 251
Brister, Jim, 252, 253
Broughton, Jack, 56
Brown, Doug
Dragon’s Jaw attack (April 21, 1972), 225, 226, 227
Dragon’s Jaw attack (April 27, 1972), 229
search-and-rescue/celebration, 227, 228
Brown, Thomas F., 103
“buddy store,” 78
Bullpup bombs, 28–29
changes/models, 59
Dragon’s Jaw and, 27–28, 30
pilot problems with, 27–28
Bundy, McGeorge, 6
appointment/Kennedy administration, 6
Burkhead, William, 191
Burnside, Antietam bridge, 1
Butler, Phillip, 50
Buttelman, Hank, 61–62
Cambodia, fall to NVA, 265
Cao Nunh Bridge, 229
Cao
Thanh Tinh, 89
Cao Xieu, 21
Carey, B. A., 256
Carolina Moon/Hercules airplane
crew and, 134
selection, 133
Carolina Moon missions
air dropped mines and, 131–132
approval/information updates and, 135
Atomic Energy Commission and, 132
costs, 133
delivering mines complexity, 134–135
diversions for/losses, 136, 137, 141–142
Dragon’s Jaw anti-aircraft sites/weapons and, 136, 137–138
Dragon’s Jaw bridge and, 131–133, 134–141
Dragon’s Jaw results, 138, 141
fliers body armor/parachutes and, 136
fuses/detonation, 132–133
mission (first) description, 136–138
mission (first) results/explanation, 139
mission (second) description/losses, 140–142
mission (second) timing/disagreement and, 140, 142
National Security Complex, and, 132
as night mission, 135, 136–138
North Vietnamese accounts and, 138–139, 141, 142–143
postwar searches and, 141
practice missions and, 135
preparation in Vietnam, 135
secrecy and, 132, 134
carpet bombing (Vietnam), 261, 262
Carr, William D. “Charlie,” 230
Carter, Jimmy, 172–173
Cartwright, B. J., 114
Case, Thomas F., Carolina Moon crews/death, 134, 135, 136, 140–141, 142
Cau Ham Rong Bridge, 2. See also Dragon’s Jaw Bridge
Chamberlain, Neville, 259
Chatham, Lew, 197
Chiang Kai-shek, 202
Chicago Tribune, 125
China
Civil War (1949), 202
conflicts with Soviet Union, 25
Cultural Revolution, 25
Great Leap Forward/consequences, 25
Nixon administration/relations and, 199, 202–203, 205, 206, 229, 230, 257
Nixon visit, 202–203, 205, 229, 257
normalizing relations with US, 257
table tennis (US) and, 202
Taiwan and, 202, 203
transformation after Vietnam War, 266
China/North Vietnam
instability at time of Vietnam War, 25
military equipment and, 22, 171, 173–174
pilot training/aircraft design, 17
route for supplies, 173
supplies after Dragon’s Jaw destruction and, 257
supporting communism, 3, 13
US fears and, 24–25
US graduated response and, 12–13
Christiansen, Jack (“Big Coolie”), 254
“Christmas Bombing, The.” See Linebacker II