why did operation rolling thunder fail

It was started in an effort to demoralise the North Vietnamese people and to undermine the capacity of the government in North Vietnam to govern. The brutal tactics used by US troops often drove more Vietnamese civilians to support the Vietcong. [25] The military was still not satisfied, since, for the time being, the bombing campaign was to be limited to targets below the 19th parallel, each of which would have to be cleared individually by the President and McNamara. By war's end, the American bombing campaigns during the Vietnam War amounted to the heaviest aerial bombardment in history, totaling 7,662,000 tons of . Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. The logistical effort was supported by citizens on sampans, driving carts, pushing wheelbarrows, or man-portering supplies on their backs to keep the war effort going. From March 1965 through October 1968, naval aviators flew over 140,000 sorties from Yankee Station. [29] Airstrikes were strictly forbidden within 30 nautical miles (60km) of Hanoi and within 10 nautical miles (20km) of the port of Haiphong. Operation Rolling Thunder failed on both . [102] McNamara's position, however, was almost immediately taken up by Secretary of State Dean Rusk, until then an ardent advocate of the bombing campaign. "[47], By 24 December 1965, 180 U.S. aircraft had been lost during the campaign (85 Air Force, 94 Navy and one Marine Corps). Operation Rolling Thunder was a stop-start bombing campaign over targets in North and Central Vietnam between March 1965 and November 1968. A repeat the next day resulted in a classic dogfight with F-100 Super Sabres and F-105s fighting with more MiG-17s. These missions increased from two to 200 sorties per week by the end of 1965. Its aircraft had been designed and its pilots trained for strategic operations against the Soviet Union for nuclear, not conventional war. [124] The Navy concluded that the primary problem was that their pilots had not been given proper air combat maneuvering training, and were forced to rely on missiles that were not performing as expected. There were 2 main reasons the bombing tactics of Operation Rolling Thunder failed: Supplies continued to get through to the Vietcong via the extensive tunnel system and the Ho Chi Minh Trail . [80], Next came the bomb-laden strike aircraft protected by escort fighters (Combat Air Patrol or MIGCAP) and electronic jamming aircraft to degrade enemy radar. At first, the strikes appeared highly successful, destroying tank farms near Hanoi and Haiphong and leading the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to estimate that 70 percent of North Vietnam's oil facilities had been destroyed for the loss of 43 aircraft. It was started in an effort to dishearten the North Vietnamese people and to undermine the capacity of the government in North Vietnam to govern. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. 2 How much did Operation Rolling Thunder cost? The airmen were already upset that Westmoreland was ordering "the greatest strategic bomber ever built" into a ground support role, but then to have a naval officer (CINCPAC) pick their targets was simply unbearable. - Failure of Operation Rolling Thunder. U.S claimed missile success rate fell from one kill in 30 launches to less than one kill in 50. The SA-2 had greater range than the Shrike, but if the Shrike was launched and the radar operator stayed on the air, the American missile would home in on the signal and destroy the radar source. The correct answer, at least from a military point of view, is that Operation Rolling Thunder failed because it was poorly planned and poorly executed. Also struck were the Thai Nguyen steel complex (origin of the Pardo's Push), thermal and electrical power plants, ship and rail repair facilities, and warehouses. [44] Then, on 24 July, an F-4 was shot down by a SA-2 Guideline missile. [98] The Secretary of Defense marshaled his objections to an indiscriminate air war and adeptly rebutted the charges of the military chiefs. A key interservice issue (and one which was not solved until 1968) was the command and control arrangement in Southeast Asia. Operation Rolling Thunder failed on both accounts. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The Chinese reaction would be instant and total. What were the results of Operation Rolling Thunder? U.S.:1,054 killed, wounded or captured[3] Background The purpose of the Operation was to slow down the transportation of any kind of supplies for the Nguyer Hue Offensive (known as the Easter Offensive), an invasion of the Republic of South Vietnam, that had been launched on the 30th of March 1972. SAM crews could briefly illuminate a hostile aircraft to see if the target was equipped with a Shrike. Why Operation Rolling Thunder Failed. [g] The aircraft refueled from aerial tankers over Laos before flying on to their targets in the DRV. North Vietnamese MiGs entered the battle en masse, as their capital was threatened and kill ratios fell to one U.S. aircraft lost for every two MiGs. [87], The U.S. Air Force and the US Navy continued to have expectations of the F-4 Phantom, assuming that the massive arms, the perfect on-board radar, the highest speed and acceleration properties, coupled with the new tactics would provide "Phantoms" an advantage over the MiGs. After attacking their targets (usually by dive-bombing) the strike forces would either fly directly back to Thailand or exit over the relatively safe waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. [89] During 1968, MiGs accounted for 22 percent of the 184 American aircraft (75 Air Force, 59 Navy, and five Marine Corps) lost over the north. There was widespread concern that an air campaign could lead to a wider conflict involving the Chinese or Soviets. The Air Force noted that most of their air-to-air losses were due to unseen attacks from the rear, and thus the problem could be addressed through additional technology that would provide early warning of such attacks. [128], It was not until Operation Linebacker in 1972 that the problem became acute enough for the Air Force to finally take note. [43], On 5 April 1965, U.S. reconnaissance discovered that the North Vietnamese were constructing positions for what could only be surface-to-air missile (SAM) batteries. By 1964 most of the civilians surrounding President Lyndon B. Johnson shared the Joint Chiefs of Staff's collective faith in the efficacy of strategic bombing to one degree or another. McNamara, pps. Linebacker saw the implementation of the strategy that US military leaders had advocated to President Johnson in 1965, and the commanders were given the necessary latitude by the Nixon administration to get the job done. [17], In August 1964, as a result of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, in which U.S. naval vessels were attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats, President Johnson ordered retaliatory air strikes (Operation Pierce Arrow) launched against the north. For various reasonsincluding fear of provoking a confrontation with North Vietnam's Russian and Chinese alliesall sorts of restrictions and constraints were imposed. This also meant the SAM site's tracking radar could be turned off, which prevented Shrikes from homing in on it. It had a huge financial and human cost. Two fundamental factors seem particularly important in an analysis of why Rolling Thunder failed to achieve its objectives. "[13][c], Questions then arose among the U.S. administration and military leadership as to the best method by which Hanoi (the perceived locus of the insurgency) could be dissuaded from its course of action. "[53][k] To complicate matters, the U.S. ambassadors to Thailand (Graham Martin) and Laos (William H. Sullivan) exerted undue influence over operational and command arrangements. The four objectives of the operation (which evolved over time) were to boost the sagging morale of the Saigon regime in the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam); to persuade North Vietnam to cease its support for the communist insurgency in South Vietnam without sending ground forces into communist North Vietnam; to destroy North Vietnam's transportation system, industrial base, and air defenses; and to halt the flow of men and materiel into South Vietnam. Johnson refused to take such a provocative action, however, and such an operation was not implemented until 1972. Operation Rolling Thunder's strategic objectives were never met. It was quickly decided that, in order to limit airspace conflicts between air force and naval strike forces, North Vietnam was divided into six target regions called "route packages", each of which was assigned to either the air force or navy and into which the other was forbidden to intrude. One of the most notable studies on this topic is Mark Clodfelter's The Limits of Air Power: The American Bombings of North Vietnam2 This book. The intention was to pressure Communist leaders to end the. Another 370,000500,000 civilians worked part-time. It was estimated that the damage done to North Vietnam by the bombing raids was $300 million. [99] He bluntly admitted that there was "no basis to believe that any bombing campaignwould by itself force Ho Chi Minh's regime into submission, short, that is, of the virtual annihilation of North Vietnam and its people. While senior military and civilian officials differed on what they regarded as the benefits of this programcode-named Operation Rolling Thunderall of them hoped that the bombing, which began on 2 March 1965, would have a salutary effect on the North Vietnamese leadership, leading Hanoi to end its support of the insurgency in South Vietnam. The Air Force, however, saw its ratio stagnate and actually decrease, for a short time being less than one. "[64] All except those deemed "truly indispensable to the life of the capital" were evacuated to the countryside. It does not store any personal data. [88] During the war, 13 VPAF's flying aces attained their status while flying the MiG-21 (compared to three in the MiG-17). From beginning to end, Rolling Thunder was hampered by a policy of gradual escalation, which robbed air strikes of their impact and gave North Vietnam time to recover and adjust. On the same day, 19 RVNAF A-1 Skyraiders struck the Quang Khe Naval Base. Supported by its communist allies, the Soviet Union and China, North Vietnam fielded a potent mixture of MiG fighter-interceptor jets and sophisticated air-to-air and surface-to-air weapons that created one of the most effective air defenses ever faced by American military aviators. [50] The U.S. Seventh/Thirteenth Air Force, based in Thailand (which carried out the majority of the Air Force's strikes in North Vietnam), had a dual command structure. It reported to the Seventh on operational matters and to the Thirteenth Air Force (whose headquarters was in the Philippines) for logistical and administrative concerns. "[23][e] Rolling Thunder called for an eight-week air campaign consistent with the restrictions imposed by that Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. [52] Due to their influence, the Navy could not be persuaded to integrate its air operations over North Vietnam with those of the Air Force. Due to altered tactics and the increased use of electronic radar jamming, the record of SAM kills decreased over time. [32], The majority of strikes during Rolling Thunder were launched from four air bases, in Thailand: Korat, Takhli, Udorn, and Ubon. OTHER WORDS FOR dearth 1 shortage, want, paucity, insufficiency. losses. North Vietnam was not the target of intense bombing again for another three and one-half years. But in encounters with lighter VPAF's MiG-21, the F-4 began to suffer defeats. The system proved to be durable, well built, easily repaired, and practically impossible to shut down. [105] As a result of that decision, the Air Force and Navy began to pour all the firepower they had formerly spread throughout North Vietnam into the area between the 17th and 19th parallels. By 1967, the North Vietnamese Air Force was maintaining an interceptor force of 100 aircraft, many of which were based on Chinese airfields and out of reach of American air attack. On 8 April, responding to requests for peace negotiations, North Vietnamese premier, Pham Van Dong, stated that they could only begin when: the bombing was halted; the U.S. had removed all of its troops from the south; the Saigon government recognized the demands of the VC, and it was agreed that the reunification of Vietnam would be settled by the Vietnamese themselves. [76], Rolling Thunder reached the last stage of its operational evolution during 1967 and 1968. The North Vietnamese guerrillas knew the jungle and made use What were the results of Operation Rolling Thunder? [58][o], Compounding these issues was the one-year rotation policy adopted by the Pentagon in Southeast Asia. - Failure of Search and Destroy (My Lai Massacre) - Role of the media. Click the card to flip . Why is Operation Rolling Thunder a failure? Instead it had the opposite effect. "[24], It was believed that selective pressure, controlled by Washington, combined with diplomatic overtures, would prevail and compel Hanoi to end its aggression. Operation Rolling Thunder was the coordinated military air campaign during the Vietnam War from March of 1965 to October 1968. [111] On 31 December 1967, the Department of Defense announced that 864,000 tons of American bombs had been dropped on North Vietnam during Rolling Thunder, compared with 653,000 tons dropped during the entire Korean War and 503,000 tons in the Pacific theater during the Second World War. 153154. An earlier example wold be the Blitz of London and other British cities during World War 2. The U.S strike had destroyed two worthless targets for the loss of six aircraft and five pilots. [109] They were correct. The Vietcong guerrillas knew the jungle and. The operation consumed numerous resources. [26][f], The first mission of the new operation was launched on 2 March against an ammunition storage area near Xom Bang. This "guerrilla warfare in the air" proved very successful. There was also little consultation between Johnson and the military chiefs during the target selection process. One American pilot described the action which followed as "looking like the end of the world. In the three months following the start of Linebacker in May 1972, the U.S. lost 48 aircraft, 21 to VPAF MiGs and 27 to improved ground defenses. During the Operation Rolling Thunder, U.S. aircraft had flown more than 300,000 sorties and dropped about 643,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam. Even the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Earle G. Wheeler, was not present for most of the critical discussions of 1965 and participated only occasionally thereafter. The Americans had a multiple numerical advantage. You Are Here: unblocked sticky ninja east london walking tour self guided why did operation rolling thunder fail. According to the Vietnamese, the SA-2 shot down 31% of all downed US aircraft.

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