The first comprehensive treatment of the air wars in Vietnam. Filling a substantial void in our understanding of the history of airpower in Vietnam, this book provides the first comprehensive treatment of the air wars in Vietnam. Brian Laslie traces the complete history of these air wars from the beginning of American involvement until final withdrawal. Detailing the competing roles and actions of the air elements of the United States Army, Navy, and Air Force, the author considers the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of war. He also looks at the air war from the perspective of the North Vietnamese Air Force. Most important for understanding the US defeat, Laslie illustrates the perils of a nation building a one-dimensional fighting force capable of supporting only one type of war. ,

Om Vietnamkrigen som den forløb i luftmilitær henseende set fra amerikansk side. Der fortælles om de vigtigste fly og om personer, der deltog i kampene, samt om de våben, der udvikledes under krigen.

Of the many facets of the American war in Southeast Asia debated by U.S. authorities in Washington, by the military services and the public, none has proved more controversial than the air war against North Vietnam. The air war s inauguration with the nickname Rolling Thunder followed an eleven-year American effort to induce communist North Vietnam to sign a peace treaty without openly attacking its territory. Thus, Rolling Thunder was a new military program in what had been a relatively low-key attempt by the United States to win the war within South Vietnam against insurgent communist Viet Cong forces, aided and abetted by the north. The present volume covers the first phase of the Rolling Thunder campaign from March 1965 to late 1966. It begins with a description of the planning and execution of two initial limited air strikes, nicknamed Flaming Dart I and II. The Flaming Dart strikes were carried out against North Vietnam in February 1965 as the precursors to a regular, albeit limited, Rolling Thunder air program launched the following month. Before proceeding with an account of Rolling Thunder, its roots are traced in the events that compelled the United States to adopt an anti-communist containment policy in Southeast Asia after the defeat of French forces by the communist Vietnamese in May 1954.

During the middle and late 1970s, the United States Air Force Historical Research Center produced a series of 17 monographs that detailed the history of the Vietnam War. These remarkable documents contain a wealth of historical data that explain the background and reasoning behind many controversial decisions. Air War Vietnam is a compilation of these monographs that casts new light on why the Vietnam war was fought the way it was and why a war that could and should have been won was instead lost.

During the middle and late 1970s, the United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama produced a series of 17 monographs that detailed the history of the Vietnam War. These studies were classified as being Top Secret for many years and were only recently released to the public. The core of these monographs is the series that deal with the political, operational and technical development of the Air Force participation in the Vietnam War. These remarkable documents contain a wealth of historical data that explain the background and reasoning behind many controversial decisions. This compilation has taken these monographs and assembled them into a single narrative. The documents have been painstakingly remastered and reset to the printed page but their editorial integrity has been scrupulously preserved.