The Americans weren’t allowed to fight the war
The War in Vietnam featured the largest bombardment of a country from the air in world history. The United States dropped 7,662,000 tons of bombs in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia during the war. By comparison, the United States Armed Forces dropped 2,150,000 tons of bombs during World War II, in all theaters of conflict. The first extended bombing campaign, Operation Rolling Thunder, commenced in 1965 and lasted three years, intended to destroy North Vietnam’s support of the Viet Cong. It failed. Weapons from the Soviet Union and its allies and satellites continued to reach the Viet Cong.
The US Air Force flew over 5 million missions over Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, losing 2,251 aircraft of all types. About 500 losses were due to accidents. Over 1,700 were lost through being shot down by the enemy. These included 17 B-52s shot down, they were the heaviest US bomber of the war. Fighters and Fighter-Bombers sustained heavy losses, over 400 F-4 Phantom II aircraft were lost during the war. They cost $2.4 million apiece. The Air Force wasn’t the only American service dropping bombs on Vietnam.
The US Navy conducted 86 war cruises using 21 aircraft carriers during the Vietnam War, losing 377 naval aviators during the war. Another 179 were captured and held as prisoners of war. The Navy lost 530 aircraft in combat, among them 194 A-4 Skyhawks. In addition the US Marine Corps, officially part of the US Navy, flew missions from carrier decks and from bases on land. The US Army, Marines, Navy, and Air Force operated attack helicopters as well. The North Vietnamese were provided with anti-aircraft weapons and support by the Soviets and the Chinese, and the bombing in Vietnam did little to advance the war effort.
The United States was allowed to fight in Vietnam. What it wasn’t allowed to do was escalate the war. An outright invasion of North Vietnam was considered an impossibility because of the perceived reaction of China. It would not have ended the activity of the Viet Cong in the South. The US tried several different strategies and tactics to maintain the independence of a democratic nation in the South. After Saigon fell to the communists, under the theory through which American involvement there began, the rest of Southeast Asia should have fallen to the communists one by one. They didn’t.
Americans don’t like to lose and they especially don’t like the thought of losing a war. Clearly North Vietnam won the Vietnam War. Vietnam today is a unified country under communist rule, and a trading partner of the United States. That was what the communist leaders fought for throughout America’s involvement. The United States threw its full military weight at the North Vietnamese, short of nuclear weapons and gas weapons, and were unable to stop their onslaught. The Vietnam War was divisive at the time and remains divisive today, but its costs in lives, dollars, and the public’s trust of its leaders are still being paid.
Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“Vietnam War (1954-1970)”, by Ronald Spector, entry, Encyclopedia Brittanica, online
“The Pentagon Papers”, Gravel Edition, Volume 1
“Lyndon Johnson’s War: The Road to Stalemate in Vietnam”, by Larry Berman, 1989
“Pacification’s Deadly Price”, by Kevin Buckley, Newsweek, June 19, 1972
“CIA and the Vietnam Policy Makers: Three Episodes 1962 – 1968”, by Harold P. Ford, 1998
“The Vietnam Syndrome”, by Christopher Hitchens, Vanity Fair, 2001