by Lindsay Oliver

Created on: June 08, 2009

American bombing missions escalated as the ground war escalated. The missions started out as simple surveillance and ended as some of the most extreme bombing campaigns in history. Under the Kennedy administration, while the US was still in an adviser role, air power was mainly used for reconnaissance and observation flights. Occasionally, American air power was used for search and rescue operations, troop transport, and cargo and refueling missions. However, under Nixon, 285 sorties were flown against targets in the North in 1969, 1,003 in 1970, 1705 in 1971. The major bombing campaigns of 1972 were the most intense of the war.

The Johnson administration, after the Gulf of Tonkin, took a completely different approach to the war than the Kennedy administration, which included adjusting the use of air power. During the Gulf of Tonkin, three North Vietnamese patrol boats attacked the US Navy Destroyer Maddox. The Maddox called in assistance from the nearby US aircraft carrier, Ticonderoga. Paired with gunfire from the Ticonderoga, F-8 Crusader fighter-bombers helped sink the North Vietnamese patrol boats. The Gulf of Tonkin incident enraged President Johnson and he authorized large-scale retaliation against the North Vietnamese. This would be the first large-scale air operation of the war. Sixty-four naval aircraft launched a mission on a North Vietnamese patrol boat base and fuel depot, destroying 50% of the North Vietnamese patrol boat force and 10% of their oil production.

After a series of small, unsuccessful air raids, Johnson decided to take more aggressive actions. In February 1965, Johnson authorized an air warfare campaign against the North Vietnamese called Rolling Thunder. Rolling Thunder would continue on and off for the next three years until Johnson announced a bombing halt in 1968. The purpose of Rolling Thunder was to stop the effectiveness of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. It was a campaign of slow, gradual attacks and grew in intensity as the war drew on with the aim of bringing the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table. However, Johnson avoided bombing deep in North Vietnamese territory in an effort to keep the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China out of the war effort as much as possible.

There were also the much more dangerous Wild Weasel missions. These were widely known as one of the most dangerous assignments throughout the war effort. Tasked to take on the anti-aircraft site in North Vietnam, squadrons of F-105 Thunderbirds

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