Word: 52s
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...made devastation of North Viet Nam occurred at the same time as the natural cataclysm of the Nicaraguan earthquake. It was a haunting coincidence-American relief planes rushing doctors and medical supplies to the Nicaraguans while B-52s rained 500-lb. bombs on the Vietnamese...
...first week alone of the two-week operation by virtually every kind of Air Force and Navy plane in the Indochina arsenal in every kind of weather and through the densest aerial defenses in the world, mistakes were inevitable. Particularly with the massive (100 a day) use of B-52s-each group of three lays its bombs in a row of "boxes" a mile and a half long by half a mile wide-civilian casualties were inescapable regardless of the precision of pilots or particularity of targeting...
...stupefying speed, promises of a negotiated settlement turned into a harshly escalated war. The vision of the American prisoners of war in North Viet Nam coming home at last was replaced by the photographs of haggard men newly recruited to the captured ranks, as an average of three B-52s were shot down every two days. Vignettes of the flyers' fates materialized out of North Viet Nam too. One B-52 pilot was inflating his life raft twelve miles downstream from Hanoi in an attempt to escape, when he was surrounded by ferrymen. His last transmission on his survival...
...respond. It did not, so the raids recommenced, this time with effect. Hanoi's response was timely for the Administration, since it did not seem feasible that the raids could have continued very much longer, for several reasons, including the exhaustion of targets, the continuing loss of B-52s and airmen, and public opinion both at home and abroad. Also, Congress reconvenes this week, and continued bombing would provide a powerful impetus to cut off funds for the war. Already the President has lost the support of Republican Senator William Saxbe of Ohio, who until last week had backed...
...seven years and 100,000 sorties in Indochina. Yet in the past two weeks, 15 were lost-each with a crew of six, most of whom are listed either as missing or captured. Why the high toll? First, as Air Force spokesmen are quick to point out, the B-52s were invading the "most heavily defended antiaircraft area in the world"-at least in conventional-weapons terms. Since the October bombing halt, the Soviet Union has shipped enormous quantities of missiles and improved radar systems into the North, and the North Vietnamese fired them this round with a prodigality never...