Word: lullingly
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...guessing how, when and where they may be hit. Some days they may not be hit at all. Other days they may get hit a little, and other days they may get plastered almost from border to border." In that spirit the U.S. last week ended a five-day lull in bombing raids against North Viet...
Running Out of Bridges. In the days after the lull lapsed, U.S. planes, almost without letup, prowled north of the 17th parallel. Carrier-based Skyraiders and Skyhawks plastered petroleum-storage facilities at Phuqui, 125 miles south of Hanoi, sending braided columns of orange flame and black smoke billowing hundreds of feet into the air. Navy jets took potluck, strafing targets along highways, rail lines and riverbeds from the 17th parallel to a point only 80 miles from Hanoi. Air Force Thunderchiefs made the deepest penetration yet by U.S. warplanes, streaking up to the Red River Delta town of Ninhbinh...
Several factors had gone into President Johnson's earlier decision to order the pause. The U.S. had already blasted just about every worthwhile military target south of the populous Hanoi-Haiphong complex, and was running out of bridges and barracks to bomb. The lull gave U.S. reconnaissance planes a chance to assess the damage and size up new targets-and according to Communist broadcasts, the recon planes were busy indeed, some of them probing points only twelve miles from Hanoi. Perhaps most important, the lull gave Johnson a chance to show such critics as Canada's Prime Minister...
Early last week U.S. bombings continued in North Viet Nam. Although the U.S. made no point of publicizing the damage, the raids added to the growing toll that included bridges, highways, communications centers and factory facilities (see cut). Then there was a little lull in the raids against the North. This aroused some talk among pundits that the pause might be an Administration ploy to give Hanoi a breathing spell that could lead to negotiations. Maybe. But bombings of Viet Cong encampments in the South continued. Indeed, there may have been a good deal of truth in the assessment...
Like the distant thunder that precedes a monsoonal line squall, the rumble of Communist guns last week signaled an end to the long lull in Viet Nam's ground war. Moving out in strength from their jungle strongholds for the first time in nine weeks, the Viet Cong struck in half a dozen spots-and only the hard, hot application of U.S. air power saved Saigon's forces from severe defeat...