B-52s in Operation Linebacker II helped bring North Vietnam to the peace table

By Yancy Mailes
Air Force Global Strike Command History Office

12/7/2012 - BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. – Editor’s Note: This is the final in a series of articles highlighting the B-52′s involvement in the Vietnam Conflict up to Operation Linebacker II. The 40th Anniversary of Linebacker II takes place Dec. 18-29.

When President Richard Nixon called for a halt to Operation Linebacker on Oct. 23, 1972, he and his chief negotiator, Henry Kissinger, believed that “peace was at hand.” Unfortunately, on Dec. 13 of that same year, the Paris Peace Talks collapsed and President Nixon had few options to encourage the North Vietnamese to return to the negotiating table. So, once again, he called upon the B-52 community to bring peace through superior firepower.

On Dec. 18, 1972, the United States began its third and final aerial bombing campaign over North Vietnam. Many in the military who supported the campaign unofficially referred to the operation as the Eleven-Day War. For those who opposed the operation, including folk singer Joan Baez who was on the ground in Hanoi at the time, they nicknamed the aerial bombardment as the Christmas Bombing. Although in truth, a respite would come on that holiday. However, the military brass officially nicknamed the large scale effort Linebacker II.

Over the course of 11 nights, B-52 crews staging from U-Tapao Air Base, Thailand, and Andersen Air Base, Guam, bombed targets in and around Hanoi, Haiphong Harbor and other military installations in North Vietnam. The crews flew a total of 729 combat sorties, dropping 15,237 tons of bombs focusing their efforts mostly on rail centers and storage areas, destroying 383 pieces of rolling stock and cutting 500 rail lines near Hanoi. However, their efforts did not go unchallenged.

The North Vietnamese military attempted to stymie these bombing raids by sending MiG-21 pilots to engage the bombers and by firing anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles at the B-52s. It is estimated that the North Vietnamese military fired as my as 1,240 SAMs, and this eventually resulted in the North Vietnamese striking 24 B-52s and downing 15. Of the 15 that the North Vietnamese downed, 10 came down within the boundaries of North Vietnam.

However, the bombings achieved two effects. First the bombing raids destroyed military targets and curtailed North Vietnam’s operations in South Vietnam. Next, the bombings took their psychological toll on individuals in Hanoi. Years later Mark Clodfelter would write in his book, The Limits of Airpower, “Individuals remaining in Hanoi received only an hour or two of sleep a night, their nerves strained by the continual attacks.” He continued, “In eleven days aircraft dropped 13 percent of the tonnage delivered during the five months of Linebacker I.”

After 11 nights of sustained heavy bombardment, Operation Linebacker II brought the North Vietnamese to the negotiation table. The North Vietnamese had run out of SAMs, and through continued air attacks the B-52 crews had helped to destroy the enemy’s air defense system. With no end in sight, the North Vietnamese signaled that they wished to return to the Peace Talks in Paris. President Nixon ordered that the B-52s stand down and 29 days later on Jan. 27, 1973, a cease fire agreement ending the Vietnam War was signed. Operation Homecoming began Feb. 12, 1973, with the eventual release and return of 591 American prisoners of war.

The 8th Air Force Museum Association will commemorate the anniversary of Linebacker II at 10 a.m. Dec. 8 with a Memorial Monument Dedication at the Barksdale Global Power Museum on Barksdale Air Force Base, La.