In December 1964, the Viet Cong had demonstrated their capabilities and the weakness of the South's Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (ARVN) forces by carrying out a successful operation around the village of Binh Gia, an area close to Saigon. On Christmas eve a terrorist bomb in the Brinks Hotel in Saigon killed several American personnel.

By the end of January, most of Johnson’s advisors agreed that the threat to south Vietnam required the United States to bomb the north. On February 7, 1965 NLF units attacked a U.S. Army barracks at the Pleiku Airfield where 9 Americans were killed and 5 aircraft were destroyed. That evening the Johnson administration held a meeting and in less that 2 hours they decided to strike back. With in hours the President ordered operation Flaming Dart, which was a plan of retalitory strikes already draw up. So, for the next 2 days Amer

ican aircraft struck NVA military installations just accross the 16 parallel.

Rolling Thunder was a restricted but massive bombing campaign against North Vietnam. This massive bombing campaign intended to place pressure on the North Vietnamese leadership to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the war. The idea was to strike just above the Demilitarized zone and then progressively hit targets further north as the campaign went on.

An estimated 500,000 North Vietnamese, many of them women and children, worked full time repairing bridges and railroads. They replaced concrete and steel bridges with ferries and pontoon bridges made of bamboo stalks which were sunk during the day so they wouldn’t be seen. They drove trucks covered with palm fronds and banana leaves, during the night, with no head lights guided by white markers along the roads. B-52's bombed the narrow roads through the Mu Gia Pass which lead to the Ho Chi Minh Trail. With in days the “youth shock brigades” filled in the holes and the roads were operational again.

Some topics in this essay:
North Vietnamese, North Vietnam, Rolling Thunder, Soviet Union, Thunder Johnson, Flaming Dart, President Johnson, January Johnson’s, Pleiku Airfield, Qui Nhon, rolling thunder, north vietnamese, north vietnam, johnson administration, bombing campaign, massive bombing campaign, massive bombing,