Had Nixon been going for a win rather than a draw,(by this time he was looking for an exit stratagy). Then the mighty B52 would have long since have closed Haiphong Harbour with mines in 1964 and flattened the whole place with WWII style "area bombing" so no SAM-2s and no NVA in the south. The USAF did it's best, Nixon and co their worst. Salute the brave aircrew who risked their necks so we may be free!
It´s not the crews of the B-52´s or any other who fought in Vietnam for the US side. Blame the incompetent politicians, Nixon, Carter and the rest that had no idea what they was up to. In their tiny heads they thought they could beat the NWA just like the Japanese.
@Sooksawaspakdee961 Carter had nothing to do with Vietnam - he was elected the governor of Georgia in 1970 and ran for president in 1976- after South Vietnam fell.
The fact is that the bombing brought the North Vietnamese back to the table. The other fact is the U.S. should not have been involved in the first place. The entire conflict was not our finest hour. I cannot blame those who fought or the tactic of bombing the enemy.
The US should have leveled Hanoi in 1965. There is no way this war should have lasted as long as it did and turned our the way it did. The US had the fire power to win the war in 2 months but for some odd reason refused ot use it.
December of 1972 I was undergoing my AIT at Fort Devens. My next stop would have been Vietnam. Looking back over my 26 years in the Army, I wish that I would have gone to Nam. But then again, maybe not.
@Vinamilk92 Yes, and the North Vietnamese were pure humanitarians (SARCASM), plus they broke the Paris peace treaty, which they signed immediately after this operation.
"Red Crown" during Linebacker II was not the USS Long Beach as is depicted in the video. During the 11 days of Linebacker II, Red Crown was the USS Truxtun DLG(N) -35, later re-designated as CG(N)-35. I was one of the radarmen and air intercept controllers on board the Truxtun during the operation.
This made things happen at the Paris talks, been admissions from enemy we could have broke there backs anti aircraft was almost at zero and refitting would have been tough, navy and airforce was ready to continue if necessary, all in the past time moves forward
JFK ordered the REMOVAL of our troops from Vietnam to commence in '64. Johnson cancelled those orders and Nixon was elected in '68 with the promise to end the war but instead he extended, expanded and prolonged it and it only ended with the fall of Saigon in '75 AFTER Nixon resigned in disgrace. Over 60000 good American men paid the price for those errors. If we learn from the price that they paid, we will have in some way, justified their sacrifice.
@HYDE5510 Nixon should put a few H bombs on you and your family, so that you'd be able to understand the mass murdering Debt Syndicate systematized slaughter, plunder & enslavement.
Crime Against Humanity & War Crime is cool for you, when it is someone else?
Hanoi deserved to be bombed more than that. It is a stronghold of communist who are so savage. thye killed a lot of innocent vietnamse in the south by mining the buses, shelling the school. Communist should be wiped out on the earth.
Yes, they are from enemy and friendly radar activity.
Well, Tommy, we were talking about the 52s over Hanoi, then you moved the goal posts and started talking about the war as a whole. As for the rest, I'll not get into an argument. I was there and you were not. Rather than try to teach you something, I'll just let you stew in your own hate. I've had it with having to deal with the enemy and people like you at home.
Sorry, but that was our mistake. We should've bombed everything! Screw anything , just like in Iraq and Afghanistan. If we're gonna win we have to kill everyone, that's what will break a back of a country. Now, if we really want to take control. Kill everyone! Sorry, but that's it! We just try and take them out on their own. They hide in houses, so bomb them all, It's not a good thing, but we damn sure will win!
nixon removed all the restrictions previous commanders had placed on u.s. pilots. the result was massive destruction and death. only when the north vietnamese ran out of anti aircraft missles ( they had 1200) did they throw up their hands and said lets negotiate.
most of Hanoi civilians had moved into countryside for hiding the bombing. Hanoi was only ready-to-suicide anti-air forces to protect their own home from 20,000 tons of explosive. And they made it.
I really don't care what the beginning of the video says. What it means is, we bombed urban areas, yes. But the targeting was highly selective. I was there; you were in first grade. Give me some real authority and I'll listen.
BTW, your comment about "millions" of Vietnamese is ludicrous on its face.
People like you who spout off disgust me and your statements are libelous.
Sure, right, whatever you say. I've seen the bombing videos on youtube where low flying American jets were strafing Vietnamese villages with napalm bombs. Sure, "highly selective" targeting. Low flying Hueys lighting up entire villages with .50 caliber guns and rockets is more "highly selective" targeting as well?
By all independent accounts, it is fact that close to 3 million Vietnamese were killed due to the US war. Of course, the US denies it. "Highly selective" indeed.
I'll never understand why the campaign was halted for "Christmas." The Vietnamese do NOT celebrate that holiday. The U.S. government threw away the lives of its airmen over North Vietnam.........
@cccurtis In any of the reading that you've done, does it say what the CEP (circular error probability) was for a B-52 bombing at night, from 33,000 ft? I'm doing some research into saturation bombing, so I'm particularly interested in this stuff.
You dropped 20,000 tons of bombs on densely populated sections of Hanoi and only 1,318 were killed? I think they conveniently forgot to add a few zeros to the end of that figure.
@tommybass40 I am not a warmonger by any means, but I can tell you this. The politics of the time demanded minimal casualties and high-value military targets -- fuel and ammo depots, railyards, etc. A hospital was accidentally hit and there was hell to pay. The bombing was precision bombing, not carpet bombing as took place in the countryside. It's also a fact that our government lied to us about actual casualties throughout the war, but I can tell you these targets were highly scrutinized.
@cccurtis absolute bullshit. You are as typically deluded as they come my friend. It has been clearly documented attempt at the so regurgitated American idea of "shock and awe" an obsession that superior firepower alone would push the north to "breaking point". The reason there was so few killed was because of mass evacuations. Linebacker II destroyed ten's of thousands of homes in Hanoi and Haiphong. Listen to Nixon's tapes from the at the time. "bomb the fuckers!!" Sadly, nothing changes.
@riskygjk No point in name calling. It doesn't really effect me. If you've got some objective historical data to point me to, I'll be happy to take back my view, but all the books I've read on the missions -- even the negative books -- are clear to point out how technically precise the bombing was.
@cccurtis I didn't call you a name. A well researched book is "War without fronts - the USA in Vietnam" by Bernd Greiner. It's no action packed read but it's objectively thorough as it gets. During Linebacker II or the "Christmas bombardment" about 3500 sorties flew with the specific intention of demoralising the civilian pop. Only 12% of the attacks hit military targets. Thanks to mass evac in spring '72 after Linebacker I, only 2200 died and 1600 wounded in Hanoi.
@riskygjk Yup, bomb the fuckers! Another week and the North would have capitulated! Yes, its always about the homes, the babies, the wailing women, the trampled daffodils. I believe the word which eleudes you is "WAR!" Something I beieve we as a people have forgotten how to wage!
@riskygjk You have a very jaded view of the American war machine. As a USAF pilot, I can attest to the scrutiny under which each bomb is placed. One of the biggest complaints in Vietnam was the lack of authority to bomb many of the high value military targets because they were too close to civilian buildings. Today we still have the same restrictions, but our bombs are even more precise allowing us to hit targets today that we wouldn't have been able to back in Vietnam.
@cccurtis ...but rural “targets” in Laos & Cambodia were hardly given a second though, and best evidence is that THIS is where a major slaughter of noncombatants took place.
Carpet bombing was utilized on unconfirmed heat signatures, allegedly-supposedly that of HCM Trail infiltration. NILO reports reveal major heat concentrations were refugees fleeing into the hills for refuge, from the atrocious ground actions near urban centers in South Vietnam, or were unmapped highlander villages.
@centurion180ad I believe that 52s were normally reserved for strategic bombing. Tactical bombing was generally accomplished by A-4, A-6s, F-4s and other USAF planes. I am only familiar with the Navy birds. But since normally those planes were used in dive bombing, then they were more effective in close air support for troops on the ground, although my unit also bombed Hanoi and mined Haiphong harbor.
I was there and they were not densely populated areas. The object was not to demoralize the population; the opinion of the population did not matter. Yes, civilian casualities were less than one per sortie. Yes, you don't know what you are talking about.
@tommybass40 I was there, Tommy and Curtis, and I don't care what you think, so maybe you'll believe me, which I doubt. We did not bomb densely populated areas, ten's (sic) of thousands of homes were not destroyed, and we average one civilian casualty per sortie. You really don't know what you're talking about.
Sir, if you read the beginning of this video again, it plainly states that 20,000 tons of bombs were dropped on densely populated areas of Hanoi and Haiphong during Operation Linebacker II. Hey, I was only a toddler when the war on Vietnam was raging and I just started grade school in 1972, but I find it objectionable that some would deny that millions of innocent Vietnamese were annihilated by massive bombing campaigns by the US.
@tommybass40 Even the N Vietnamese only claimed 1624 civilians killed (they still refuse to report military deaths). These B-52s were striking HVTs and they were big targets (rail yards and the like). Even if they weren't, the city's industrial/warmaking capacity was a valid target in war by the Geneva Conventions
CCCurtis, EXCELLENT find. I'm in the B-52Hs right now and there are still a LOT of similarities between then and now.
@tommybass40 the atomic bomb that hit hiroshima had the power of 20,000 tons of tnt. and 200,000 people died. now the NVA are saying they "only" lost 1318. yeah right . it's more like 25,000 dead.
@tommybass40 Back at that time, carpet-bombing was used from WW1 to the end of the Vietnam War. Until when NATO nations started developing a technology that would allow precision bombing campaign to mimilize civilian casuatlies. The USAF plastered Iraq's selective military targets in Baghdad and occupied Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Then again with the Serbs in Bosnia in August-September 1995. You see, the USAF developted a tech that would mininize casuatlies as time goes on.
120 B-52s in one raid! No wonder the guards at Hanoi Hilton were shaken next day. POWs report they were teary-eyed and, for the first time, polite to their captives. Nixon did good. Our POWs might still be there if not for him.
Had Nixon been going for a win rather than a draw,(by this time he was looking for an exit stratagy). Then the mighty B52 would have long since have closed Haiphong Harbour with mines in 1964 and flattened the whole place with WWII style "area bombing" so no SAM-2s and no NVA in the south. The USAF did it's best, Nixon and co their worst. Salute the brave aircrew who risked their necks so we may be free!
Tangereandream 1 week ago
should have nuke this fuk ing gook
limwang75 2 weeks ago
David vs Goliath
cubitsuper 3 weeks ago
It´s not the crews of the B-52´s or any other who fought in Vietnam for the US side. Blame the incompetent politicians, Nixon, Carter and the rest that had no idea what they was up to. In their tiny heads they thought they could beat the NWA just like the Japanese.
Sooksawaspakdee961 1 month ago
@Sooksawaspakdee961 Carter had nothing to do with Vietnam - he was elected the governor of Georgia in 1970 and ran for president in 1976- after South Vietnam fell.
The blame should be aimed at Johnson
upyr1 1 month ago in playlist B-52
@Sooksawaspakdee961 Carter? How did he enter this discussion?
Scottrchrdsn 1 day ago
The fact is that the bombing brought the North Vietnamese back to the table. The other fact is the U.S. should not have been involved in the first place. The entire conflict was not our finest hour. I cannot blame those who fought or the tactic of bombing the enemy.
Stoolie33 1 month ago
The US should have leveled Hanoi in 1965. There is no way this war should have lasted as long as it did and turned our the way it did. The US had the fire power to win the war in 2 months but for some odd reason refused ot use it.
flyboy7588 1 month ago
December of 1972 I was undergoing my AIT at Fort Devens. My next stop would have been Vietnam. Looking back over my 26 years in the Army, I wish that I would have gone to Nam. But then again, maybe not.
jvolstad 1 month ago
Looking at the comments. The nature of the U.S. is really dirty
Vinamilk92 2 months ago
@Vinamilk92 Yes, and the North Vietnamese were pure humanitarians (SARCASM), plus they broke the Paris peace treaty, which they signed immediately after this operation.
bantumwt 2 months ago
"Red Crown" during Linebacker II was not the USS Long Beach as is depicted in the video. During the 11 days of Linebacker II, Red Crown was the USS Truxtun DLG(N) -35, later re-designated as CG(N)-35. I was one of the radarmen and air intercept controllers on board the Truxtun during the operation.
bantumwt 2 months ago
This made things happen at the Paris talks, been admissions from enemy we could have broke there backs anti aircraft was almost at zero and refitting would have been tough, navy and airforce was ready to continue if necessary, all in the past time moves forward
nomars42 3 months ago
JFK ordered the REMOVAL of our troops from Vietnam to commence in '64. Johnson cancelled those orders and Nixon was elected in '68 with the promise to end the war but instead he extended, expanded and prolonged it and it only ended with the fall of Saigon in '75 AFTER Nixon resigned in disgrace. Over 60000 good American men paid the price for those errors. If we learn from the price that they paid, we will have in some way, justified their sacrifice.
exenrontexas 3 months ago
Who is Pinto?
centurion180ad 3 months ago
Nixon should of put a few H bombs on them - that would have achieved the objective with minimal US losses.
HYDE5510 3 months ago
@HYDE5510 Nixon should put a few H bombs on you and your family, so that you'd be able to understand the mass murdering Debt Syndicate systematized slaughter, plunder & enslavement.
Crime Against Humanity & War Crime is cool for you, when it is someone else?
Are you a veteran?
centurion180ad 3 months ago
Viet Nam fuck America!
vandelong 3 months ago
Check out R. McCarthy, B.Allison: Linebacker II - A view from the Rock from google books. Found it very fascinating.
karhjoo 3 months ago
Who are the bigger criminals, the Nazi or the US government?
alamando696 4 months ago
linebacker 2 worked it ended the war and got our guys out and pows home,we should do it again in aphganistan. utapao70-71
.
10231949 4 months ago
Hanoi deserved to be bombed more than that. It is a stronghold of communist who are so savage. thye killed a lot of innocent vietnamse in the south by mining the buses, shelling the school. Communist should be wiped out on the earth.
Dchauvu 5 months ago
The squeeks and blips are from ground radars.
ted3020 6 months ago
I love how people sit here and criticize the US Air Force for accidentally hitting civilians. Like your Air Force would do so much better of course.
chicago85bearz 6 months ago 4
Yes, they are from enemy and friendly radar activity.
Well, Tommy, we were talking about the 52s over Hanoi, then you moved the goal posts and started talking about the war as a whole. As for the rest, I'll not get into an argument. I was there and you were not. Rather than try to teach you something, I'll just let you stew in your own hate. I've had it with having to deal with the enemy and people like you at home.
buffaimer1 7 months ago
I have a question-are those rythmic audio anomalies (squeaks and bleeps) from enemy radar activity?
cirvine11 8 months ago
Sorry, but that was our mistake. We should've bombed everything! Screw anything , just like in Iraq and Afghanistan. If we're gonna win we have to kill everyone, that's what will break a back of a country. Now, if we really want to take control. Kill everyone! Sorry, but that's it! We just try and take them out on their own. They hide in houses, so bomb them all, It's not a good thing, but we damn sure will win!
TheCba1962 8 months ago
nixon removed all the restrictions previous commanders had placed on u.s. pilots. the result was massive destruction and death. only when the north vietnamese ran out of anti aircraft missles ( they had 1200) did they throw up their hands and said lets negotiate.
judgerofwars 8 months ago
Soviel Maschienen und trotzdem nix gerissen:)
MrUntenrum2011 9 months ago
most of Hanoi civilians had moved into countryside for hiding the bombing. Hanoi was only ready-to-suicide anti-air forces to protect their own home from 20,000 tons of explosive. And they made it.
watch this : ?v=OylA6eJyH_8
elemetalcrash 9 months ago
@tommybass40:
I really don't care what the beginning of the video says. What it means is, we bombed urban areas, yes. But the targeting was highly selective. I was there; you were in first grade. Give me some real authority and I'll listen.
BTW, your comment about "millions" of Vietnamese is ludicrous on its face.
People like you who spout off disgust me and your statements are libelous.
buffaimer1 9 months ago
@buffaimer1
Sure, right, whatever you say. I've seen the bombing videos on youtube where low flying American jets were strafing Vietnamese villages with napalm bombs. Sure, "highly selective" targeting. Low flying Hueys lighting up entire villages with .50 caliber guns and rockets is more "highly selective" targeting as well?
By all independent accounts, it is fact that close to 3 million Vietnamese were killed due to the US war. Of course, the US denies it. "Highly selective" indeed.
tommybass40 8 months ago
1318 peoples were killed in Hanoi ? so funny :))? I'm Vietnamese!
nhoxt1712 9 months ago
I'll never understand why the campaign was halted for "Christmas." The Vietnamese do NOT celebrate that holiday. The U.S. government threw away the lives of its airmen over North Vietnam.........
Darthbelal 10 months ago
Thank you for freeing my dad from a communist prison camp.
rgruters 10 months ago
@rgruters You are welcome, sir. Is your dad still with us, and, if so, how is he doing?
buffaimer1 9 months ago
die, communist die !
stuang000 10 months ago
@cccurtis In any of the reading that you've done, does it say what the CEP (circular error probability) was for a B-52 bombing at night, from 33,000 ft? I'm doing some research into saturation bombing, so I'm particularly interested in this stuff.
gyoza007 10 months ago
@gyoza007 Yes, it does, but I can't tell you. Still classified after all these years.
buffaimer1 9 months ago
Viet Pride
JustinAndrews74 10 months ago
Suks
Playstation707 11 months ago
Yeah, there are many missing zeros on that casualty toll! One bomb could have killed 1300!
Glennyco 1 year ago
Really impressive; real time history in the making
wukappa 1 year ago
You dropped 20,000 tons of bombs on densely populated sections of Hanoi and only 1,318 were killed? I think they conveniently forgot to add a few zeros to the end of that figure.
tommybass40 1 year ago 2
@tommybass40 I am not a warmonger by any means, but I can tell you this. The politics of the time demanded minimal casualties and high-value military targets -- fuel and ammo depots, railyards, etc. A hospital was accidentally hit and there was hell to pay. The bombing was precision bombing, not carpet bombing as took place in the countryside. It's also a fact that our government lied to us about actual casualties throughout the war, but I can tell you these targets were highly scrutinized.
cccurtis 1 year ago 10
@cccurtis absolute bullshit. You are as typically deluded as they come my friend. It has been clearly documented attempt at the so regurgitated American idea of "shock and awe" an obsession that superior firepower alone would push the north to "breaking point". The reason there was so few killed was because of mass evacuations. Linebacker II destroyed ten's of thousands of homes in Hanoi and Haiphong. Listen to Nixon's tapes from the at the time. "bomb the fuckers!!" Sadly, nothing changes.
riskygjk 11 months ago
@riskygjk No point in name calling. It doesn't really effect me. If you've got some objective historical data to point me to, I'll be happy to take back my view, but all the books I've read on the missions -- even the negative books -- are clear to point out how technically precise the bombing was.
cccurtis 11 months ago 6
@cccurtis I didn't call you a name. A well researched book is "War without fronts - the USA in Vietnam" by Bernd Greiner. It's no action packed read but it's objectively thorough as it gets. During Linebacker II or the "Christmas bombardment" about 3500 sorties flew with the specific intention of demoralising the civilian pop. Only 12% of the attacks hit military targets. Thanks to mass evac in spring '72 after Linebacker I, only 2200 died and 1600 wounded in Hanoi.
riskygjk 11 months ago
@riskygjk Yup, bomb the fuckers! Another week and the North would have capitulated! Yes, its always about the homes, the babies, the wailing women, the trampled daffodils. I believe the word which eleudes you is "WAR!" Something I beieve we as a people have forgotten how to wage!
sakoshooter48 9 months ago
@riskygjk You have a very jaded view of the American war machine. As a USAF pilot, I can attest to the scrutiny under which each bomb is placed. One of the biggest complaints in Vietnam was the lack of authority to bomb many of the high value military targets because they were too close to civilian buildings. Today we still have the same restrictions, but our bombs are even more precise allowing us to hit targets today that we wouldn't have been able to back in Vietnam.
skipplet 3 months ago
@cccurtis ...but rural “targets” in Laos & Cambodia were hardly given a second though, and best evidence is that THIS is where a major slaughter of noncombatants took place.
Carpet bombing was utilized on unconfirmed heat signatures, allegedly-supposedly that of HCM Trail infiltration. NILO reports reveal major heat concentrations were refugees fleeing into the hills for refuge, from the atrocious ground actions near urban centers in South Vietnam, or were unmapped highlander villages.
centurion180ad 3 months ago
@centurion180ad I believe that 52s were normally reserved for strategic bombing. Tactical bombing was generally accomplished by A-4, A-6s, F-4s and other USAF planes. I am only familiar with the Navy birds. But since normally those planes were used in dive bombing, then they were more effective in close air support for troops on the ground, although my unit also bombed Hanoi and mined Haiphong harbor.
exenrontexas 3 months ago
@tommybass40
I was there and they were not densely populated areas. The object was not to demoralize the population; the opinion of the population did not matter. Yes, civilian casualities were less than one per sortie. Yes, you don't know what you are talking about.
buffaimer1 10 months ago
@tommybass40 I was there, Tommy and Curtis, and I don't care what you think, so maybe you'll believe me, which I doubt. We did not bomb densely populated areas, ten's (sic) of thousands of homes were not destroyed, and we average one civilian casualty per sortie. You really don't know what you're talking about.
buffaimer1 10 months ago
@buffaimer1
Sir, if you read the beginning of this video again, it plainly states that 20,000 tons of bombs were dropped on densely populated areas of Hanoi and Haiphong during Operation Linebacker II. Hey, I was only a toddler when the war on Vietnam was raging and I just started grade school in 1972, but I find it objectionable that some would deny that millions of innocent Vietnamese were annihilated by massive bombing campaigns by the US.
tommybass40 10 months ago
@tommybass40 Even the N Vietnamese only claimed 1624 civilians killed (they still refuse to report military deaths). These B-52s were striking HVTs and they were big targets (rail yards and the like). Even if they weren't, the city's industrial/warmaking capacity was a valid target in war by the Geneva Conventions
CCCurtis, EXCELLENT find. I'm in the B-52Hs right now and there are still a LOT of similarities between then and now.
BQZip01 9 months ago
@BQZip01 The figure we got afterwards was 1624 civilian CASUALTIES, not killed. About one per sortie, BTW, or a little less.
buffaimer1 9 months ago
@tommybass40 the atomic bomb that hit hiroshima had the power of 20,000 tons of tnt. and 200,000 people died. now the NVA are saying they "only" lost 1318. yeah right . it's more like 25,000 dead.
judgerofwars 8 months ago
@tommybass40 Back at that time, carpet-bombing was used from WW1 to the end of the Vietnam War. Until when NATO nations started developing a technology that would allow precision bombing campaign to mimilize civilian casuatlies. The USAF plastered Iraq's selective military targets in Baghdad and occupied Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Then again with the Serbs in Bosnia in August-September 1995. You see, the USAF developted a tech that would mininize casuatlies as time goes on.
Hperman09 1 month ago
@tommybass40 Do sơ tán! Như london 1945!
withmefile3 1 month ago
Thanks for all your great comments, folks. I'm still in touch with half the crew and am passing them on.
cccurtis 1 year ago 3
@cccurtis Interesting tape.
Scottrchrdsn 1 day ago
My dad was there... on the ground in Da Nang. Said he didn't sleep for 11 days. It's really cool to hear this since he was there.
alliebug1988 1 year ago
Fascinating - real time history in the making - thankyou.
mig25pd 1 year ago
This is deep and all I can say is "wow!" Thanks for this wonderful upload. God bless America and the United States Air Force.
lwm762 1 year ago
120 B-52s in one raid! No wonder the guards at Hanoi Hilton were shaken next day. POWs report they were teary-eyed and, for the first time, polite to their captives. Nixon did good. Our POWs might still be there if not for him.
ranhat2 1 year ago
I was there for three missions and I found it very accurate.
buffaimer 1 year ago
from current b-52 flight crew, really enjoyed these videos
toastermanbob4 1 year ago 5
@toastermanbob4 God bless you guys!..Thanks 4 all you do.
wilatemodel 9 months ago