Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Bombing Hanoi? hello, anyone out there ???

Robert S. McNamara, U.S. secretary of defense

On the bombing of North Vietnamese cities

"We believe this essential to safeguard the freedom of South Vietnam, and to save the lives of those South Vietnamese, Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, and Koreans who are fighting to ensure that freedom." (June 29, 1966)

On June 29, 1966, in a large escalation of the Vietnam War, American aircraft bombed the major North Vietnamese cities of Hanoi and Haiphong for the first time. The same day, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara appeared before the press to defend the bombings. As McNamara explained, it was hoped that by bombing Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, and Haiphong, the country's largest port, communist forces would be deprived of essential military supplies and thus the ability to wage war. However, in the face of what grew into the largest bombing campaign in history, the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese showed an impressive resilience, thwarting U.S. efforts to bring a successful end to an increasingly unpopular war. In addition, North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh placed the destruction of U.S. bombers in the forefront of his war effort, and by 1969, over 5,000 American planes had been lost. In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon began withdrawing U.S. troops, but intensified bombing across Indochina in an effort to salvage the embattled war effort. Finally, in 1973, a Vietnam peace agreement was signed in Paris, bringing an end to the U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War. It is estimated that over 100,000 North Vietnamese civilians were killed in U.S. bombing attacks.

http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive/speech_192.html