Rolling Thunder 53 Strike Map
1/1967
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President Lyndon B. Johnson was faced with a deteriorating situation in Vietnam after winning the 1964 Presidential election. His advisers predicted "disastrous defeat." Johnson planned a course of gradual escalation.
In early 1965, after southern Communist forces attacked a U.S. Army airfield in South Vietnam, the administration had a pretext to launch Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against the north. This map shows “red zones” where bombing was prohibited by the White House. During Rolling Thunder, U.S. bombers dropped 643,000 tons of bombs between 1965 and 1968, killing approximately 52,000 Vietnamese civilians.
An air campaign necessitated an air base, and an air base needed protection, so the first American boots hit the ground soon after the bombing began. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. combat troops would follow. America was at war.
Full Citation: Rolling Thunder 53 Strike Map; 1/1967; Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, TX. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/rolling-thunder-53-strike-map, April 19, 2024]
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