After Korea, America was organized, trained and equipped to deter and
if necessary, to fight a global thermonucelear conflict agains the Soviet Union.
In 1965 America found itself thrust unexpectedly into a conventional war against
a small Asian country who was well supplied by China and Russia. The US Air Force
and Navy evolved gradually and painfully into air forces capable of flying and
fighting major air campaigns against the rapidly developing integrated air
defences over Hanoi and Haiphong. Mounting aircraft losses, inconclusive results
from massive air strikes, political difficulties at home and across Southeast
Asia, and growing numbers of American prisoners of war defined the challenge air
planners faced. Can you plan and orchestrate effective air missions against one
of the densest and most lethal integrated air defence systems on the face of the
Earth? Or can you command the North Vietnamese air defence and inflict another
Dien Bien Phu on the Yankee Air Pirates?
War over Vietnam