Author Description

The author subjects five case studies of interdiction, close air support, and strategic bombardment to rigid analysis. Dr. Gilster shows the relationship between the strike effort and target damage of several air campaigns during the Vietnam War. The purpose of this book is to fill that void by presenting a set of case studies that subject selected air campaigns during the Southeast Asia era to rigid economic analysis. The war in Southeast Asia lasted for nine long years and proved to be the most controversial of all US wars. This book presents five case studies conducted during that war involving three missions of air power--interdiction, close air support, and strategic bombardment. A major purpose of the book is to pull together these previously classified studies under one cover, set to a central theme based on lessons learned (and relearned) in Southeast Asia. To put the air campaigns in their proper historical context, however, a brief summary of US air participation in Southeast Asia should prove useful. Although US air units had participated in the war in Vietnam earlier, major air participation can be dated from congressional passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in the fall of 1964. Soon thereafter, in early 1965, the US initiated Operation Rolling Thunder and began air strikes against North Vietnam. The campaign began with strikes against lines of communications targets just above the demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam. Slowly the bombing campaign crept northward toward Hanoi and Haiphong, the major cities of the North, striking not only lines of communications but also petroleum, oil, and lubricants (POL), electrical power, and some industrial targets.Contents * FOREWORD * Chapter 1 * OVERVIEW * Air War Summary * Case Study Preview * Notes * Chapter 2 * AIR INTERDICTION IN PROTRACTED WAR--AN ECONOMIC EVALUATION * World War II to Southeast Asia * Air Operations in Southern Laos * Geography and Climate * Ho Chi Minh Trail * The Commando