Lyndon Johnson in John McCain: An Essay, by John Karaagac

On War & Peace: 1965-1968: Operation Rolling Thunder air campaign

The Johnson administration did employ the limited use of air power over the North in the spring of 1965--a campaign known as Rolling Thunder. This air campaign lasted until late 1968, by which time John McCain was a prisoner of war. In devising Rolling Thunder, however, the administration provided a host of bombing restrictions in the air campaign: the war was directed, not from the theater of operations, but from Washington.

American pilots encountered relatively little resistance from Soviet-made North Vietnamese jets, which were typically used as a decoy to lure the superior American pilots into traps. The real enemy was the North Vietnamese Soviet-built air defense systems, operating on Soviet doctrine, staffed with Soviet weapons, often armed by Chinese and North Koreans, and reckoned to be among the best in the world at the time.

Source: John McCain: An Essay, by John Karaagac, p. 80-82 Sep 20, 2000

The above quotations are from John McCain An Essay in Military and Political History, by John Karaagac. Click here for main summary page. Click here for a profile of Lyndon Johnson. Click here for Lyndon Johnson on all issues.
*Lyndon Johnson on other issues:*
Abortion Budget/Economy Civil Rights Corporations Crime Drugs Education Energy/Oil Environment Families Foreign Policy Free Trade	Govt. Reform Gun Control Health Care Homeland Security Immigration Jobs Principles/Values Social Security Tax Reform Technology/Infrastructure War/Iraq/Mideast Welfare/Poverty
Please consider a donation to OnTheIssues.org! Click for details -- or send donations to: 1770 Mass Ave. #630, Cambridge MA 02140 E-mail: submit@OnTheIssues.org (We rely on your support!)

Page last updated: Jan 13, 2013