Operation Linebacker II

The Christmas Day Bombings in late December, 1972, codenamed Operation Linebacker II, were the heaviest bomber strikes of the Vietnam War, ordered by US President Nixon, against North Vietnamese Army forces in North Vietnam and Laos.

Some 200 American B-52s armed with laser guided bombs launched airstrikes against Hanoi and Haiphong with devastating results. The North Vietnamese fired most if not all of their SAM missiles and at least 15 and as many as 34 Air Force B-52s were shot down in the operation. Privately the administration knew that the Christmas Bombings could not continue indefinitely.

The war was a legacy Nixon had inherited from his three immediate predecessors, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. Nixon had previously tried to "end US involvement in Vietnam," but saw the government of South Vietnam as uninterested in peace, and taking the US defense forces for granted. The escalated bombing attacks were to serve as a demonstration of the destructiveness of the war, in the hopes of forcing the South Vietnamese government back to peace talks with North Vietnam.

The bombings also were protested around the world as people began to pressure their respective governments to officially condemn them. The United Kingdom and Italy did so but other European countrys maintained their silence. Some elements in the Western media were alleged to have misreported the extent of damage done in Hanoi and Haiphong thus contributing to the anti-war unrest.

Nixon claimed that the bombings were successful in the short term, and the Paris Peace Accords were signed on January 27, 1973, ending US involvement in Vietnam and completing the so-called "Vietnamization" of the war. Hanoi maintained that the bombings did not influence their peace decision. There are two different opinions about the real effect of the bombings on the government of North Vietnam:

• Some believe that the North Vietnamese were afraid of an even larger air campaign against North Vietnam's dikes or even the use of nuclear weapons.
• Others believe that China would have tolerated neither nuclear attacks nor American ground forces in North Vietnam without entering the war against the United States. Avoiding conflict with China was an important goal of the American government. Indeed, Nixon's nuclear threats were just posturing. He called it the madman theory, saying "I want the North Vietnamese to believe I've reached the point where I might do anything to stop the war."

The peace talks between North and South Vietnam would dissolve. The NVA secured South Vietnam in 1975, unifying Vietnam under communist rule.

Note: The term "Christmas Day Bombings" is misleading. Operation Linebacker II commenced on December 18 and ended on December 29, but sorties were only flown on 11 of these days; bombing was halted on Christmas.