Reflecting the desire to concentrate greater resources against the Ho Chi Minh Trail, on 3 April the southern Laotian Panhandle was separated from the Barrel Roll operational area in northeastern Laos and designated Steel Tiger.Įven as carrier air squadrons moved to staunch the flow of men and supplies through southern North Vietnam and Laos, other fleet units moved to cut the enemy's seaborne infiltration into South Vietnam. The Seventh Fleet's naval air forces were given somewhat greater latitude in target, ordnance, and aircraft selection, in operational control, and in other tactical considerations. Much the same occurred with the Yankee Team and Barrel Roll operations in Laos.
Thereafter, the Rolling Thunder program focused less on influencing the enemy's will than on hurting his actual physical capability to support the military venture in the South. The President authorized the Pacific Command to carry out a systematic bombing campaign against North Vietnamese lines of communication, military installations, and logistic facilities south of the 20th parallel. foreign policy and military establishment.
This new direction in American strategy jelled during a meeting in Washington on 15 March 1965 of the U.S. In practical terms, this meant the use of the American Armed Forces 1) to interdict the infiltration of enemy supplies and reinforcements into the South and 2) to destroy Viet Cong and North Vietnamese units in-country so that a renewed nation- building effort could proceed and, it was hoped, prosper. At the same time, they intended to make the cost of continued military action increasingly prohibitive for the Communists. leaders concluded that a rebuilding program would succeed only behind a shield of American military power. But in a departure from previous assumptions, U.S. The regular and paramilitary units were especially in need of increased American assistance. Since the year-long American punitive campaign failed to deter the North Vietnamese, the Johnson administration decided that a massive effort was required to strengthen the South's stand against its Communist foe. By March 1965, the government and armed forces of South Vietnam were on the verge of collapse under the weight of the enemy's political-military offensive.
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