The Linebacker Raids: The Bombing of North Vietnam, 1972

Between May and October 1972, more than 150,000 tons of bombs were dropped by US bombers on North Vietnam. The controversial Linebacker raids were an attempt to force the North Vietnamese to the conference table, in the wake of the accelerating withdrawal of the US ground forces from the South Vietnamese battlefield. It was the last major aerial campaign of the war, deeply controversial and in the end ineffective. This analytical account examines the bombing missions and provides an overview of the US strategic bombing during the Vietnam war.