The Eleven Days of Christmas

by Michel, Marshall L., III

• ISBN13: 9781893554245
• ISBN10: 1893554244
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-12-01
• Publisher: Encounter Books

Summary

By December 1972, the Paris Peace Talks to end the Vietnam War had fallen apart. With Congress preparing to cut off all funding for the war, President Richard Nixon had to act quickly to pressure the North Vietnamese into signing a peace agreement. He ordered the massive bombing of Hanoi for the first time by America's big stick, the Strategic Air Command's B-52s. But instead of being overwhelmed, the North Vietnamese SAM missile crews initially shattered the B-52 force. For eleven days the air battle swung back and forth, moving from what appeared to be a certain US victory, to what appeared to be a North Vietnamese victory to the ultimate ambiguous denouement. Marshall Michel has used hundreds of formerly classified documents from both American and Vietnamese archives and interviews with dozens of Americans and Vietnamese who participated at all levels to tell, for the first time, the dramatic story of this critical battle in the war. Moving from the White House to the B-52 cockpits to the missile sites and POW camps of Hanoi, this is a gripping tale of heroism and incompetence in a battle whose political and military legacy is still a matter of controversy.

Author Biography

Marshall L. Michel III flew 321 combat missions in F-4s and RF-4s from 1970 to 1973 (including the 1972 bombing of Hanoi) and is the author of Clashes: Air Combat over North Vietnam, 1965-1972. He lives in Auburn, Alabama

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Prologue: Peace Is Our Profession	p. 1
War Is Our Hobby	p. 11
Getting Serious	p. 21
"Attacks must be brutal..."	p. 41
"Maximum effort, repeat, maximum effort..."	p. 53
"Downtown, where all the lights are bright..."	p. 71
The Night of the Fan Songs	p. 86
The Second Day	p. 123
The Slaughter of the Gs	p. 139
Dien Bien Phu of the Air	p. 164
Holding On	p. 181
The Eighth Night	p. 193
The Last Nights of Christmas	p. 204
Denouement	p. 217
Retrospective	p. 232
Analysis	p. 239
Linebacker II "Urban Legends"	p. 243
Number of SAMs Fired	p. 248
Key Organizations and Personnel for Linebacker III	p. 250
Glossary	p. 253
Acknowledgments	p. 259
Reference Notes	p. 260
Bibliographical Note	p. 290
Partial Bibliography	p. 299
Index	p. 314
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