This AT2 thanks you for the post.
Kudos to the Navy, Marine, Airforce and Army vets, who did their best with heavy losses.
Unfortunately, the ROE’s that the bastards LBJ and Mack the Knife set up, made their efforts not that effective. Like the bastards in the White Hut now, LBJ and Mack made it impossible for us to defeat and not really hurt North Vietnam as shown from the link you posted from.
“Unfortunately, the campaign was compromised and circumscribed by unprecedented micromanagement emanating from the White House and the Pentagon and relayed through the cumbersome chain of command to the pilots and air crewmen trying to do their jobs in the actual theater of war. At the start of the campaign, prohibited bombing zones were established around Hanoi and Haiphong, within 25 to 30 miles of the Chinese border, and in other areas. There was also a requirement for specific approval from Washington and the commander-in-chief, Pacific, in Hawaii to strike individual targets above the 19th parallel, which was about 175 miles north of the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Vietnam..”
The Un-Holy Trinity for my Dad in those days:
LBJ
MacNamara
Jane Fonda
He hated all three, but Fonda was more equal than the others.
For it’s time, the F-4 Phantom II was the perfect aerial weapon. Hasn’t been an all-purpose plane since. (IMHO)