North Vietnam : 20, soldiers and 30,β, civilians killed [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ] 85 [ 10 ] - aircraft destroyed [ 7 ]. American intervention Post- Paris Peace Accords β Lists of allied operations. Operation Rolling Thunder was a gradual and sustained aerial bombardment campaign conducted by the United States U.
The four objectives of the operation which evolved over time were to boost the morale of South Vietnam ; to persuade North Vietnam to cease its support for the communist insurgency in South Vietnam without sending ground forces into communist North Vietnam; to destroy North Vietnam's transportation system, industrial base, and air defenses; and to halt the flow of men and materiel into South Vietnam. Attainment of these objectives was made difficult by both the restraints imposed upon the U.
Supported by its communist allies, North Vietnam fielded a potent mixture of MiG fighter-interceptor jets and sophisticated air-to-air and surface-to-air weapons that created one of the most effective air defenses ever faced by American military aviators.
The limited effectiveness of the operation and the pursuit of peace talks led to the scaling back of the operation in March and its cancellation in November In response to President Ngo Dinh Diem 's abrogation of the reunification election and suppression of communists during the late s, Hanoi had begun sending arms and materiel to the Vietcong VC , who were fighting an insurgency to topple the American-supported Saigon government.
By the beginning of , the policy was reversed in the belief that without further American action the Saigon government could not survive. Questions then arose among the U. The answer seemed to lie in the application of air power. By most of the civilians surrounding President Lyndon B. Johnson shared the Joint Chiefs of Staff 's collective faith in the efficacy of strategic bombing to one degree or another.
