9781422277126

Most of the targets were picked by the president of the United States and his advisors—sometimes over lunch—at the White House. Although the mis- sions varied, the main thrust of the bombing campaign was to crack the spirit of the enemy, the North Vietnamese. They, along with the Viet Cong , had for years been trying to unite South and North Vietnam into a single communist nation. The United States, South Vietnam’s ally, tried to stop them. Dangerous Route The conflict included flying thousands of bombing missions into North Viet- nam and over Thud Ridge, one of two main routes US Air Force and US Navy pilots took into the North. Thud Ridge was by far the most dangerous route because, hidden in its dense forest and among its rocky cliffs, were anti-air- craft guns and Soviet-made surface-to-air missiles, known as SAMs. Soviet-made MiG fighter jets, flown by North Vietnamese pilots from near- by airfields, greatly complicated each mission. In fact, Thud pilots expected The Thunderchief The F-105 Thunderchief was the most sophisticated warplane in America’s arsenal during the Vietnam War. It had a single seat and one engine, the most powerful of its day. Pilots called the plane by a variety of names, including Lead Sled, Super Hog, Iron Butterfly and the most famous of all— Thud. Engineers designed the F-105 to be fast. Its job was to penetrate air defenses quickly and fly fast at very low altitudes, using the geography of the terrain to thwart enemy radar.

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