Video: Dec. 22, 1972 (6:47)

(Friday, December 22, 1972; during Operation Linebacker II, part of the Vietnam War) — The target area of “The Christmas Bombings” of North Vietnam today shifted away from Hanoi to the port city of Haiphong and its petroleum storage areas.

Also, a wing of the Bach Mai Hospital, located in the southern suburbs of Hanoi, was struck by an errant string of bombs from a single B-52. The civilian deaths were turned into a cause celebre by the North Vietnamese and U.S. peace activists.

The hospital sat 1 kilometer from the runway of Bach Mai Military Airfield and a major fuel storage facility was only 200 yards away. Fortunately, the patients of the hospital wing had been evacuated from the city, but 28 doctors, nurses, and pharmacists were killed.

Video: Dec. 22, 1972 (at 1:31)