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(Monday, December 18, 1972, 7:45 p.m. Indochina Time; during Operation Linebacker II, part of the Vietnam War — part of the Indochina Wars and the Cold War) — Operation Linebacker II, described more generally as The Christmas Bombings — an aerial bombing campaign conducted by U.S. forces against targets in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) during the final period of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War — began this evening as the first wave of 129 B-52 bombers attacked the Yen Vien railroad yards.
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The targets of the first wave of bombers were the North Vietnamese airfields at Kép, Phúc Yên, and Hòa Lac, and a warehouse complex at Yên Viên while the second and third waves struck targets around Hanoi.
Three aircraft were shot down by the 68 surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) launched by North Vietnamese batteries, two B-52Gs from Andersen and a B-52D from U-Tapao.
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Two D models from Andersen with heavy battle damage managed to limp into U-Tapao for repairs. Only one of the three downed crews could be rescued.
That same evening, an Air Force F-111 Aardvark was shot down while on a mission to bomb the broadcasting facilities of Radio Hanoi.
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Unlike Linebacker, which had been launched in response to a spring 1972 North Vietnamese offensive in South Vietnam, President Nixon did not address the nation on television to explain the escalation. Instead, Kissinger held a press conference at which he accused (at Nixon’s behest) Le Duc Tho of having “backed off” on some of the October understandings.
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Linebacker II was designed to be a “maximum effort” bombing campaign to “destroy major target complexes in the Hanoi and Haiphong areas, which could only be accomplished by B-52s.”
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It saw the largest heavy bomber strikes launched by the U.S. Air Force since World War II.
The operation would be conducted through Dec. 29, 1972, except for a 36-hour pause for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, until Hanoi agreed to return to the negotiation table.
