OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER
Operation Rolling Thunder was the sustained bombing of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. It lasted from 1965 to 1968. There were many objectives for this operation. They wanted to increase the morale of the Saigon regime in the Republic of Vietnam, demonstrate our power, and to destroy and disrupt the Vietcong transportation routes. Many of the bombs were dropped on the Ho Chi Minh trail, which was a huge branch of paths that connected North Vietnam and South Vietnam by being next to Laos and Cambodia. The Operation began in response to an attack of an U.S. air base. The U.S. believed that the bombings would encourage North Vietnamese leaders to accept the non-communist government. North Vietnamese leaders managed to put up a fight with a new air defense system that they had constructed. The device helped fight off the bombs but it did not stop them completely. By the end of the Vietnam war, the U.S. had dropped over 4.5 million tons of bombs on Vietnam killing over 2 million.
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