Foty years ago, the nation relied on airpower to halt North Vietnam' s biggest conventional invasion of the Vietnam War. This was Linebacker I. At the time, few expected such a test. It was 1972, the year the US got out of Vietnam and handed off defense to South Vietnamese forces. From a peak of more than 500,000 forces in country in 1968, the US had reduced troops to 156,000 by January 1972, pulling 179,000 in 1971 alone. Plans called for dropping to 67,000 by July. President Richard M. Nixon called the policy "Vietnamization."
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