Igloo White

摘要

By the spring of 1966, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara had soured on the air campaign against North Vietnam. The Operation Rolling Thunder air strikes, which had begun in March 1965, had not accomplished much. The strategic results might have been better, except that US airmen were severely constrained in where and what they could bomb. The targets were selected, one by one, by the White House. Strikes on major military targets around Hanoi and Haiphong were seldom approved. The campaign was a "measured and limited air action" to signal US "determination and commitment" to Hanoi. Administration officials did not want to provoke "a wider war." They feared that stronger use of force might lead to a confrontation with the Soviet Union or China.