Nevertheless, the US strategic bombing was relatively ineffectual in destabilizing North Vietnam and discouraging them from continuing their fight. As Air Force General Curtis LeMay famously put it, “we’re going to bomb them back into the Stone Age,” and they fully believed they were capable of doing so. The Air Force was the figurehead of the entire US military, built up by Eisenhower and now put forth as the symbol of nuclear supremacy. It perfectly embodied the idea of asymmetrical warfare – according to Bernd Greiner in War Without Fronts: The USA in Vietnam, it was a contest of “ B-52 bombers and bamboo traps, napalm and handguns, battalions versus five-man night patrols.” The odds should have been stacked heavily in the United States’ favor, particularly when it came to the skies, but the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were hardened and willing to give everything for their beliefs. The Vietnam War was definitely a battle between David and Goliath. Goliath in the Vietnam War US airpower during Operation Thunder – two Air Force F-105 Thunderchiefs, alongside a B-66 Destroyer, via The National Interest
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