0 - The Black Vault

THE 8DM CORP'ORATION
hesitate to use mfil;tdry force in Vietnam.
US deperdents were evacuated
from the South and a seriei of reprisal "itit-fo 1 '-tat" air strikes were
5 conducted over North Vietnam. "Flaming Dart," followed by "Rolling
t
Thunder," (sustained bombing of the north) began under very strict limitations,
ccn'roiled at the highest levels and approved on a week-to-week
basis by the White House.,
Faced with a lack of notable success, the first oombing
pause, Project "Mayflower", was initiated ini May 1965 (three months afte,,
"Rolling Thunder" began). Preslidential advisers 47/ had reasoned that
early reprisal raids hardened the DRV's positici on negot-atior,- as "tltfor-tat"
gave way to a sustained air war.
They also reasoned that t~he DRV
position was unlikely to become more flexible j~nless tne air attacks were
stooped.. After much dialogue, the Saigon. Embassy gave in to the Washingt~on
push for a bombing pause., The embassy hoped tco "link the intepsity ot the
US bombing after the resumption closely to the level of VC aztivity during
the pause. The purpose would be to make it clear to Hlanoi that . . .
F downward trend in VIC activities would be -rewarded' in a sim;1ar manner by
decreasing !.IS bombing." 48/ There wes another bmiall
t-ut vocal factien in
Washi-igton that was seeking an end 4t.o sustained ra-ids and a return to the
"tit-for-tat" response to VC/NVA
Dause gambit.
actions,. L8J elected to i~ry the bombing
The "Mayfl..;wer" bom:bing pause lafteud flor fivp
da-v- with
no results or satisfactory response from the DRV.49/ A notla passed through
F the US Embassy in Moscow was r-'turned by North Vietnamese diplomats without
comment. The US responded by resuming the bombing atti.cks.
Shortl, after the bombing was resumed, Mai Van Bo,
Chief of the OR'! Econom~ic Delegation in ý'aris, Ppproacred French intermediaries
with what appeared to De z softening of his country's position.
But on further investigation US offic~als concluded '%nat tl~e Ba initiative
bad nio new substance. 50/ The North Vie~tnamese employed the samie LCechnique
(n-ilaying their response to a US bombing pause until a few hours after it
was resumed) agair following a 37-day blombing halt at the end of January
1966.51/ "The DRV probably used this gap flor two purposes: oropaganda and
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