Archie to SAM: A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air ...

AIRMEN VERSUS GUERRILLAS
Figure 56. North Vietnamese gunners. North Vietnamese gunners
scramble to their guns. Communist guns downed three-quarters of US
aircraft lost in the war. (Reprinted from USAF.)
accuracy, one author asserts, from under 300 feet to over 500
feet. 15
SAMs Join the Fight
The air war changed dramatically on 24 July 1965 when a
Soviet SA-2 missile downed an Air Force F-4 and damaged
three others. Proving this shootdown was no fluke, an SA-2 destroyed
an American drone two days later. US reconnaissance
spotted construction of the first SAM site in early April and
watched it and three other sites progress throughout the spring.
But, the civilian decision makers would not permit the Airmen to
attack the missile sites, another of the many political restrictions
on the air war. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara argued
that if the Airmen attacked the SAM sites, they must also attack
the MiG bases, which would be a major escalation of the air war.
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