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

AIRMEN VERSUS GUERRILLAS
American Air Operations
through Linebacker I
The 1968 Tet offensive changed the war for the United States.
As a result, Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson capped American troop
levels, stopped American bombing of North Vietnam above 20
degrees north latitude, and then, just before the November
election, stopped all bombing of the north. In the fall, Americans
elected Richard M. Nixon president. He began to withdraw US
troops and turn more of the burden of the war over to the
South Vietnamese. Because of the bombing halt, American
aircraft losses, especially fixed-wing machines, declined. 28
The air war raged in other areas besides North Vietnam;
however, losses were proportionally the greatest in the north.
American combat losses on a per sortie basis were next highest
over Laos, then South Vietnam, and lowest over Cambodia.
However, because American Airmen flew most of their sorties
over the south, this became the area where most of the aircraft
fell. Between 1961 and 1968, the United States lost 859 aircraft
to hostile action over the north compared with about 1,709
over the south. One sharp difference was the proportion of helicopters
destroyed in the two areas. Only 11 went down in North
Vietnam, but about 1,073 helicopters (or about 63 percent of
all aircraft lost in the south) were lost in South Vietnam. 29
The helicopter proved to be vulnerable even in the less-lethal
antiaircraft environment of South Vietnam. The vulnerability
of the chopper is highlighted by the deaths associated with it.
During most of the war (1961–71) in all of Southeast Asia,
about 62 percent of the deaths from combat aircraft losses
and 66 percent of noncombat aircraft losses were associated
with helicopters. These numbers may overemphasize the
point, however, as helicopters were employed in large numbers
as troop carriers near the ground, where ground fire was intense,
all of which led to high personnel losses. Helicopter vulnerability
was dramatically demonstrated in the 1971 South
Vietnamese invasion of Laos (Lam Son 719). Although official
figures put helicopter losses at 107–22 and the number damaged
at 600, some put loss figures much higher, as many as
one-third of those engaged. The same doubt clouds the official
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