1966: B-52s bomb North Vietnam

DATE: 1966

DESCRIPTION: The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, also known as the B-52, is a long range subsonic jet-powered strategic bomber that was used in bombing North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. A number of B-52s were modified to increase their bomb capacity in carpet bombings; they were able to carry 60000 pounds (108 bombs). These modified B-52s entered combat in Operation Arc Light and Operation Rolling Thunder, which were both aerial bombing campaigns.

BLAME: Similar to the previous event, this one was caused by the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which gave President Johnson permission to escalate the war in Vietnam. In this way, this event has the same fault: North Vietnam and the American who made the second report on August 4 that some North Vietnamese ships engaged and fired on American destroyers. This is because there were 2 incidents of North Vietnamese ships: one on August 2 and one on August 4; however, only the first event actually happened.

TENSION INCREASE: Also similar to the previous event, this one increased tensions between the North Vietnamese/Viet Cong and the Americans because the Americans were involving themselves more in the Vietnam War, which was sure to cause more tensions between them – especially since the US was involving themselves in what was meant to be a civil war between the two halves of Vietnam. It doesn’t have as high of an increase in tension as other events covered because this one was just a small part of the already-ongoing Vietnam War; the tensions created by the dispatching of soldiers added onto it, but only slightly. +0.5

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