Rolling Thunder: Could Theory Have Helped

Abstract

This paper examines President Johnson's decision to initiate a strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam at the outset of the Vietnam war. The campaign was called Operation Rolling Thunder After outlining the failure of the operation, the paper will turn to whether military theory could have helped. The discussion also addresses the issue, raised by the military, of undue political constraints on the operation. The analysis suggests that military theory would probably not have led President Johnson to a different decision on Rolling Thunder. Rather, the principal difficulties were such factors as the President's approach to decision-making and the fixed mindsets of the President and his top advisers. The paper concludes that military theory might benefit from a greater emphasis on ways to encourage well-informed decisions at times of crisis and war.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1998
Accession Number
ADA441825

Entities

People

  • Donald F. Herr

Organizations

  • National War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Bombing
  • Center Of Gravity
  • High Pressure
  • Information Operations
  • International Organizations
  • Limited Warfare
  • Military Strategy
  • North Vietnam
  • Pol Storage
  • Second World War
  • South Vietnam
  • Strategic Bombing
  • Vietnam
  • Vietnam War
  • War
  • War Colleges

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Strategic Security Studies
  • Systems Analysis and Design