A HARD AND CRUEL TRUTH
On July 24, 1965, four McDonnell F-4C Phantom fighterbombers of Leopard Flight joined an airstrike against the Dien Bien Phu munitions storage depot and the Lang Chi munitions factory in the northwestern part of North Vietnam. The Phantoms bombed their assigned targets and withdrew to provide cover for the incoming Republic F-105D Thunderchief fighter-bombers of the 80th Tactical Fighter Squadron.
“As we started climbing out of the area after our single pass at the target,” recalls F-105 pilot Capt. Vic Vizcarra, “our mission commander informed the Phantoms that we were departing. We all remained on the same frequency as we climbed and headed south. I was left of Lead, which placed me on the Phuc Yen MiG base side of the flight. Suddenly we heard a call from the F-4s. ‘What the hell was that?’ one of them said.”
Leopard Lead called for others in his flight to check in. Leopards 3 and 4 responded, but 2 was never heard from—blotted out of the sky by a guided missile. The blast also damaged the other three Phantoms in the flight. They were the first victims of the soon-to-be-infamous SA-2 surface-to-air missile, or SAM.
Four months earlier President Lyndon B. Johnson, intent on preventing North Vietnam from putting its full military weight into an invasion of South Vietnam, had authorized the Operation Rolling Thunder bombing campaign. The bombing began on March 2, 1965, and targeted North Vietnamese transport and communications lines. However, the White House prohibited U.S. air operations in a 10-mile radius around Hanoi. In addition, restrictions were put on target selection in a larger 30-mile radius, which was under the control of the White House. Only Johnson, with advice from administration officials such as Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, had authority to order any air operations within that area.
The Johnson administration was afraid that a more aggressive bombing campaign would increase civilian casualties and could escalate the war by provoking the Soviets and Chinese. For example, bombers were banned from the entire seaport of
