The bombing campaign that was meant to keep South Vietnam secure,
Rolling Thunder became a byword for pointless, ineffective brutality,
and was a key factor in America's Vietnam defeat. But in its failures,
Rolling Thunder was one of the most influential air campaigns of the
Cold War. It spurred a renaissance in US air power and the development
of an excellent new generation of US combat aircraft, and it was still
closely studied by the planners of the devastatingly successful Gulf War
air campaign.
Dr Richard P. Hallion, a vastly knowledgeable air power expert at the
Pentagon, explains in this fully illustrated study how the might of the
US air forces was crippled by inadequate strategic thinking, poor pilot
training, ill-suited aircraft, and political interference.