Friday, May 5, 1972
The Battle The Bombers Haven't Won
WASHINGTON (AP) --North Vietnam's invasion gains in the face of total Allied air superiority are raising new doubts about the effectiveness of air power.Both military officers and civilian defense officials are expressing concern privately and there are reports the key members of the Armed Services Committees of Congress are beginning to ask critical questions.Some Air Force officers, while agreeing there is reason to question, argue that the issue still is in doubt and that over the long haul airpower will do its job against the North Vietnamese by attrition of the enemy's heavy weapons and supplies, as well as killing his troops.For quite some time, critics have questioned whether U.S. bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail was really knocking out a big part of the enemy's supplies being trucked through southern Laos.The ability of the North Vietnamese in this offensive to mount heavy bombardment of objectives like An Loc near Saigon and to bring 40-ton tanks that far south tends to support the critics' skepticism.But perhaps the biggest source of dismay to advocates of airpower has been the apparent inability of U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marine and South Vietnamese fighter-bombers and bombers to stem North Vietnam's invasion across the Demilitarized Zone -a conventional attack through relatively open country with tanks, self-propelled and towed artillery, supply trucks and other heavy equipment.It has long been an article of faith among air power boosters that the adversary who controls the air over the battlefield will pretty well determine the course of the ground battle.But it hasn't worked that way in this offensive, particularly in the area below the DMZ where the North Vietnamese have penetrated more than 30 miles into South Vietnam.U.S. and South Vietnamese strike planes have flown hundreds of sorties a day against North Vietnamese ground troops which are totally without air cover, though the enemy has brought substantial antiaircraft artillery into play."I can't understand it," said one Air Force general with a long record of air combat in three wars. "Tanks are not supposed to survive against the kind of attack we use, with rockets and forward air controllers to spot targets and direct the strikes."This general recalled the early days of the Korean War, in 1950, when U.S. and South Korean troops were pushed all the way back to the Pusan perimeter. He recalled that when U.S. air power was brought to bear the North Koreans were driven back.It is recalled also that the last-gasp Nazi offensive in the Ardennes in World War II made huge inroads until the weather opened up again and American warplanes hammered the German tank and infantry to a standstill and then into retreat.A senior Pentagon official said, "We've got to wonder about air power" in the light of what's been happening in the current war phase.He noted that bad weather had hampered air operations seriously in the first 10 days or so of the North Vietnamese invasion. But he pointed out also that the skies have been clear enough to permit extensive air strikes during the more recent North Vietnamese thrust which overran the provincial capital of Quang Tri and drove South Vietnamese troops back toward Hue.Sources reported that Chairman John Stennis, D-Miss., of the Senate Armed Services Committee has pressed military briefers for specific details on the number of enemy tanks destroyed by U.S. and South Vietnamese aircraft, but that the briefers were unable to come up with such figures.An Air Force general cautioning against immediate judgments on the effectiveness of airpower said that the answers may come only "after the battle has reached its decisive phase."He believes that phase may be some time off in future days or weeks."It is fair to say that if it hadn't been for air power Hue would have fallen by now, or at least there would have been fighting inside Hue already," he said."It is safe to say air power did serve to blunt the North Vietnamese attacks earlier."Air power cannot hold ground, it cannot move in and capture ground. All it can do is wear away the enemy's supplies, limit his mobility and affect his morale."It takes time to do that, especially in a situation where the enemy has been able to gather supplies and troops for quite some time in a sanctuary above the DMZ.""The Battle the Bombers Haven't Won", by Fred S. Hoffman, published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on Friday, May 5, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes.