This week in 1965, the US began 'Operation Rolling Thunder', a massive bombing campaign on North Vietnam, which killed 180,000 civilians & which saw the US drop more bombs in 3 years than it used during the entire Pacific Theater of World War II. 
The US claimed the bombing campaign was precise; however, eyewitness reports showed the US bombed hospitals, schools, Buddhist pagodas, farms, fishing boats, & sanitariums. After the bombing, North Vietnam’s 3rd largest city, resembled "the city of a vanished civilization.”
US Pilot Randy Floyd described the bombing campaign, “virtually anywhere in North Vietnam was a free drop zone. We even bombed the cattle because we were told that anything out there was North Vietnamese controlled and we figured that was part of the food supply.”
A Vietnamese witness described the effect of US bombs, “From a kilometer away, the sonic roar of the explosions tore eardrums, leaving many permanently deaf. From a kilometer, the shock waves knocked their victims senseless."
He continued, "Any hit within half a kilometer would collapse the walls of an unreinforced bunker, burying alive the people cowering inside.”
US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara admitted in a private memo that the US bombing campaign was "killing or seriously injuring 1,000 noncombatants a week". thenation.com/article/mcnama…
