Johnson Administration makes plans to bomb North Vietnam
In two crucial meetings (on this day and two days later) at the White House President Lyndon B.Johnson and his top-ranking advisers agree after some debate to a two-phase bombing plan for North Vietnam.Phase I would involve air strikes by Air Force and Navy jets against infiltration routes and facilities in the Laotian panhandle.Phase II would extend the air strikes to a larger selection of targets in North Vietnam.
The more hawkish advisersparticularly the Joint Chiefs of Staffpreferred a more immediate and intensive series of raids against many targets in North Vietnam while dovish advisers questioned whether bombing was going to have any effect on Hanois support of the war.Johnson agreed with the Joint Chiefs on the necessity of bombing but wanted to take a more gradual and measured approach.When he agreed to the bombing plan President Johnson made it clear that South Vietnamese leaders would be expected to cooperate and pull their government and people together if they hoped to receive additional aid from the United States.
Johnson was concerned that the continuing political instability in Saigon would have a detrimental effect on the South Vietnamese governments ability to pursue the fight against the communist Viet Cong.
