Vietnam, Protest, and Counterculture 457rates were rising as morale was sinking. Meanwhile, the NLF and VC were
consistently impressive. The enemy, by U.S. admission, controlled over 40 per-
cent of all RVN territory, and had majority control in over 50 percent of all
southern provinces, with over 90 percent control in five.
Johnson’s advisors were alarmed, and visited the president on January 27th,
1965 to tell him that “our current policy can lead only to disastrous defeat”
and to recommend that he “use our military power” to take on the NLF.
Johnson agreed and in mid-February began to ramp up the war, at first
through the air. The president began Operation Rolling Thunder, a series of sus-
tained air attacks against the North. Johnson assumed, incorrectly, that Ho
was controlling the insurgency in the South and he believed that the powerful
air strikes would convince him to stop the rebellion against the RVN. “Now
I have Ho Chi Minh’s pecker in my pocket,” the president even boasted. In
time, Rolling Thunder would become the most massive air campaign in the
history of warfare. Its impact never lived up to the hype, however. The bomb-
FIGuRE 9-5 u.S. Air Force bombing during Operation Rolling Thunder