Why Johnny Came Marching Home

A Fighter Pilot's History of Why We Lost the Clandestine Air Wars in Southeast Asia.

This is the complete story of America's involvement in the air war waged over North Vietnam and the huge, clandestine air war fought over the Kingdom of Laos. American fighter-bombers fought intense battles in the skies over North Vietnam and China. Thousands of American planes were shot down by missiles and guns fired by the forces of multiple Communist countries including the Soviet Union, China and North Korea.
The author flew 148 combat missions throughout North and South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. He flew MIG Screens and MIG Cover plus many bombing missions. He flew close-air-support of Army and Marine forces in the South. He interdicted North Vietnamese supply routes through the Laotian Ho Chi Minh Trail. His aircraft, the F-4C Phantom II, at the time was the hottest and fastest in the world. He was forced to eject twice within a year, with one involving perhaps the most harrowing Laotian rescue of the entire war.
The "Secret" Air War against the Pathet Lao and the North Vietnamese ground forces in Laos waged by CIA pilots and a multitude of "airline pilots" contracted to the CIA, was augmented with jet aircraft flown by the U.S. Air Force and Navy. It was so intense that more bombs were dropped on Laos than in all of World War II.
The air wars involved missions against the most heavily-defended targets in the history of aerial warfare. Four times the number of anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) guns employed by Germany in World War II were manned by Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean troops that filled the sky with deadly steel. Russian missileers, firing the SA-2 surface-to-air (SAM) missiles, killed hundreds of American pilots. MIG fighters manned by North Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian and North Korean pilots flew out of North Vietnam and China against American Air Force and Navy fighter-bombers.
The almost incomprehensible political mistakes made by an uninformed and cowardly political leadership led to our first military defeat. Ignorant politicians making military decisions caused the needless death of many pilots, soldiers and sailors. The time-honored Principles of War were continually violated by our politicians and the overly-restrictive Rules of Engagement made it virtually impossible for our aircrews to win the war.
Newly declassified documents from the CIA, NSA, DOD and the USAF reveal the real story of why we lost. Revelations described in the book amount to almost treasonous conduct by Presidents Johnson and Nixon as well as Secretaries McNamara, Rusk and Kissinger.
The author's combat diary describes an at-times riveting story of the day-to-day fighting of an air war. His experiences, his observations, and his significant research into situations and events have combined to make this perhaps the most interesting and certainly the most comprehensive military history ever written about the air wars in Southeast Asia. This heretofore untold story is a must-read for scholars, airmen, historians and anyone interested in how the clandestine air wars were being fought and why we lost.
His detailed accounts of political interference have led the author to propose a needed update in the Principles of War. His descriptions of needed policy and how the relationship between the military and civilian control must exist are also must-reads if we are to win future wars.