I think that maybe the only want to have identified this, but this was so unpopular that people to not notice that this is the dawn of a new technological warfare, we go into this basically with almost no precision capability, no space capability, by the time 1972 arrived we have position rapidly we have Mission Planning and space detail and weather and we have taken a huge step towards evolving into the air force of today, we get to see in this case loops and action, the orient decide an act and as we know from other courses from earlier discussions in this course, if you have that capability to go through that process quicker than youre adversary then you have an inherent advantage and warfare, what we are gonna see is that advantage playing out over and over again through this narrative. This one is really important for you guys because anywhere you go in your career youre likely to be in the more technologically advanced forest, you probably have more resources and your adversary, on you may see an adversary that could be weaker and in some ways they are it is also important to understand how or adversaries go about compensating for those advantages that we have, okay, it is going to be a consistent story through this narrative and to talk about the versatility of air power is not really novel here at the United States air force academy but it is interesting and in this case to look at the huge range of options and capabilities that air power provides throughout this so we will talk about the principal actors and we will do that because we tend to talk about these events as abstractions, you know as tngs created by policy committees, these are real people with really experience is making hard decisions, we will talk about the context of the battle and the outcome and the lessons are available to be learned, and once youve been around as long as i have there are things that are available to be learned in this conversation law, so here are the principal actors of the American Policy Committee in this period, the interesting thing is that we have studied world war ii from various perspectives in these class, these are the guys playing, it is the greatest generation growing, up Richard Nixon elected in 1968 on the basis of stabilizing the domestic situation of the nation and ensuring an honorable and to the war on. And world he served out as an attorney and putting prices on tires and he and his wife decided that that was no way to spend the war and so he signed up for the navy reserve and went out as a supply officer and became known as the best poker player. And where you will find of interest is that he law tends to think of Strategic Affairs in these poker terms. Talking about moose and games all the time, it is National Security advisor Henry Kissinger has an even more dramatic story, he was born in germany in 1920, his family is stay was from the third ryan he was drafted in the army 1943, went over to europe isnt a listed oh. Person in the Intel Community and who is such a valuable asset because he knew the community and he knew the language and the movement and what we now call Civil Affairs and became a law minister of germany. Law secretary of defense mao during world war iis enlisted man which took a kamikaze strike he was introduced that strike and its one of those erie coincidences that the vietnam war kicks out and it triggered americas immediate engagement in the war, here is president nixon with the chairman into a chief of staff mueller during the war was a pilot and he was flying most Famous Mission of a troll aircraft that but shut down by a japanese aircraft. So we got rescued by a passing ship that got torpedoed by a Japanese Submarine and it is that that plate you know you were having a really bad day, they survived that and law later central role in this administration which i will talk about in just a moment. Down here we have general abrams who was probably the most luminary law. He was in general patterns army going around germany and was considered not only the best commander and the best take commander in patterns army but the best there was, path in was not you would call up modest man but he thought abrams was the finest in the American Forces, at this point in the war he was a commander of u. S. Forces for the military assistance command in saigon and general john over here in that photograph, he is serving a roll on the joint staff, in that role he has worked for cruz relationship with nixon and kissinger, three events like the cambodia incursion that we will talk about in a moment. This is him giving a briefing on the progressive one of those events law, secretary of defense looks on and in world war ii he was a squad commander by the age of 26, he was a commander of the peak 47 union that took off and provided patrol law a combat patrol over the normandy legs, so that is something that would change a persons life to see something that majestic out there but a few months later his task to defend the autumn bridge that was coming out of the paratroopers in about half of the squadron got shut down law and the general had basically car combat fatigue, he had a nervous breakdown and he lost his ability to make decisions, even to get up out of a chair so they evacuated him to the United States and he came back to the air force a couple years later law and by being a wonderful staff officer heroes to the rank on, to four stars webb nixon promoted him on the outside of the admission but a remarkable set of stories kind of tracking the lives of these men cars we have gone through the warren indochina few times but just to refresh everyones memory. We have french into china and north you, South Vietnam with its really long and defensible borders, cambodia that has been neutral for much of the war, dragged into it and allow switches elusive interest in the war for the supply routes running down through southern allows which was a concern to try to block law. Nor is free and mom we see on the north that is where North Vietnams military equipment comes from, all of it, they manufacture nothing and so here through the port or through real networks, basically the biggest going up towards the northeast in the second line and Rolling Thunder the chinese had deployed about 300,000 road workers and anti aircraft crew man to support a North Vietnam during that period, during that period they anticipated the campaign law line and had more road work done but to isolate North Vietnam would have to start with closing the border in shutting down the transportation routes. Law they they came down from there was High Technology material that the North Vietnamese needed, that the aircraft in service tear missile batteries ed, the chinese to to provide a complementary type of support to the North Vietnamese uniforms, small arms infantry weapons, that kind of big. Any questions on the general lay out here . Law okay i think we all have that. Carine when so this is a fairly complicated story, so we certainly with him coming into office, at the moment that he takes the oath of office hes a war president and this is the most important thing of his mind every day of this administration, we talk about the state of the nation and the extreme trouble while that is out there in the state of the conflict, at that point it happened about a year earlier and had completely strange Domestic Support and became imperative for america to end the war, nixon was determined that he had to do that but it had to be done honorably not just by packing up and leaving, there is no real clear plan in his mind how to go about that but he is aware of the different elements of the strategy that could work. Those elements include, first of all you have to law builds of the South Vietnamese military so they can assume the rule that was taken by American Forces at that point, that was it slow process but that is what it had to be done, as the withdrawal of the american troops can begin and this began in fact in the first half of 1969, they knew at this point that there could be law no all out military victory, there would have to be a negotiated settlement so under johnson they opened up public negotiations and nixon and kissinger knew that would never be a pathway to success its basically a propaganda theater, so in august 1969 doctor kissinger went to paris and made within north of the enemies had started secret negotiations that would continue for the next couple of years. We have really critically this triangular diplomacy that we have talked about in this class before, we have a working gradually to build a relationship with the soviet union and to get away from the dangerous confrontations that we had earlier in the cold war and we also had worked very subtly and gradually over time to create the opportunity for opening with communist china. Those are both critical moves for the shape of the International System both respect to the vietnam war these are critical. When nixon is intent on doing its a phrase that he loved the use was to give the soviets and the chinese bigger fish to fry then their support for vietnam, if they cut their support, if they were to back off their support nixon can offer them technological advantages, he could sell them wheat, he could basically recognize them as equals in the family of nation which is something that rationale was always interested in, these are the tradeoffs that jeopardize North Vietnams war. Law so this was a critical part of next in this program, the problem with the set of strategies, is actually, to some of the elements are contradictory, you have a very slow law process of minimization. But then you have a withdraw of an troops, and in addition to being a good secretary of defense and he has seen the Johnson Administration get crippled by this war and he wanted us out as quickly as he could make that happen. So he was always pushing, using every tool in his disposal, budgetary tools, running his own policies to accelerate the withdrawal of u. S. Troops. There was an inherent conflict in, the quicker you withdraw the law the quickly lose your negotiation and talks with the vietnam. Hes the other thing is it takes time to build up an allied military and to execute all these processes and hes not sure that he has the time. So during that first year in office, 1969 you see the Nixon White House orchestrating three major studies on the war and law a third of them one thats almost unknown, you have law nixon trying to find some strategy by which they can execute coercive airstrikes in the North Vietnamese and away in a pace that does and bringing the Anti War Movement back onto the streets but is Strong Enough to coarse them into honest negotiations, so they have a working movement in the services out there to look at military options, they have a Planning Group in washington d. C. Law and basically law the civilian Planning Group gets mad at the military and they can find a pathway forward and that is one next and gives his silent majority speech on november 3rd and convince him to this law gradual program of withdrawal, during that program nixon direct a South Vietnamese u. S. Army forest in cambodia to disrupt the north economies Logistics Base camp that was over there and then a few months later an even larger offensive into los, these two are linked conceptually but theyre also linked practically, what happens is when we sent those troops into, the North Vietnamese hero that prides itself to protect its action is taken by surprise, there is a certain amount of Tactical Response but theyre taken by law surprised that nixon could stand his forces into cambodia and they convene a Planning Committee to find out if nixon is going to go into cambodia to district the logistics there what is his next logical move. The next move is to do it again but this time up and laos, closer to the source of supply but the bigger threat even into the North Vietnamese forces and cambodia had been, so had a main conducted this, the north enemies are back on it, i want you to remember this because theres a lot of strategic assessments that you will take part in your career law that will have little effect on the course of events, the north than me is when they decided theyre going to protect with the americans will be up to next law they build a road network in the area they expect this campaign to happen, they build a command structure so that they will be ready to go and get organized and respond, the deployed anti aircraft law works, all of this before we had even begun to consider going in there, this is one of the weapons, if we are predictable we will be predicted and they will be ready, remember that law. So what happens then is that the United States ends up supporting this sophie enemies forest going along this jungle road and to a town law, the North Vietnamese basically set an operational level trap, an ambush, what they want was like lincoln out of gettysburg, he didnt want to just push them out, he wanted to destroy them and that is exactly how the North Vietnamese felt, they didnt want to just push this out the enemies out of life they want to destroy them. They didnt succeed because of, basically a large part was the air power to keep them back off the south the enemies but it was a major defeat for the South Vietnamese, including the north korean emmys had a gradually recovered from their losses and law it had a couple of very important events law. I think this is what puts us on the backstreet and the war, this is what been shapes this, a couple of things happened been, first president nixon and kissinger lose faith and doctor abrams and the u. S. Military because of the sluggish reaction to this operation and allows mean, probably more important based on that the bureau gathered and trying to projector an action for the next campaign and they decided that the south eateries with all this law support cannot do better with going into this incursion and what are they gonna do one the americans are on it, it seems unthinkable that they could offer a significant resistance to the North Vietnamese operation been, based on that basically they decided to risk been an offensive the following year, 1972, their strategic estimate includes the fact that a withdrawal would be complete by them and we will have very little combat capability, we know like all of our adversaries always do and on well that we have the president ial election coming up, they predict that nixon will be constrained by the domestic policies, they expect their policies in moscow and beijing to restrain nixon as well law which is also a mistake scene but they actually put a paragraph we have their strategic plan, they put it on paragraph that says you may know these calculations but the one thing we cannot calculate with certainty is the reaction of president nixon, he is unpredictable and he is likely to use powerful weapons against our offensive scene. Been vulnerable thing now we has military people have an appreciation for is of the north you know hes entered into this period with Infantry Army and president warfare background, what they plan to do in this offensive history transform their army and to basically a smaller scale replica of the soviet style tank or jewelry infantry force, they are going to do that in the course of a few months in the training at the end of the supply train that reaches all the way back to hanoi and moscow, they have to get this agreement and they have to assimilate it and they have to deploy, they have to do all of that in the midst of an ongoing war, its a remarkable accomplishment. And left that was some weaknesses that will show up and the defense. Why and you cant train people that quickly to do this scene, a combined attack does not happen overnight been, the other is is that theyre planning cycles they borrow from the soviets as well, its a very deliberate planning cycle in part because their communications are so bad they can make adjustments on the battlefield, so over and over again and this offense i will follow soon we see them stagnation and that gives the defensive chance to really solidify, i want to point out here that the president of South Vietnam is a general who survived a man prosper throughout the chaos, emerged as a leader of the nation and over here we have on the communist side of this equation, we have the successor of ho chi minh and we have the a bid supporter of the north korean amuse war effort. So i goes all and, this is all they got, they roll the dice with a three a front offensive, the plan is to start with this conventional warfare in the sand tanks, heavy all to larry, and forced against the Demilitarized Zone and then a second fragile north of saigon threatening the Nations Capital law and there is a slower rising offensive in the central islands and they and been driving the South Vietnamese back law, sitting siege to the provisional capital scene and it looks like this whole plan is going to succeed and what they plan to happen and suspect is to first to achieve the conventional success and then when they south bend amaze move out of