11 Days of Christmas: America's Last Vietnam Battle, The

Sea Power, Jun 2002

THE 11 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS: America's Last Vietnam Battle, by Marshall L. Michel Ill. San Francisco, Calif: Encounter Books, 2002. 334 pp. $25.95. ($16.95 paperback). [Internet: www.encounterbooks.com] With Congress preparing to cut off all funding for the Vietnam War, President Richard Nixon had to act quickly to pressure the North Vietnamese into signing a peace agreement.

He ordered the massive bombing of Hanoi by the Strategic Air Command's B-52s. The B-52s had already proven successful in devastating enemy forces coming down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and Nixon was not alone in assuming that the sight of the U.S. air armada over the skies of Hanoi and Haiphong would soon break the will of the enemy. North Vietnamese surfaceto-air missile crews, however, instead of being overwhelmed, wreaked serious damage on the B-52 force. For I I days the battle swung back and forth, ending in an ambiguous conclusion in which each side both won and lost. Michel flew fighter coverage during this air battle. Using both firsthand accounts and hundreds of formerly classified documents and interviews, Michel tells the dramatic story of a pivotal moment in the Vietnam War. With glossary, acknowledgments, reference notes, bibliographic note, partial bibliography, index, four appendixes, and eight pages of black-and-white photography.