South Viet Nam: Noise in the North

For 37 days the skies over North Viet Nam had been free of U.S. fighter-bombers, while the U.S. vainly probed Hanoi for some sign of willingness to talk peace. When at last patience was exhausted, the code message flashed out from the Pentagon via Pearl Harbor to Saigon, and last week American jets roared aloft to end the bombing pause.

First off the mark were Navy planes from the U.S.S. Ranger, which dropped a bridge twelve miles southwest of Dong Hoi and blasted a ferry landing near Quang Khe. Only minutes later, on target—a highway-ferry complex at Thanh Hoa—were Air Force...