In 1969 the Nixon team thought about using nuclear weapons against military and economic targets in and around Hanoi, the mining of Haiphong harbor and bombing of the borders in November 1969 they ditched Duck Hook, starting in 1965 the USAF started talking about bombing the Red River Valley dams and dikes which would lead to massive flooding and destroy that year's rice crop, together with shutting down NV major harbor at Haiphong would lead to mass starvation, Nixon and Kissinger talk about the plan in this the most chilling moment of the Nixon tapes
this too was largely ditched, though during Operation Linebacker II in 1972 some limited bombing of the dikes took place, and under Operation Linebacker Haiphong was mined
so what if Nixon bombed, with out nukes, the whole dike and dam system of the Red River, and major targets in and around Hanoi on top of mining Haiphong in 1972 (around the same time as Linebacker I ) ?
Nixon: We've got to quit thinking in terms of a three-day strike [in the Hanoi-Haiphong area]. We've got to be thinking in terms of an all-out bombing attack - which will continue until they - Now by all-out bombing attack, I am thinking about things that go far beyond. I'm thinking of the dikes, I'm thinking of the railroad, I'm thinking, of course, the docks.
Kissinger: I agree with you.
President Nixon: We've got to use massive force.
Two hours later at noon, H. R. Haldeman and Ron Ziegler joined Kissinger and Nixon:
President: How many did we kill in Laos?
Ziegler: Maybe ten thousand - fifteen?
Kissinger: In the Laotian thing, we killed about ten, fifteen.
President: See, the attack in the North that we have in mind, power plants, whatever's left - POL [petroleum], the docks. And, I still think we ought to take the dikes out now. Will that drown people?
Kissinger: About two hundred thousand people.
President: No, no, no, I'd rather use the nuclear bomb. Have you got that, Henry?
Kissinger: That, I think, would just be too much.
President: The nuclear bomb, does that bother you?...I just want you to think big, Henry, for Christsakes
this too was largely ditched, though during Operation Linebacker II in 1972 some limited bombing of the dikes took place, and under Operation Linebacker Haiphong was mined
so what if Nixon bombed, with out nukes, the whole dike and dam system of the Red River, and major targets in and around Hanoi on top of mining Haiphong in 1972 (around the same time as Linebacker I ) ?