bombing works

In the fall of 1972, Democrat Sen. George McGovern was running for the presidency against incumbent Republican Richard Nixon. From his campaign rhetoric, it was clear to the Vietnamese Communists they could get more concessions from McGovern at the ongoing Paris peace talks than from Nixon, so they were literally rooting for him. But when Nixon defeated him soundly, the Communists skulked away from Paris and suspended the negotiations.

In early December after the election, Nixon – in order to pressure the Communists back to the table – began bombing the immediate Hanoi area with B-52 bombers (a quantum escalation). Of course, the American anti-war media called it the “Christmas bombing.” As bombs fell within blocks of Hoa Lo Prison, pieces of plaster and debris fell from the ceilings of our cell blocks, but we POWs cheered on the bombers, knowing force was the only thing to which the Communists would respond. And after only three weeks, they did. They signed the Paris Peace Accords, which essentially ended the war, and prescribed the means for the release of all POWs.

-- Jerry Coffee, Midweek, February 6, 2013