Vietnam series on SBS

[Adam the Akrodude]

Anyone been watching the Vietnam series on SBS on Saturday nights? It's pretty good with amazing footage and interviews by participants and families. It's pretty powerful stuff. Last night was from 63-67. It's I'm sure possible to watch it on SBS On-demand. It was though a little light on about Operation Rolling Thunder and why it failed and perhaps wasn't as critical of the micromanagement of Johnson & McNamara with targets. They did interview Everett Alvarez, a former USN A-4 pilot and the very first pilot shot down and captured over Nth Vietnam.
There has been lots covered with the ground war in the South, politics, the demonstrations, etc so overall it's doing a pretty good job covering this enormous topic. I do recommend this series to anyone with a interest on this topic.

[Ansett A330]

... and perhaps wasn't as critical of the micromanagement of Johnson & McNamara with targets.

I'll have to watch it again on demand but pretty sure the guy criticising LBJ's micromanagement of targets in particular was this bloke :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrill_McPeak

which should carry a fair bit of weight.

[Adam the Akrodude]

... and perhaps wasn't as critical of the micromanagement of Johnson & McNamara with targets.

I'll have to watch it again on demand but pretty sure the guy criticising LBJ's micromanagement of targets in particular was this bloke :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrill_McPeak

which should carry a fair bit of weight.

Enormous weight I think. Many lessons were at least learnt from Vietnam - particularly issues with micro-management from Washington. It has still caused issues to this day with some return to this in the ME during the Obama years. There was one interesting article by a A-10 pilot complaining that ROE and the enormous amount of time it took to get clearance to drop ordnance really hindered their work.

You may know that Gen. Horner, the guy in charge of the USAF contribution during GF1 was a former F-105 pilot that flew his 100 missions "up North" over Nth Vietnam. This is why the air war was so effective and efficient during GF1 in 1991 due to all the lessons learnt over Nth Vietnam and that Pres. Bush Snr understood what the military needed and didn't need from Washington in order to deliver a rapid and positive outcome.

Micro-management from Washington caused many shoot downs. At one point, it was statistically impossible for a F-105 pilot to complete 100 missions without being shot down. Using same routes and time on targets dictated to the wings in Thailand from Washington meant that the Nth Vietnamese simply had to concentrate their AAA, SAMs and MiGs along certain corridors. Insane ROE such as not being able to shot at MiGs until they were airborne and not destroying SAM sites until they were finished was utterly insane as well.