Initially, the USAF helped train and equip the growing South Vietnamese Air Force, while also building up radar, reconnaissance, air control, and counterinsurgency capacities. After the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964, a major military buildup began and many new types of aircraft arrived in country.
What role did the Air Force play in the Vietnam War?
In addition to close air support and airlift, the Air Force performed many other important missions ancillary to the ground war, including reconnaissance, intelligence, psychological warfare, defoliation, destruction of enemy reinforcements and supplies, medical evacuation, and pacification and civic action.
Did the Air Force have special forces in Vietnam?
The Air Force had two units serving in Vietnam which should be classified as “special forces” – the Combat Control Teams (CCTs) and the Combat Security Police (CSPs).
How many US Air Force personnel were killed in Vietnam?
All told, the U.S. Air Force flew 5.25 million sorties over South Vietnam, North Vietnam, northern and southern Laos, and Cambodia, losing 2,251 aircraft: 1,737 to hostile action, and 514 in accidents. 2,197 of the losses were fixed-wing, and the remainder rotary-wing.
What was seen by many Americans as an escalation of the Vietnam War?
The 1970 bombing of Cambodia was seen by many Americans as an escalation of the Vietnam War. … After certain events experienced in Cambodia in 1970, President Nixon took action to attack North Vietnamese Headquarters and Bases inside Cambodia with Air and Ground Forces.