History of US military miscalculation

The hacking of the US-South Korea Military Operations Plan 5015 -- and US President Donald Trump’s recent comments on war as the only apparent solution for the current tensions with North Korea -- brings to mind US military strategy during the Vietnam War. In December 1972, in what was anticipated to be a simple and successful operation, the Nixon administration sent dozens of B-52 bombers to obliterate Hanoi and decapitate the North Vietnamese leadership.

The result: 15 US B-52 bombers were shot down over North Vietnam during an 11-day period, and five others were seriously damaged. Twenty-eight American pilots were killed and 34 captured. Some 15,000 tons of explosives were dropped on Hanoi over two weeks, but the Vietnamese government did not surrender and did not bend to the bombing campaign. The plan to place North Vietnam at a disadvantage at the ongoing Paris negotiations -- and gain concessions -- failed miserably, and the Paris peace agreement was signed with nearly the same stipulations drafted months earlier. America’s military and foreign policy establishments have a long history of miscalculation. President Trump may not be aware of this history, and of the consequences that military action may have on South Korea, the American people, or his own administration.


Luis Suarez-Villa
Professor emeritus, University of California
School of Social Ecology
Irvine, California