A visit to Hanoi, where America’s air might failed, reminds us of power’s limits

HANOI, Vietnam — With the war drums beating over an almost "imminent" attack on Baghdad, where Iraq’s Saddam Hussein seems expected by Washington, DC and London to be easily toppled thanks to American and Western air superiority and technology, a visit to Hanoi provides one with a weird sense of déjà vu.

Remember when US Air Force General Curtis LeMay threatened to bomb North Vietnam back into the Stone Age?

Vietnam’s former Defense Minister and hero of the freedom struggle, Vo Nguyen Giap, now 92, recalls how they endured, then defeated American air power, blasting the US B-52 bombers from the sky.

"Through eight years of fighting against the US war of destruction, Vietnam had recorded many military successes and obtained much experience. But it remained virtually impossible to counter the destructive force of sustained B-52 strikes."

In May 1972, "attempting to pressure us at the peace negotiations, (US President Richard) Nixon ordered the implementation of the ‘Linebacker Air Campaign’ in which B-52s were used to drop hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs in an attempt to stop the strong support of the North to our troops in the South. This was an opportunity for us to study the way to fight this kind of US strategic planes."

In September 1972, "on the basis of combat experiences and increasing knowledge about US weapons, military equipment and information, the document, THE WAY TO FIGHT B-52s’ contributed to more effective troop training."

Giap was quick to point out that "although the aid provided by the Soviet Union in terms of weapons and techniques was largely valuable and effective, not a single Soviet missile had been provided since 1969. As missile and radar equipment were gradually downgraded, our cadres and fighters were required to promote initiatives to improve techniques and raise the combat effectiveness of the weapons and equipment available."

The general – who had vanquished the French at Dien Bien Phu, masterminded and commanded the terrible Tet (Lunar New Year) Offensive of January-March 1968, and had continued to control all military operations North and South – said they calculated that the US had 200 B-52s, over half of them housed in Utapao Air Base in Thailand and the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam.

"KC 135 refueling aircraft, reconnaissance and jamming equipment were concentrated in Subic Base (the Philippines)." So, you see, we got honorable mention in his recollections.

On December 14, 1972, General Giap recalls in his memoirs which he gave this writer (The General Headquarters in the Spring of Glorious Victory, printed by The GIOI Publishers, Hanoi, 2002) the LineBaker II Operation was approved in the Oval Office of the White House by Nixon, with Chief Security Adviser later Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and General Alexander Haig concurring.

The Command of the Provisional Strategic Air Force Division 57 was set up. In his memoirs, Giap noted that pursuant to the attack plans on Hanoi and Hai Phong (the capital’s port city, some 80 miles away) "fifty additional refueling KC 135 planes were sent to the Philippines. In the Bac Bo Gulf, five US aircraft carriers were already operational." (I think "Bac Bo Gulf" refers to the Gulf of Tonkin.)

The first unit to shoot down an attack American B-52, according to Giap, was Battalion 59 of Missile Regiment 261 of the Hanoi Air Defense Forces. The aircraft had taken off from Guam, been hit by a missile and had crashed at Phu Lo commune, in the suburbs of Hanoi. "News of the victory broke the tense atmosphere. The B-52 bugbear was no longer ‘impregnable’ to the Thang Long air defense missiles" used by the Missile Regiments.

In an all-out assault "on the night of December 18 to 19, wave after wave of B-52s struck at Dong Anh, Yen Vien, Me Tri, Gia Lam and Hoa Muc . . . Hanoi was plunged into flames and smoke." It was in the early hours, 4:30 a.m. of the 19th that Battalion 77 of Missile Regiment 257 downed a second B-52.

"By December 28," General Giap said, "the Americans had lost 31 B-52s. As they had 200 planes, the loss of 31 meant a 15 percent loss." He estimated that each time the B-52s would come with 20 or 30 aircraft, they would lose four or five planes, which was "a very high percentage!" At times, a B-52 would be shot down by one of the Vietnamese air force’s MiG-21s, but this was less likely.

In another memoir, his Selected Writings (1994), the general summed up the failure of US air power: "They mustered a fairly big modern air force based in Thailand and on aircraft carriers, together with artillery of various types operated from on board the Seventh Fleet and from the infantry forces south of the demarcation line. They mounted nearly 100,000 strikes against North Vietnam, using more than one million tons of bombs and shells. They tried all kinds of hardware in their arsenal such as bombs, shells, rockets, steel-pellet bombs, napalm and magnetic bombs, and all the most up-to-date and murderous weapons at their disposal short of nuclear ones."

"The US imperialists thought that with their modern air and naval forces and the huge amount of bombs and shells which they believed nothing could resist, they could easily achieve their strategic objectives and finally subdue our people . . . But they were grossly mistaken."

I’m sorry if this thought gives "comfort" to Iraq’s dictator Saddam Insane, who is neither a Giap nor a Ho Chi Minh, but General Giap proved that technology and air power are never enough. As Giap put it: "They thought that . . . our people would give in. But contrary to their expectation, the fiercer their strikes, the deeper our people’s hatred for the US aggressors and the firmer the resolve of our entire army and people to defeat them."

General Giap repeated his consistent mantra: "Vietnam is one country, the Vietnamese are one nation; no force can drive them apart."

There are lessons to be learned from such assertions for us Filipinos – a nation seemingly riven apart. I trust that the controversies which divide us – an emotional and over-articulate people – are only sound and fury, and that in God’s own time we’ll discover anew that our hearts beat as one.

* * *

In parting, General Giap and his wife, Madam Ha, handed me an envelope, with my name on it and the letter-head on the envelope reading: Dai tuong VO Nguyen Giap.

Inside was a greeting card signed by the general wishing me "Chuch Mung Nam Moi" (which is the Vietnamese for "Happy New Year") on the occasion of the Tet, the equivalent of Chinese New Year. This falls on the eve of January 31, Xuan Quy Mui 2003.

When you tour Hanoi, the capital, today, you see no sign of the destruction wrought by the 100,000 tons of bombs dropped by the US Air Force – by Giap’s own assertion – "on schools, hospitals, populous streets" in both Hanoi and Hai Phong.

Indeed, the 30-mile expressway to and from the Noi Boi international airport is wide and smoothly concreted. No less than eight 5-star and deluxe hotels dot the landscape, in contrast to seven years ago when I last visited Hanoi.

In those days, the only 5-star hotel was the "Metropole" which charged an arm and a leg – and for which you have to make a two-week advance "reservation" before they would condescend to shoehorn you in.

Now, of course, the "Sofitel Metropole" has been expanded on 15 Ngo Quyen. But there is also the posh art-deco Hilton Hanoi Opera on Le Thanh Tong street, where we’re staying, just across from the beautiful French-built Opera House which had been intended by the former colonial rulers to be a replica of L’Opera in Paris.

Down the street, interestingly enough, lies the location of the notorious "Hanoi Hilton", in which prisoners-of-war, including dozens of downed American pilots, were held prisoner by the North Vietnamese. The prison was maintained both during and after "reunification". After the 1975 victory of Hanoi over the forces of Saigon and South Vietnam, many former ARVN officers and officials were held in confinement there under painful conditions. I know of one ARVN major, who had been a liaison with the Americans during the "war", being kept there for 10 years – all that time his right leg chained to an iron bar. He had to perform all his functions in a can at the end of the length of his chain. By the time he was "rehabilitated" and released, his right leg had shrunk to half its normal size, in contrast to his left. (He and his family now live in the US, since they were permitted by the Vietnamese government to emigrate there under a special agreement on such persons inked between Washington DC and Hanoi.) In any event, the site has been taken over by a Singapore company and now is a snazzy "Tower" building.

The other 5-star hostelries are the Daewoo Hotel, the Melia Hanoi, the Somerset Grand Hanoi, Somerset West Lake, and the Sofitel Plaza. And there’s a very fascinating hotel – 4-star – named the Fortuna Hotel Hanoi which was just "voted Hanoi’s most popular hotel with 200 tastefully appointed luxurious rooms and suites".

This is according to the Vietnam Economic Times Guide. What the Guide doesn’t mention are the 200 lovely girls who are GROs at the Fortuna’s KTV Club – and they don’t just Karaoke!

Swinging Hanoi – that’s this bustling city of 3.2 million upmarket people’s new image!