Why the B-52 Failed to Defeat the Vietnamese

Photo: David Bacon.

On the plane to Hanoi in December of 2015, I opened my morning copy of the New York Times to find an article by Dave Philipps: “After 60 Years, B-52’s Still Dominate the U.S. Fleet.” The piece stuck with me.  For the next two weeks as I traveled through north Vietnam I tried to unravel the U.S. attitudes it reveals towards the people of this country and what they call “the American war.”

It ends by quoting a former South Vietnamese Navy officer, Phuoc Luong.  “American technology is super,” he told Philipps.