“a total quarantine of the movement of war supplies into North Vietnam, by sea, rail, and road, through the mining of Haiphong and all other harbors and the destruction of rail and road bridges leading from China to Hanoi.” (Drew)
While this operation had the support of the Joint Chiefs, the President rejected it as it may have trigged Chinese intervention. In order to force McNamara to conform his ideals, the President sent him to do an …show more content…
Due to the sporadic bombing in the Red River Delta area, civilian lives were heavily disrupted. The bombing campaign effectively created a massive shortage in food that left many civilians starving and resentful toward the United State and South Vietnamese forces. The bombing campaign continued to have negative effects on the civilians in the region. Over the course of the Vietnam War, countless villages were destroyed by both intentional bombings and collateral damage. In an extreme case, an entire village was forced to relocate to system of caves and live underground for an extended period of time out of fear that more American bombs would fall onto their homes.
Media Ramifications These incidents frequently made back to the American media. Images of these civilian casualties were frequently used for propaganda against the United States military presences and support for the South Vietnamese forces. The Pulitzer Prize winning photo of Trang Bang, which depicted a group of children running from a napalm strike including one who was directly exposed to the flames of the napalm (Ut) ; was a widely circulated piece in which was a touchstone from the peace …show more content…
One such actress was drawn to Vietnam upon hearing of intentional destruction of dikes in Hanoi during American airstrikes. Jane Fonda embedded herself with within the ranks of the North Vietnamese forces in an effort to humanize the enemy. She would continue on to pose with Viet Cong surface to air weapons systems. Because of the rampant damage to civilian lives and livelihood caused by Rolling Thunder, many prominent American celebrities would unite and use their influence in to further the ideology that the United States had no reason to be involved with the conflict in Vietnam. These public outcries continued to degrade public support for the war, ultimately forcing the hand of the White House to pull out of