Air Power's Lost Cause

Brian D. Laslie is the Command Historian at the United States Air Force Academy. He is the author of The Air Force Way of War: U.S. Tactics and Training after Vietnam.

The various aspects of aerial warfare in Vietnam have been well studied, but historian Brian Laslie is the first to attempt an overall description and assessment of what he rightly calls the air "wars" of Vietnam. In the process, he thoroughly debunks a key aspect of the Lost Cause mythology that grew out of the American failure in Vietnam: the claim that air power, if properly employed, could have won the war. The book constitutes an excellent starting point for anyone seriously interested in the air wars of Vietnam.

• Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction 1 Getting Involved 2 The War in the South: Build-up 3 The War in the South: Close Air Support 4 “To Deter Hanoi . . .”: The War in the North 5 The US Navy’s Air War: An Attack Pilot’s War 6 Strategic Air Power at Bay? 7 Laos, Cambodia, and the War against the Ho Chi Minh Trail 8 The Air-to-Air War Denouement and Conclusion Appendix A: JCS 94-Target List Appendix B: List of Project CHECO Reports Appendix C: List of Named Aerial Operations during the Vietnam War Archival Collections Notes Bibliography Index About the Author