Finally, in late 1972, the intensive bombing of Hanoi and the port city of Haiphong, which had earlier been placed in abeyance as a good will gesture, was resumed, this time in earnest.  In the the massive "Linebacker II" air campaign, North Vietnam's very respectable air defense system, one of the best in the world at the time, was all but totally annihilated.  With their air defenses wiped out and helpless in the face of Americas air power, the North finally saw the wisdom of returning to the peace table.  The following excerpt from an article in Air Force Magazine by Retired Colonel Walter J Boyne describes the demoralizing effect on the North Vietnamese that was brought about by the full unrestricted application of America's air power.

There are some today who, having bought into the Communist propaganda, will still say that the B-52’s were ineffective and inaccurate, killing mostly innocent civilians, instead of hitting their intended military targets. You’d have a hard time convincing Steve Long, former POW in Hanoi of that. In an email letter to me, Steve speaks in glowing terms of the Buff’s accuracy as well as their effectiveness in convincing the North Vietnamese it was in their best interest to seek peace. There is certainly no doubt in his mind of their ability to hit their assigned targets, nor of the incentive they provided the North Vietnamese to return to the peace table. To see his arrogant, brutal jailers, over a relatively short time, become frightened and docile was a sweet reward and a most savored revenge for the years of abuse he and his fellow POW’s had endured. I will quote extensively from his letters, for they are the words of a man who can speak with authority from first hand knowledge about the December, 72 strikes on Hanoi. Steve writes....

The "Christmas Bombings" of 1972 were what bought Steve and his comrades their freedom back! It was a move long, long overdue in my estimation. Nixon finally had mustered the political courage to do what should have been done by his predecessor in the beginning.

When the North Vietnamese finally cried "Uncle!", there were some who advised Nixon that we should pursue our advantage, rather than returning to the peace table as the Communists were now so seemingly anxious to do.  But America was fed up with war and just wanted out any way we could get out!  And Nixon was determined to keep his campaign promise to end the war in his Administration.  He too wanted to exit the war as quickly as possible. 

In another excerpt from his article in Air Force Times, Colonel Boyne states, "As soon as Hanoi signaled it wished to resume peace negotiations, Linebacker II raids immediately ceased. Some in the Air Force argued that this was a mistake; if the United States continued the attacks, they maintained, North Vietnam would have to accept a military defeat. Instead, they secured at the peace table a political victory that they would in due course translate into a full-scale military conquest of South Vietnam."

Yes, we had bombed the enemy into submission, had them at our mercy, then let them off the hook! I can speak from first hand knowledge, the majority of the Chinese people, notwithstanding the propaganda they were forced to mouth, felt that America was destined to win the war because of its overwhelming military advantage.  I have been told as much by former Chinese citizens who grew up in China during the war, later to emigrate to the US by way of student visas.  Though the Chinese official line at the time was that the Vietnamese people's struggle would prove that America was a "paper tiger", it came as a complete shock to the average Chinese that Ho Chi Minh's government actually prevailed in the end.

And therein lies the most bitter irony of it all.  The war might have been won by our side years earlier, had we early on adopted a "no holds barred" approach and taken the war to the North without reservation.  America's overwhelming air power was a force that COULD have ended the war years sooner, and saved tens of thousands more American lives, if it had only been allowed!  Years after the war ended, North Vietnam's General Giap stated in an interview that it had been their greatest fear - that America would launch an all out assault on North Vietnam.  To their puzzlement and glee, for most of the war, we had chosen not to do that, but rather primarily wage the war in the South, observing self imposed "rules of engagement" and artificial boundaries. What fools we (America's government and its people) had been! What a bungled mess we had made of it all!

When the long war had started, most of us felt we had a real mission there.  We were told we were helping to keep South Vietnam free and prevent the spread of Communism in the world.  But in spite of initial high morale and "Esprit de Corps", by the time the Paris peace talks were underway, it was fairly obvious to most troops, even the lowest "grunts", that South Vietnam was destined to fall once the US pulled out.  Understandably, there wasn’t much motivation after that to do anything but mark time and hope to just survive it.  Everyone was just trying to avoid being the "last casualty of the war." 

While the peace talks went on and the troop reduction continued, the now pointless killing also continued.  Even after the peace agreement was reached with North Vietnam in 1973, Viet Cong activities continued in the South.  For the GI’s who survived long enough to be rotated back stateside, the effect of the treatment they received on their return home would often prove to be nearly as harmful, perhaps more so in some ways, than their war experiences had been.  There was no period of healing for the returnees, no real acknowledgment of what they had been through.  Immediately upon their return stateside, they were expected to just forget about it all, return to "normalcy", and melt back into society.  Facing a near total lack of understanding and societal attitudes ranging from complete indifference to burning hatred, they were allowed no purging or release from what would surely be the most intense experiences of their lives.   And they received little or no gratitude or comfort for what they had endured and what they had done in the service of their country.  They were shunned by the very nation they had tried to serve.  Insult was being heaped upon injury.

We were the veterans unfortunate enough to have come of age at a time when our country was fighting an "unpopular war."  Unlike our fathers, for us there were no brass bands, no ticker tape parades, No Hero’s Welcomes.  Veterans had only their immediate families to share the emotional burden placed on them by the war.  We were berated by the left and were pointedly ignored by the general populace.  In most of society, no one wanted to speak of Vietnam, nor to hear of it, unless it was to ask, "Did you kill anybody?  How many women and babies did you kill over there?"  America seemed ashamed of its veterans.  I suspect that deep down, the American people were also ashamed of themselves.  They damned well should have been!  But it was far easier for them to lay all the blame on the military than to admit the real truth.

The troops returning to "the world" had left a living hell, where it was not always possible to tell just who the enemy was.  There, anyone, including civilian women and children might try to end their lives at any moment.   The fact is, armed with Chinese AK-47’s, grenades and satchel charges, Viet Cong women and children were just as capable of killing as were the uniformed NVA troops.  There was no way of telling from what quarter the next attack might come.   It could be in deep jungle, in a rice paddy, on a beach, or it might be on the streets of downtown Saigon from a woman or a child.  To many troops, what had begun as feelings of empathy and protectiveness toward the South Vietnamese, became mistrust and hatred for all of them.  Those who had killed women and children by accident or in self defense, and especially those who participated in the My Lai Incident had earned the label for all of us, "Baby Killers."