Action of 23 August 1967
The action of 23 August 1967 was a major air battle which involved elements of the Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) and the United States Air Force (USAF). The air battle took place over the skies of North Vietnam as part of Operation Rolling Thunder, during the Vietnam War. On 2 January 1967, the United States Air Force launched Operation Bolo with the aim of luring North Vietnamese MiG fighters into an air battle, where they could be destroyed in an ambush. The operation, led by Colonel Robin Olds, turned out to be a major success after seven North Vietnamese MiG-21 fighters of the VPAF 921st Fighter Regiment were shot down. Stung by that devastating defeat, the North Vietnamese Air Force grounded their fighter force several times between June and August 1967, in order to work on their training and tactics. On 23 August 1967, the North Vietnamese Air Force employed their newly devised tactic against a U.S. strike formation, while it was conducting raids against a rail yard. The air battle concluded with the USAF losing three F-4D fighters. Background On 2 March 1965, the United States Government launched Operation Rolling Thunder, a major bombing campaign, with several objectives. Firstly, the operation was supposed to retaliate against North Vietnam for their military activities inside South Vietnam, thereby raising the morale of the South Vietnamese people, especially the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Secondly, it aimed to impede North Vietnam's ability to wage war by reducing, if not stopping, the flow of men and material into South Vietnam. Thirdly, the overall objective was to persuade the North Vietnamese Government to find a compromise through negotiations. Originally the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff submitted a list of 94 targets to be hit over a period of 16 days, but U.S. President Lyndon Johnson decided to include military targets in order to gradually apply pressure on the North Vietnamese Government, so the list of targets grew to 427 by the end of the campaign. In the first phase of the operation, which lasted from spring to summer of 1965, American airpower mainly targeted the North Vietnamese capital of Hanoi and its limited industrial base. However, by the end of the year, the United States had failed to achieve the objectives of Rolling Thunder, because North Vietnam continued to send its troops and military supplies down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which demonstrated that the North Vietnamese Government was not ready to quit the war. In response to domestic political pressure to do more, President Johnson shifted priority of the campaign to interdiction. From summer 1965 to the winter period of 1966–67, the campaign was aimed at degrading North Vietnam's capability to infiltrate and send men into South Vietnam. Again, America's shift towards interdiction also failed, and the Johnson administration was forced to change the priority of the bombing campaign. For the third phase of Rolling Thunder, which occurred from spring 1967 to early 1968, bombing operations were focused on industrial