Feb. 11, 1965 - A massive strike by about 160 U.S. and South Vietnamese fighters and bombers smashed two target areas in North Vietnam today. The strike was accompanied by tough assurances from the White House that the retaliation policy has been broadened to avenge any attack on our South Vietnam allies as well as on Americans.
Three naval aircraft were lost. Two pilots were rescued, and a third — Lieut. Comdr. Robert Shumaker, 31 — was claimed captive by Hanoi radio. The radio report gave his correct serial and identity numbers.
In an announcement of the strike read to reporters by Press Secretary George Reedy, the White House made it clear that major Communist combat or terror action against the South Vietnamese would be considered a possible cause for retaliatory air attacks.
The U.S. has hit at North Vietnamese targets previously only after Americans had suffered directly. An air assault was launched immediately when eight Americans were killed and 108 wounded in a mortar raid by the Communist Viet Cong on Pleiku Feb. 7.
The White House communique today said: “These actions by the South Vietnamese and U.S. governments were in response to further direct provocations by the Hanoi regime.
“Since Feb. 8, a large number of South Vietnamese and U.S. personnel have been killed in an increased number of Viet Cong ambushes and attacks. A district town in Phuoc Long Province has been overrun, resulting in further Vietnamese and U.S. casualties. In Qui Nhon, Viet Cong terrorists, in an attack on an American military billet, murdered Americans and Vietnamese. In addition, there have been a number of mining and other attacks on the railway in South Vietnam as well as assassinations and ambushes involving South Vietnamese civil and military officials.”
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