U.S. Resumes Air Attacks on North Vietnam

May 18, 1965 - The United States resumed its air attacks on North Vietnam today after a six-day pause partly aimed at demonstrating that Hanoi has no intention of entering negotiations now to end the war in South Vietnam.

Thirty Navy warplanes from the aircraft carrier Coral Sea attacked a petroleum storage area at Phuqui, 125 miles south of Hanoi. The resumption of the air raids was announced in Saigon.

Robert McCloskey, the official State Department spokesman, said it would be “correct” to say that the Johnson Administration was “disappointed at the fact that there was no reaction” by North Vietnam during the suspension of the bombings. 

McCloskey declined to comment on a report from Saigon, published today in the New York Times, that U.S. combat troops are now ready to take full part in the fighting in South Vietnam.

Today’s strike, at 5:30 p.m. Saigon time, was carried out by 20 A-1 Skyraiders and A-4 jet Skyhawks. They were supported by 10 F-8 jet fighters from the same Seventh Fleet carrier.

Pilots reported that they dropped 25 tons of bombs and Bullpup and Zuni rockets on petroleum storage tanks at Phu Qui and had left the storage area burning. All the planes returned safely.

The strike today was at about the same level of intensity as the daily strikes of April and early May.

In the ground war, an ambitious Government offensive against Viet Cong troops 20 miles below the North Vietnamese border stalled tonight because of rain.

The delay was one of the first indications that, as predicted for weeks, the rainy season would slow Government operations.

At the Bienhoa air base, where a Pentagon investigating team is trying to determine the cause of an accidental explosion Sunday, the landing field, except for some ramp area, is operating normally.

A military spokesman said he understood the last of the unexploded bombs near the runway had been detonated and that the cleanup was nearly ended.Twenty fatalities have been officially confirmed of the 27 Americans who are believed dead.

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