Fifty years ago this summer, a large-scale deployment of U.S. Navy and Air Force assets took the fight to North Vietnam. Operation Linebacker punched north of the 20th parallel, and when it did so, it went loaded for bear. By the end of 1972, North Vietnam was ready to talk peace. The U.S. Seventh Fleet was key to this outcome, one that the world at large was desirous of seeing in those tempestuous times, and here we are honored to give the sailors of ’72 their semicentennial due. Acclaimed historian of the period Edward J. Marolda returns to our pages to illustrate in detail the crucial role of sea power in bringing about the end of the Vietnamese conflict.
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