Douhet's Theory and the Failure in Vietnam

Douhet was an Italian who formulated the theory of Air Power. As per Douhet a favorable air situation and strategic bombardment from the air was a recipe for victory in any war. There is no doubt that Douhet was a far sighted man and deserves credit for the formulation of his theory on Air power.

But Vietnam is a different kettle of fish and one wonders whether Douhet was correct in his assumption that air power is the only requisite for a victory on the ground. In Vietnam the United States Air force certainly had a favorable air situation as well as complete control of the skies. In addition the US President Lyndon Johnson had ordered a strategic bombardment of Military targets over North Vietnam.

The United States Air force carried out heavy air bombardment from their bases at Guam and Japan over 'military' targets' in a sustained manner. Yet this favorable air situation and interdiction by the B 52 bombers failed to translate into a positive result on the ground. The Viet Minh supported by the North were able to harry the US Army to a great extant and slowly sapped the will power of the United States to wage a war in hostile environment.

A study of Douhets theory shows that Vietnam was not a test case as the basic ingredients of air power were studiously neglected. Firstly coming to the Bombing of North Vietnam. This by itself was more of a deterrent as the targets were carefully chosen to avoid 'collateral' damage. Moreover Johnson and his coterie chose the targets keeping in mind the prevalent political atmosphere and world opinion which was against the US bombing of North Vietnam.

Thus the US Air force never had a free hand over the targets and the bombing over North Vietnam. Douhet in his theory had not anticipated 'restrictions' in aerial bombardment. Coming to the second point of a favorable air situation in South Vietnam itself.The USAF certainly had the upper hand and had complete mastery over the air. But the terrain consisting of thick tropical jungles, offered a natural camouflage to the enemy which was difficult to track from the air.

Douhets concept of a favorable air situation referred to battle in the conventional sense between opposing armies. The war in Vietnam was guerrilla war and was fought by irregulars. thus it was not a conventional war as the enemy could be any one or any body and the US army on the ground was hard pressed to distinguish between friend and foe.

The solution was total war which because of political constraints was ot possible.Hence on the face of it Douhets theory appears suspect in Vietnam. But as it has been pointed out the US never applied Douhets theory in to and thus paid the price for half measures.We must remember that in a modern war there are no stop gaps or ambivalence in any field.Least of all on the battle field.