Rules of Engagement

EPILOGUE:

Following extensive hearings during August 1967, the Senate Armed Services Committee came to the conclusion that the Vietnam air war had not achieved its objectives. The finding did not attribute the lack of success to the inability or impotence of air power.

The committee discovered that the fragmentation of our air might was caused by overly restrictive controls, limitations, and the doctrine of gradualism forced on our combined aviation resources.

The restrictions prevented the flight crews from waging the air campaign in the manner, and according to the timetable, which would have achieved the maximum results.

Shortly after the Senate Armed Services Committee arrived at its conclusion, Secretary of Defense Robert Strange McNamara left the Pentagon. President Lyndon Baines Johnson, on March 31, 1968, announced that he would neither seek nor accept renomination.