The bombing began on the night of 18 March, 1969 with a raid by 60 B-52
Stratofortress bombers, based at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. The target was
Base Area 353, the supposed location of COSVN in the Fishhook. Although the
aircrews were briefed that their mission was to take place in the South
Vietnam, 48 of the bombers were diverted across the Cambodian border and
dropped 2,400 tons of bombs. The mission was designated Breakfast, after the
morning Pentagon planning session at which it was devised.
Breakfast was so successful that General Abrams provided a list of 15 more
known Base Areas for targeting. During the next 14 months the operation
continued. The five remaining missions that made up the operation and their
targets were: Lunch (Base Area 609), Snack (Base Area 351), Dinner (Base Area
352), Supper (Base Area 740), and Dessert (Base Area 350). SAC flew 3,800 B-52
sorties against these targets, and dropped 108,823 tons of ordnance during the
missions. Due to the continued reference to gastronomic situations in the
codenames, the entire series of missions was referred to as Operation Menu.
Assessment of bomb damage to the targets was difficult to obtain, due to the
covert nature of the operation. Instead of utilizing Air Force aircraft for the
missions, SOG forward air controllers were tasked with obtaining intelligence
on target damage.
Nixon and Kissinger went to great lengths to keep the missions secret. The
expansion of the American effort into "neutral" Cambodia was sure to cause
serious debate in Congress, negative criticism in the media, and were sure to
spark anti-war protests on American college campuses. In order to prevent this,
an elaborate dual reporting system covering the missions had been formulated
during the Brussels meeting between Nixon, Haig, and Colonel Sitton.
First, the number of individuals who had complete knowledge of the operation
was kept to a bare minimum. All communications concerning the missions was
split along two paths - one route was overt, ordering typical B-52 missions
that were to take place within South Vietnam near the Cambodian border - the
second route was covert, utilizing back-channel messages between commanders
ordering the classified missions. For example: General Abrams would request a
Menu strike. His request went to Admiral John McCain, the Commander-in-Chief,
Pacific Command (CINCPAC), in Honolulu. McCain forwarded it to the Joint Chiefs
in Washington, who, after reviewing it, passed it on to Secretary of Defense
Melvin Laird (who might consult with the president). The Joint Chiefs then
passed the command for the strike to General Bruce K. Holloway, Commander of
SAC, who then notified Lieutenant General Alvin C. Gillem, Commander of the 3rd
Air Division on Guam.
During this time Air Force Major Hal Knight was supervising an MSQ-77 Combat
Skyspot radar site at Bien Hoa Air Base, RVN. "Skyspot" was a ground directed
bombing system which directed B-52 strikes to targets in Vietnam. Each day a
courier plane would arrive from SAC's Advanced Echelon Office at Tan Son Nhut
Air Base near Saigon. Knight was given a revised list of target coordinates for
the next day's missions. That evening, the coordinates were fed into Olivetti
Programma 101 computers and then relayed to the aircraft as they came on
station. Only the pilots and navigators of the aircraft (who had been
personally briefed by General Gillem and sworn to secrecy) knew of the true
location of the targets. The bombers then flew on to their targets and
delivered their payloads.
After the air strikes, Knight gathered the mission paperwork, computer tapes
etc, destroying them in an incinerator. He then called a special phone number
in Saigon and reported that "The ball game is over." The aircrews filled out
routine reports of hours flown, fuel burned, and ordnance dropped. This dual
system maintained secrecy and provided Air Force logistics and personnel
administrators with information that they needed to replace air crews or
aircraft and replenish stocks of fuel and munitions.
Although Sihanouk was not informed by the U.S. about the operation, he did
remain quiet about the illegal bombing of his country. His silent acquiescence
may have been prompted by a desire to see PAVN/NLF forces out of Cambodia,
since he himself was precluded from pressing them too hard. After the event, it
was claimed by Nixon and Kissinger that Sihanouk had given his tacit approval
for the raids, but this claim has since been disproved. On 9 May 1969, an
inaccurate article by military reporter William Beecher describing the bombing
was run in the New York Times. Beecher claimed that an unnamed source within
the administration had provided the information. Nixon was furious when he
heard the news and ordered Dr. Kissinger to obtain the assistance of FBI
Director J. Edgar Hoover and discover the source of the leak.. Hoover suspected
Kissinger's own NSC aide, Mortin Halperin, of the deed and so informed
Kissinger. Halperin's phone was then illegally tapped
for 21 months. This was the first in a series of illegal surveillance
activities authorized by Nixon in the name of national security. The
administration was relieved when no other significant press reports concerning
the operation appeared.
By the summer, five members of the United States Congress had been informed of
the operation. They were: Senators John C. Stennis (MS) and Richard B. Russell,
Jr. (GA) and Representatives Lucius Mendel Rivers (SC), Gerald R. Ford (MI),
and Leslie C. Arends (IL). Arends and Ford were leaders of the Republican
minority and the other three were Democrats on either the Armed Services or
Appropriations committees.
For those in Washington who were cognizant of the Menu raids, the silence of
one participant came as a surprise. The Hanoi government made no protest
concerning the bombings. It neither denounced the raids for propaganda
purposes, nor, according to Dr. Kissinger, did its negotiators "raise the
matter during formal or secret negotiations." North Vietnam had no wish to
either void Cambodia's neutrality or to acknowledge the presence of their
forces there.
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