(jet engines roaring)
- [Narrator] On December 18th, Nixon unleashed
round-the-clock airstrikes
that flattened targets around Hanoi and Haiphong.
(bombs whistling) (explosions echoing)
It would be remembered as the Christmas Bombing.
(explosions rumbling)
(fires crackling) (crowd chattering)
- And, all of the sudden, around Christmastime,
we hear an Arc Light operation, B-52s,
bum, bum, bum, bum, bum and it's all around
and it is just exploding and everyone knew they were B-52s.
And, it's, in the two years that I was there,
that was the first time I ever heard a bomb
and it was close; (sirens wailing)
it was really close.
It was frightening, but we were still cheering.
I mean, we were cheering 'cause something was happening.
(explosions echoing)
(speaking foreign language)
(tense synthesizer music)
(crowds chattering)
- [Narrator] Around the world, anti-war demonstrators
returned to the streets.
The Prime Minister of Sweden compared the United States
to Nazi Germany.
The Pope called the bombing,
which killed more than 1,600 civilians,
"The object of daily grief."
James Reston of the New York Times pronounced the raids,
"War by tantrum."
Republican Senator William Saxbe of Ohio said
the President had taken leave of his senses.
(helicopters rumbling) (tense synthesizer music)