19721776 Club
Nixon halts the bombing; Linebacker ends after five months over North Vietnam
Paris talks had produced a framework days earlier, and the long air campaign against Hanoi and Haiphong fell silent.
For five months, American bombers had pounded bridges and rail yards across North Vietnam across North Vietnam, launched in May after Hanoi sent 30,000 troops across the Demilitarized Zone in its Easter Offensive. On October 23, 1972, Operation Linebacker ended, days after negotiators in Paris produced a framework for ending the war. The halt did not mean peace. Talks stalled again within weeks, and Nixon ordered an even heavier campaign that December…
