Ho Chi Minh's air defenders struck back last week. Eleven U.S. warplanes were shot down over North Viet Nam by antiaircraft batteries, MIG-17 jets, and a record barrage of 74 SAM missiles. A sleek new MIG-21 also showed up in North Vietnamese skies with air-to-air missiles that barely missed three American raiders. It was the heaviest week's action of an expanding air war, and it brought to 303 the total number of U.S. airplanes that have now been lost over Viet Nam.
The losses did not deter American bombers. Swooping in low, they blasted eight oil...
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