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Since the U.S. bombing raids began last February, Hanoi's working routine has been rudely disrupted. Citizens now rise at 5 a.m., perform calisthenics in the streets under the watchful eye of the local can bo, then go off to work until 9:30 a.m. Since Ho & Co. fear midday air raids, the workers do not get back to the job until 3 p.m., then stay on until 9:30 p.m. On Sundays "volunteers" wheel out of town to work on the dikes of the Red River delta. "Some go because they feel legitimately patriotic," explains a visitor. "Others go because to them it's a day in the country. And others go because they're afraid not to."
Evidence of war readiness abounds: barbed wire festoons the pink and yellow fronts of government office buildings; militiamen stalk the streets with fixed bayonets and grenades at their belts; as part of the effort to deceive U.S. pilots, bicycle handlebars and wheel rims are painted camouflage green, and farmers wear banana branches in their hats. Even pigs on the way to market are artfully shrouded in leaf-bedecked nets. Reportedly, more than 300,000 women and children have been evacuated from Hanoi in preparation for aerial attack, but after seeing the bombed-out bridges downcountry, many have filtered back into Hanoi, which they regard as a sanctuary.
Tempting Targets. Indeed, much of North Viet Nam remains a sanctuary from American bombs. From February through mid-June, U.S. Air Force and Navy fighter-bombers concentrated their attacks on the narrow, unpopulated strip of coastline between the 17th parallel and Thanh Hoa (see map). There the targets were strictly military—radar stations, staging areas, roads, bridges and naval vessels, and all were below the so-called "Hanoi line." Then on June 22, jets crossed the line, began pounding the mountainous bulge of country north and west of Hanoi, slamming tons of bombs and rockets into targets near such towns as Son La, Thuan Chau and even Dienbienphu. Though U.S. raiders struck to within 40 miles of the capital, it was clear to Ho that the U.S. was purposely sparing his population and industrial centers.
To many U.S. strategists, these are the most tempting targets available. They include the Thai Nguyen pig-iron plant 50 miles north of Hanoi, the superphosphate plant at Lam Tao, the chemical works at VietTri—all built within the past decade through Russian and Chinese aid. Also appealing: the Hon Gai coal mines, Haiphong's port and petroleum facilities and the military air-bases on which recline Ho's recently acquired MIGs.
Back to the Hills? Why hasn't the U.S. bombed these targets? First, in Washington's view, the bombing of what it calls "property targets" would result in the killing of North Vietnamese civilians, thus provoking clamorous concern both domestically and internationally and reviving Asia's lingering "Hiroshima resentment," centering on the image of white men bombing Asians. This view holds that destruction of Ho's puny industrial base (87% of the country depends on agriculture for a living) would hardly be worth it.