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Downtown Hanoi. As Hickory continued at week's end, the combined Allied forces had already killed more than 700 North Vietnamese and wounded countless more. Predictably, there were cries of protest over the U.S. incursion into the DMZ; Moscow, for example, called it "dangerous escalation." In fact, the U.S. admitted that Operation Hickory, far from being a long-considered step-up in the war, was rather a tactical and defensive necessity against the threat posed by the sudden North Vietnamese buildup. The U.S. command in Saigon indicated that U.S. forces would not stay in the southern part of the DMZ for more than a few days and pointed out that the Allies had not violated the North Vietnamese portion of the DMZ. But the U.S. also made clear that, to protect Allied troops, it would go back into the DMZ if need be.
For Ho Chi Minh's birthday proper, the U.S. had another surprise: the first purposeful bombing of downtown Hanoi. Carrier-based Navy planes hit the 32,000-kw. power plant only 2,000 yards from the city's center that supplies some 20% of the nation's electricity. Flying through fierce antiaircraft fire, seven U.S. planes went down, and MIGs came up to defend the Communist capital. Four of the Russian jets were shot down in dogfights, and in raids the next day Thailand-based Air Force planes shot down another five MIGs. That brought to 69 the number of MIGs downed over the North.
* The week's action brought to more than 10,000 the number of Americans who have died in the Viet Nam war.