F-4Phantoms in 1972

By the end of the 1972 there were only 24,000 US military personnel in Vietnam none in an official combat role. Intensive negotiations had been taking place to try to reach an agreement with the North Vietnamese. When they would not agree to the terms the US was offering, President Nixon ordered one of the most extensive bombing campaign of the war called Operation Linebacker which aimed at the Northern part of the country which had until then mostly escaped the bombing. The bombing was so effective that the North Vietnamese agreed to return to the negotiating table and agree to most of the US terms.