During the Vietnam War the United States used every type of aircraft it had at its disposal.  B-52s, F-4 fighters, Hueycobra helicopters, and other light aircraft were used extensively to transport troops, rescue the wounded, provide firepower support for troops on the ground, bomb key military targets, defoliate large areas of jungle, and provide reconnaissance information.  Over 13 million tons of bombs were dropped by all U.S. aircraft, which was six times what was dropped in World War II.
B-52 bomber missions were especially noteworthy as they dropped 3.5 million tons of bombs over nearly 125,000 sorties.  It’s estimated that U.S. air raids caused over 26 million craters, flattened 20,000 square kilometers of forest, and defoliated 5.5 million acres of forest or jungle.  The helicopter was used extensively, carrying hundreds of thousands of troops and 4.5 million tons of cargo.  Helicopters were in the air for 11 million hours, flying 30 million sorties.  Helicopter pilots consistently risked their lives to pick up wounded men and get them to hospitals, which dramatically decreased the time it took to get the wounded to aid relative to other wars.  This led to a significant increase in the number of wounded who survived.

Perhaps the most well known air operation was Rolling Thunder.  Rolling Thunder, the sustained bombing of North Vietnam military positions and the Ho Chi Minh Trail, involved 25,000 sorties in 1965; 79,000 in 1966; and 100,000 in 1967.  Despite the number of sorties and some successes, Operation Rolling Thunder was judged by many to be relatively ineffective in stopping the flow of men and materiel into the south.  Vietnam was unique in that it did not rely on large factories or military institutions for its supplies, and the Ho Chi Minh trail twisted throughout the country in such a way that it was not easily seen or destroyed.  The targets that were hit did not slow the enemy relative to the costs of the operation in either casualties or dollars. Still, this operation showed the U.S. would not sit idly by and watch casualties grow without a response.  During Operation Rolling Thunder alone, the United States dropped more bombs on North Vietnam than it had on Europe in all of World War II.
The bombing was halted in 1968, but in 1972 Richard Nixon restarted it under the name of Operation Linebacker 1 and 2.  Nixon also opened up some targets in Hanoi and Haiphong that were previously considered untouchable because of the potential for peripheral damage, and the risk of pulling the Chinese into the war.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

One of the bombs of choice in Vietnam was the napalm bomb.  Napalm is an incendiary chemical that burns at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and is a jellified form of  gasoline.  Napalm explodes on contact, causing a horrible death by burning, deoxygenating the air causing asphyxiation, and it generates and enormous amount of poisonous carbon monoxide.  Napalm was used to help troops under siege as it could build a wall of fire preventing the enemy from further attacking and killing our troops. It was also used in underground bunkers, and as a defoliant.  Napalm was not new to the Vietnam War, as it was used in both Korea and World War II, primarily as fuel for flame throwers. Napalm was also not exclusive to the U.S., as it was used by the Vietcong, Vietminh, and South Vietnamese forces.  Pictures of burn victims hit the U.S. newspapers, which led to violent protests over its use because some people felt it was inhumane.  One infamous picture of a burned little Vietnamese girl running naked and screaming down the street fueled intense protests over the U.S. use of napalm.  It turned out , though, that she was not the victim of a U.S. bomb, but rather a South Vietnamese bomb dropped in error.

Downed pilots accounted for more prisoners of war than any other military position.  Anti-aircraft fire was pretty effective at attacking our planes during their missions.  Pilots, such as Everett  Alvarez and John McCain, became prisoners only after completing their missions and making split second life and death decisions.  Pilots flying damaged planes would sometimes try to make it back to ships in the Gulf of Tonkin only to have to abandon their planes, and eject into the gulf.  Local fishermen, who in World War II helped downed American pilots, would capture the pilots and turn them over to the North Vietnamese.

There are excellent videos that focus solely on the air war that are very effective in explaining the magnitude of American air power in Vietnam.