Going Downtown, 9781472848758
Paperback
US Air Force’s untold struggle in the skies over Southeast Asia.

Going Downtown

The US Air Force over Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, 1961–75

$47.59

  • Paperback

    352 pages

  • Release Date

    26 February 2024

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Summary

This vivid narrative history tells the full story of the US Air Force’s involvement in the wars in the air over Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

The involvement of the US Air Force in the Southeast Asian Wars began in 1962 with crews sent to train Vietnamese pilots, and with conflict in Laos, and finally ended in 1972 with the B-52 bombing of Hanoi, though there were Air Force pilots unofficially flying combat in Laos up to the end in 1975. The missions flown by USAF aircrews during those …

Book Details

ISBN-13:9781472848758
ISBN-10:1472848756
Author:Thomas McKelvey Cleaver
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:Osprey Publishing
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:352
Release Date:26 February 2024
Weight:472g
Dimensions:232mm x 152mm x 28mm
What They're Saying

Critics Review

As ever, the author provides a sublimely distilled and perfectly readable account of a grueling period of history. * Flypast *A fascinating inside story of what it was like for pilots over south east Asia. * The Armourer *

An outstanding overview of the Air Force’s war in Vietnam…This is combat history in the words of the aviators themselves… and shaped by the author’s detailed archival research, oral history interviews, and a commanding knowledge of the available literature… [A] riveting account that constitutes at once both an outstanding history and a tribute to the airmen who flew across Southeast Asia more than a half-century ago.

* Dr Richard P Hallion, former Historian of the US Air Force and author of ‘Rolling Thunder 1965-68: Johnson’s Air War Over Vietnam’ *

In Going Downtown Thomas McKelvey Cleaver provides a rare combination, a macro-micro view of the war in the air. In setting the context of Southeast Asian air operations, the author adroitly combines Vietnam history with some heart-pounding combat episodes.

* Barrett Tillman, author of ‘Dragon’s Jaw: An Epic Story of Courage and Tenacity in Vietnam’ *There are many “I was there” books telling the USAF story in Vietnam; but Going Downtown: The U.S. Air Force in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia 1961–75 by Thomas McKelvey Cleaver paints a much broader picture of that air war. In this extensively researched and well written book, Cleaver gives you the action from the cockpits of both the North Vietnamese MiGs as well as the American jets. This book gives you the perspective of the decision makers in Washington, the generals in theater, and the pilots and crews in the cockpits. If you want to get a true understanding of USAF operations up North Going Downtown is for you. * Thomas E. Rodgers, Lt.Col., USAF (ret.) *

About The Author

Thomas McKelvey Cleaver

Thomas McKelvey Cleaver has been a published writer for the past 40 years, and this work is the product of 25 years of research. He has chronicled the US war in Korea in his best-selling The Frozen Chosen, Holding the Line, and MiG Alley, and has turned to writing similar histories of Vietnam with The Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club and now Going Downtown. Tom is a veteran of the war in Vietnam and served with the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet.

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