Dr. William P. Head's War from above the Clouds:  B-52 Operations during the Second Indochina War and the Effects of the Air War on Theory an Doctrineis an examination of B-52 operations in Vietnam and how the air war affected airpower doctrine and theory. His study examines the evolution of this awesome manned strategic weapon in Vietnam to see how the design of the B-52s originally intended mission altered—if at all—the theorie of airpower first put forward by Giulio Douhet and William "Billy" Mitchell. Dr. Head also analyzes how this same operational alteration affected official United States Air Force (USAF) doctrine first formulated by Army Air Corps and Army Air Forces leaders before and during World War II—later modified in the 1950s after the USAF became a separate service.

In the aftermath of World War II, airmen had to reevaluate the old theories. Would the bombers always get through? The lessons of the war seemed to indicate that the answer to this question was no, not without long-range fighter escorts such as the P-47 and P-51. Airpower leaders also rightly noted that bombing technology and the quantity of bombers had not been sufficient in World War II to allow airpower to be decisive. Dr. Head contends that the lack of a definitive test for the theory that airpower decisively affects the outcome of war continued during the Vietnam or Second Indochina War.

Dr. Head initially conducted his reserch for a shorter presentation at the Air Force's Fiftieth Anniversary Conference in Washington, D.C., during the summer of 1997. Air University Press is pleased to present the expanded essay—War from above the Clouds:   B-52 Operations during the Second Indochina War and the Effects of the Air War on Theory an Doctrine—as a Fairchild Paper.

Fairchild Paper, 2002, WAR FROM ABOVE THE CLOUDS:  B-52 Operations During the Second Indochina War and their Effects on Air Force Theory and Doctrine.Air University Press, Maxwell AFB, AL, 2002.

To be released in August 2002.
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