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Essay on The Son Tay Raid
On the night of 20–21 November 1970, President Richard Nixon took an aggressive move on the North Vietnamese by expressing his apprehension for the well-being of United State’s prisoners of war or POW. He announced the famous raid on the Son Tay Camp for POW. Although the raid failed to rescue any prisoners of war, as the enemy had already moved the prisoners to another location, the Son Tay raid helps to provide a model of a special joint army’s well-planned and brilliantly executed operation. In recent times Son Tay raid is complete contrast to the grim effort by soldiers to free hostages in wars today.
The raid still stands as a model of exceptional organization, and training, and unity of efforts. Moreover, it also gives POWs hope. Brig Gen Donald Blackburn was the originator of the idea for the raid. He was a special assistant for counter-insurgency and assistant special activities in Washington. Moreover he had managed special warfare previously. After the approval of the feasibility study from the President and his cabinet members, thorough plans were laid down for the raid.
However, the operation’s most significant aspect was the fact that it remained directly assistant to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, thus it bypassed the bureaucratic officials in Southeast Asian region. Apart from them, Brig Gen Leroy Manor, who was the commander of the USAF Special Operations in Eglin AFB, located in Florida, along with the joint task force commander, exercised a free hand in the operation. Moreover, his deputy, Col Arthur Simons, also known as Bull Simons who was a lifelong Army veteran of special operations was planned to go with the ground army during the raid.Moreover, the Central Intelligence Agency came up with a scale model and blue prints of the prison and its neighboring buildings.....
