North Vietnam simply did not require technological superiority to resist effectively. In fact, its technological inferiority to America actually proved to be an advantage. Though it lost 65% of its oil supplies, Hanoi was not phased; this had little effect upon a nation whose primary source of farming energy was the water buffalo, and whose primary mode of transportation was the bicycle.87 America's bombing campaign, even at its height, failed to hurt North Vietnam's agricultural economy enough to impede its war effort, or even to elicit a political response. Harry Ashmore and William Baggs, American newspaper editors in North Vietnam attempting to initiate peace talks in 1967, noted that the bombing of the North simply “had not disrupted the economy of the mostly agricultural country.”88 McNamara, by this time fully disillusioned as to bombing's real effectiveness, agreed.89 Rolling Thunder, as it was executed, was simply unable to bring the North Vietnamese agricultural economy to a standstill.
In addition to its ineffectiveness against the North, Operation Rolling Thunder made America's military situation in South Vietnam much more vulnerable. The first U.S. ground forces in Vietnam were deployed to Da Nang on March 8, 1965, to defend its air base.9091 A direct line can be drawn from this first ground involvement to the North Vietnamese and nlf's Tet Offensive, which destroyed the U.S. military's hopes for a short war and broadened and deepened American public opinion against U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Rolling Thunder, along with the rest of America's military involvement in Vietnam, soon fell victim to the negative publicity generated by Tet.92
After this disastrous campaign, in which almost 4,000 Americans were killed, Johnson exclaimed on March 28 1968 that “everybody is recommending surrender.”93 In a nationally broadcast speech three days later, he announced (along with his own resignation from the next election campaign) a partial bombing halt that would stop U.S. attacks over North Vietnam.94 By November 1968, just before the U.S. election, all bombing of North Vietnam ceased.95 McNamara later explained that in this way Rolling Thunder “not only started the air war but unexpectedly triggered the introduction of U.S. troops into ground combat as well.”
Thus, Operation Rolling Thunder ended in terrible disappointment for the Johnson Administration. It was a failure on massive terms. Severely limited and controlled by the Communist-fearing civilian administration in Washington, and hampered by a gross underestimation of North Vietnam's human capability to resist, the campaign was doomed from its onset. Though North Vietnamese 52,000 civilians died as a result of Rolling Thunder,96 Hanoi remained resolute. In the end, nothing - neither military nor political gains - could be shown for America's losses in the air.
