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U.S. Aircraft Begin to Mine North Vietnamese Ports

May 9, 1972

1972-05-09_Mining_Pilots-man-planes
1972-05-09_Mining_Pilots-man-planes
Pilots and deck personnel aboard the USS Coral Sea (CVB-43). (Naval History and Heritage Command)

In retaliation for the North Vietnamese Easter Offensive, President Nixon orders U.S. aviators flying A-7 Corsairs and A-6 Intruders from the carrier USS Coral Sea to begin mining the waters surrounding North Vietnamese seaports, including the vital port of Haiphong. Over 85 percent of the North’s military supplies flow through these ports, and the mines are intended to interdict the materiel powering the Communist offensive. The mining is labeled Operation POCKET MONEY.1

1John Darrell Sherwood, Nixon’s Trident: Naval Power in Southeast Asia, 1968–1972, U.S. Navy and the Vietnam War (Washington, D.C.: Naval History and Heritage Command, 2009), 2, 51, 75; Edward J. Marolda, By Sea, Air, and Land: An Illustrated History of the U.S. Navy and the War in Southeast Asia (Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1994), 333–34 (for “85 percent” see p. 333). Spencer C. Tucker, ed., The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History (2nd edition; Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011), 443–44.