Operation MENU Begins

March 18, 1969

Aerial bombing of Cambodia: Operation MENU

Overview

The United States conducts the first of a round of bombings against North Vietnamese and Viet Cong sanctuaries in Cambodia. These strikes evolve into the top secret bombing campaign known as Operation MENU, which lasts for 14 months. The Nixon administration hopes the bombings will demonstrate American resolve to Hanoi while also significantly reducing the flow of North Vietnamese troops and supplies into South Vietnam. The administration also believes that the campaign will increase pressure on the North to negotiate more seriously for peace.

Although the bombings are a tightly held secret within the U.S. government and military, the New York Times breaks the story of the bombings on May 9. The possible leak prompts the Nixon White House to order wiretaps on the phones of journalists and administration officials, including an official in DoD. This and similar actions by the White House eventually lead to the Watergate scandal in 1972.¹

¹For Nixon material, see Richard Nixon, “Statements about the Watergate Investigations, May 22, 1973, in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard Nixon: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President, 1973 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1975), 548–49; Richard Nixon, “Letter to the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee About National Security Investigations and Wiretaps, July 15, 1974, in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard Nixon: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President, January 1 to August 9, 1974 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1975), 589–90; and George C. Herring, America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950–1975, (4th edition; New York: McGraw Hill, 2002), 276–77. Richard A. Hunt, Melvin Laird and Nixon’s Quest for a Post-Vietnam Foreign Policy, 1969–1973, Cold War Foreign Policy Series Special Study 6 (Washington, D.C.: Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 2014), 13; Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, (2nd revised edition; New York: Penguin Books, 1997), 606¬–8; Graham A. Cosmas, MACV: The Joint Command in the Years of Withdrawal, 1968–1973, United States Army in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 2006), 283–87, 300; Bernard C. Nalty, Air War over South Vietnam 1968–1975 (Washington, D.C., Air Force History and Museums Program, 2000), 127–33; Spencer C. Tucker, ed., The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History (2nd edition; Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011), 739–41. Re: how the American public finds out see http://athome.harvard.edu/programs/fym/fym_video/fym_3.html (link is external) (accessed 4/15/14); “43. Editorial Note,” in David C. Humphrey, ed., Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976: Volume II, Organization and Management of U.S. Foreign Policy, 1969–1976 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 2006), 100–101. The FRUS note provides an extensive list of sources on the wiretapping, which began May 1969.