Operation Tiger Hound

Operation Tiger Hound
	Part of Vietnam War
	; Barrell Roll/Steel Tiger/Tiger Hound areas of operations
Date	5 December 1965 – 11 November 1968
Location	Southeastern Laos
Result	Strategic US Failure
Belligerents
Republic of Vietnam	Democratic Republic of Vietnam
Commanders and leaders
	Đồng Sĩ Nguyên

Operation Tiger Hound was a covert U.S.

Ho Chi Minh Trail (the Truong Son Strategic Supply Route to the North Vietnamese) from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), through southeastern Laos, and into the northern provinces of the Republic of Vietnam

(South Vietnam). The missions were originally controlled by the 2d Air Division until that headquarters was superseded by the Seventh Air Force on 1 April 1966.

The geographic boundary of the operation was carved from the area of Laos already under bombardment under

William C. Westmoreland, who saw the area of Laos that bordered the five northernmost provinces of South Vietnam as an extension of his area of operations. The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed. Unlike Operation Barrel Roll and Steel Tiger, however, the bombing in the new area would be conducted by aircraft of the Republic of Vietnam Air Force and by U.S. Air Force units based in South Vietnam (aircraft participating in Barrel Roll and Steel Tiger were generally based in Thailand

).

By the end of 1968 and the absorption of Tiger Hound operations by Operation Commando Hunt, 103,148 tactical air sorties had been flown over Laos. These missions were supplemented by 1,718 B-52 Stratofortress sorties under Operation Arc Light. During the same time period, 132 U.S. aircraft or helicopters were shot down over Laos.^[1]

Notes

^ Jacob Van Staaveren, Interdiction in Southern Laos, 1960–1968. Washington DC: Center for Air Force History, 1993, p. 287.

References

Littauer, Raphael and Norman Uphoff, eds, The Air War in Indochina. Boston: Beacon Press, 1972.
Schlight, John, A War Too Long. Washington DC: Center of Air Force History, 1993.
Van Staaveren, Jacob, Interdiction in Southern Laos: 1960–1968. Washington DC: Center for Air Force History, 1993.

[1] Jacob Van Staaveren, Interdiction in Southern Laos, 1960–1968. Washington DC: Center for Air Force History, 1993, p. 287.

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