The Thanh Hóa Bridge situated 3 miles northeast of Thanh Hóa nicknamed "Hàm Rồng" or Dragon's Jaw was from 1965 the objective of many attacks by US Air Force and US Navy aircraft which would fail to destroy the bridge until 1972, even after hundreds of sorties.
Originally built by the French during the colonial era in Vietnam, the Thanh Hóa bridge was sabotaged by the Viet Minh in 1945. From 1957, the Vietnamese started rebuilding it. Allowing the passage of both road and rail traffic, it was a vital link between different regions of North Vietnam, and when the war started, became a strategic passage for supplies and reinforcements sent to the Viet Cong fighting in South Vietnam.
In their first air combat, a small force of seemingly mismatched MiG-17s inflicted significant losses on much larger and more advanced American F-105 Thunderchief at a cost of 3 of their own, with an F-100 Super Sabre claiming the first probable American kill of the conflict. The encounter led to significant changes in American tactics and training, and a return to dog-fighting in air combat doctrine. Eventually, in 1972, the bridge was destroyed by USAF F-4 Phantoms using laser-guided bombs and US Navy Vought A-7s with advanced and conventional bombs.
While the first employment of the Bullpup missiles visible in the first segment of the clip in 1965 proved a disappointment, the ultimate destruction of the bridge finally proved the promise and effectiveness of precision-guided munitions, opening the way to a new era of aerial warfare. The 1965 strikes were the first employment of modern strike packages which were combined and launched against that specific target, leading up to an evolution of air warfare to 1972 with laser-guided munitions, which would later be employed very effectively with minimal losses in Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
