Operation Menu was the codename of a
covert United States
Strategic Air Command (SAC) bombing campaign conducted in eastern
Cambodia and
Laos from 18 March 1969 until 26 May 1970, during the
Vietnam War. The targets of these attacks were sanctuaries and Base Areas of the
People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and forces of the
Viet Cong, which utilized them for resupply, training, and resting between campaigns across the border in the
Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). The effects of the bombing campaign are disputed by historians.
An official
United States Air Force record of US bombing activity over
Indochina from 1964 to 1973 was declassified by US president
Bill Clinton in 2000. The report gives details of the extent of the bombing of Cambodia, as well as of Laos and Vietnam. According to the data, the Air Force began bombing the rural regions of Cambodia along its South Vietnam border in 1965 under the
Johnson administration. This was four years earlier than previously believed. The Menu bombings were an escalation of these air attacks. Nixon authorized the use of long-range
B-52 bombers to
carpet bomb the region.