In the largest single combat launch in Strategic Air Command history, a fleet of 120 American B-52 Stratofortress bombers, including 78 launched from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, descended upon Hanoi, unleashing a torrent of bombs as part of Operation Linebacker II. The bombing campaign, code-named "Eleven Days of Christmas," was a 11-day aerial onslaught aimed at compelling North Vietnam to return to the negotiating table. As the dragnet of bombs tightened around Hanoi, the fate of the war hung precariously in the balance, and the world held its breath.