After reading Robert F. Ward's letter of Dec. 11, "Nixon, too, ramped up Vietnam hostilities," I started wondering if his Vietnam War was the same as the one I experienced.

Does Ward really believe that Laos and Cambodia were not involved in the war prior to President Nixon's term in office? Is he not aware that the North Vietnamese traveled through these countries and then crossed the Mekong River into South Vietnam long before Nixon was president?

His charge that Nixon prolonged the war by bombing the north is ludicrous. President Lyndon Johnson prolonged the war by ceasing to bomb the north. Ward should see the movie Flight of the Intruder and see what we aviators thought of this Democrat's great decision.

Nixon's decision to put some of the war back in North Vietnam might well have shortened the war. This is something we will never know. I do know that the bombing was accomplished under Operation Linebacker II. I also know that we lost 16 B-52s (each had a crew of six) and that the operation ended in approximately 10 days when the North Vietnamese returned to the peace table.

How many of my fellow crew members and aviators could we have saved if Johnson had not given the North Vietnamese four years to rearm?