Vietnam War question

[sksvlad]

My question may sound stupid but it is sincere.
In this article https://www.yahoo.com/news/meet-vietnam-fighter-aces-terrorized-093000474.html it says that "American aviators, in turn, had rules of engagement prohibiting them from firing missiles at unidentified aircraft or attacking enemy airfields"[FONT=&amp].[/FONT] Why airfields? Was it a concern of killing Soviet advisers?

 

[pzgr40]

That may very well be the case. US pilots were also strictly forbidden to bomb north vietnamese harbours to avoid Russian merchant ships from being hit, although everybody knew they were bringing in military supplies for the north Vietnamese.

 

[weberoed]

these may have been early rules, as Johnson opened the bombing of targets in N VN early on. Several VN aircraft were shot down and harbors were fair game for mining. Several military targets were targeted. Merchant ships Im not sure about, regardless NVN was fair game for air attacks

 

[batonroundcollector]

I recall reading that there were concerns about strikes killing Soviet personnel in North Vietnam - think there were several thousand - if I remember this was a particular issue in targeting North Vietnamese AA defences around Hanoi which were being installed/maintained by the Soviets? the US would be worried about their regional Cold War conflicts escalating - I guess there were Chinese personnel to consider as well, a handful of East Germans and other Soviet Bloc personnel (Cubans?) up there too??