PASSINGS

Pete C. Sianis, Planner of Key Bombing Raids on N. Vietnam

Pete C. Sianis, 68, the Strategic Air Command general who planned the 1972 bombing raids on Hanoi and Haiphong credited with returning North Vietnam to the bargaining table. Sianis flew 20 combat missions in B-17 and B-24 bombers in World War II and 10 combat missions in B-29s in the Korean War. In an operation called Linebacker II, B-52 bombers from Guam and Thailand bombed North Vietnam’s capital and its principal port from Dec. 18 to Dec. 29, 1972, after negotiations to end the war had broken off. Henry Kissinger, then U.S. secretary of state, said the assaults forced the North Vietnamese back to the talks with the United States and South Vietnam. As deputy chief of staff for operations, Sianis was the architect of Linebacker II, SAC said at the time. In Bellevue, Neb., on Saturday of what was called a lengthy illness.