From a very serious military guy friend:

Jonah,
Your point 3 might lead some to think there was mass bombings of civilians in Vietnam. Not so. Very precise. Some have argued that the B-52 raids of the latter part of the war favored civilian-casualty-avoiding precision over the safest tactics for our pilots, who were more vulnerable to SAM fire as a result. Not a popular decision with our pilots. From a USAF article:
“In light of the 20,000 tons of bombs that were dropped on the citizens of Hanoi and Haiphong, there were relatively few casualties. Only 1,318 people were killed in Hanoi and 306 in Haiphong, a truly remarkable number. By comparison, during nine days of bombing on Hamburg, Germany, in 1944, less than 10,000 tons were dropped and 30,000 people died.”