307. Memorandum From Secretary of Defense McNamara to President Johnson1
SUBJECT
- Anti-infiltration barrier between North and South Vietnam
I recommended in my October 14 trip report2 to you that we install south of the 17th Parallel a barrier against infiltration from North into South Vietnam.
We are now preparing to proceed to install the ground portions of this barrier. The easternmost portion will be a continuous ground barrier of fences, wire, mines and sensors, supported by artillery, aircraft and mobile troops, and will extend from the South China Sea westward approximately 30 kilometers, as far as the land remains relatively flat. To the west of this continuous ground barrier will be intermittent ground barriers placed in the ravines or defiles through which men and supplies are forced by the terrain to move. These barriers are supported by General Westmoreland and by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
West of the ground barriers there is a clear need for an air barrier. The exact character of the air barrier has not been decided. It may be an intensification of the present program of air strikes on infiltration routes, a form of the Air Force “Beaver” proposal involving continuous bombing of three or four lines of choke points, or some other air method of denying transit to enemy trucks, men and supplies. We are now taking steps to acquire the munitions, sensors and other equipment and facilities necessary to implement the air portion of an anti-infiltration barrier.3
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Vietnam, vol. LXI. Secret. Copies were sent to Rusk and Wheeler.↩
- Document 268.↩
- In two memoranda to Katzenbach, November 16 and November 26, Rosenthal summarized and discussed two briefings on the barrier provided to Department of State officials by General Starbird and Richard Steadman. (Department of State, Central Files, POL 27 VIET S)↩