163. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon1
Washington, undated.
SUBJECT
- Covert Action Campaign on Lam Son 719
Attached is a memorandum from CIA Director Helms2 outlining actions which he has taken in capitals abroad and in the intensification of black broadcasts aimed at domestic audiences in the DRV and at NVA troops in the field. Such a program has, of course, been underway but will be intensified immediately stressing the following points:
- —The closing of Sihanoukville dictated an unprecedented reliance on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Concurrently, the improvement in ARVN forces enabled them to carry out an ambitious operation against the Trail network.
- —Lam Son 719 was originally conceived as limited in time and space and the operation adhered closely to the original schedule.
- —South Vietnamese mobile tactics employing air support and air mobility were specifically tailored to overcome North Vietnamese local advantages and numerical superiority. These tactics forced the North Vietnamese to mass, giving Allies the opportunity to inflict maximum damage and then withdraw ARVN forces.
- —Overall ARVN performance was quite impressive and resulted in heavy damage to numerically superior NVA forces.
- —In a larger sense the initiative has now been achieved by the ARVN.
- Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 85, Vietnam Subject Files, Special Operations File, 20 March 71. Secret; Sensitive.↩
- Attached but not printed is a March 22 memorandum from Helms to Kissinger on “Covert Action Campaign on Lam Son 719 Operation.” According to a transcript of a telephone conversation between Kissinger and Helms at 10:45 a.m., March 22, Nixon had sought assurance “that something is being done on the black propaganda.” Helms informed Kissinger that he would furnish a report that CIA had been working on “all weekend” by the end of the day. (Ibid., Kissinger Telephone Conversations, Box 9, Chronological File)↩