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Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011

1. The military considerations involved in a national program of action designed to prevent Communist domination of South Vietnam and to create in that country a viable, increasingly democratic society are complicated by:

a. :

Indications are that the Communists are attempting to use the post cease-fire period to consolidate their control over the areas in which the Pathet Lao forces have been operating. If they are successful, this will

(1) Greatly increase the problem of guarding the G.V.N.-Laos border against the infiltration of Communist terrorists and supplies, and

(2) Allow the Communists to gain control over the three principal passes through the Annamite Mountains, which lie along the frontier between Vietnam and Laos. These passes (The Nape Pass, Mugia Gap, and the pass that controls the road from Quang Tri to Savannakhet) are located in Southern Laos and control the three key military avenues of advance from North Vietnam through Laos into· the open Mekong Valley leading to Thailand and South Vietnam. Ability to use these internal lines of advance would enable an attacker from the North to avoid the coastal road which is vulnerable to interdiction by naval gunfire or demolitions and to flank the most defensive terrain in the northern area of South Vietnam. Rh