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Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011  forces can be expected to substantially reduce the quantity of Communist supplies and personnel currently reaching the southern delta area of Vietnam.

d.

The changed military situation in South Vietnam resulting from the Communist successes in Laos poses a direct and serious military threat to the entire western flank of South Vietnam which cannot be met within the dimensions of our internal security program alone. This new threat requires the prompt organization of two new G.V.N. divisions and a vastly accelerated U.S. training program for the entire G.V.N. army. Because of the shortage of trained officers and non-commissioned officers cadres, the success of such a program depends upon raising the combat effectiveness of the South Vietnamese forces by an entire order of magnitude within matter of 6–8 months. To meet this new situation, it will be necessary to process the entire G.V.N. army through a greatly intensified divisional training program as rapidly as possible. A task of this magnitude is well beyond the capabilities of the existing MAAG and will require the augmentation of the U.S. Advisory Group with as much as two U.S. training commands, each capable of establishing a divisional field training area in the "high plateau" area of South Vietnam. These training areas, established in remote locations away from population centers and organized on a completely austere basis, simulating to the maximum extent combat conditions in the country, would each be able to process an entire G.V.N. division every ten weeks. Rh