Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part IV. A. 5.djvu/316

Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3 NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011  President Diem's plan to rebuild the coastal highway to Hue, and succeeded in asserting priority for a road into the Pleiku area of the Highlands. General Williams acceeded to only so much of the Saigon-Hue road (Highway No.1) as extended to Bien Hoa (some 20 miles north of Saigon) because "there is no road out of Saigon now that could take care of heavy military traffic and will not be until Bien Hoa Highway is completed."

The 20-mile stretch of highway to Bien Hoa cost more money than all project aid allocated for labor, community development, social welfare, health, and education in the years 1954-1961. Rh