111. Memorandum From Secretary of Defense Laird to President Nixon1
SUBJECT
- Expedited Delivery of Matériel to the RVNAF (Project Enhance Plus)
Enhance Plus is completed. All items are delivered in-country or enroute by surface shipping. Cooperation of the Services, JCS, field commands, State and your Ambassadors has been outstanding. I am going to briefly summarize this effort.
Enhance Plus was designed to accelerate deliveries of approved Vietnamization equipment programs and to further enhance the logistics and tactical capability of the RVNAF. This program started with the preparation of a very close hold shipping list on 14 October. It consisted of 29 Army items and 9 Air Force items. I was instructed to execute expedited deliveries of the 29 Army items and a revised list of Air Force items, to arrive in RVN by 1 November 1972, utilizing airlift. The revision provided C–130’s, an increase in the quantity of A–37B’s and F–5A’s, and reduced the number of Air Force items to seven. Over the weekend of 21 October, 39 M–113’s were airlifted and other equipment moved to aerial ports. In fact, by 6:00 A.M. on the morning of 21 October, [Page 417] 7,000 tons of matériel had been offered for shipment. On 22 October at about noon this program was stopped. Equipment at the aerial ports was returned to originating stations. Equipment enroute was allowed to go. I should mention here that had this program continued, we would have met the 1 November date.
The program was reinstated on 25 October with a new deadline date. This date was originally 20 November but was subsequently advanced to 15 November. It required matériel to be in-country or enroute by this date. Being concerned that an acceleration might develop and being desirous of some cushion, I decided that we would all plan to meet a 10 November date rather than 15 November. By 10 November all Enhance Plus was to be either delivered or enroute in international waters to Vietnam. This entire program was accomplished in just 16 days.
The 29 Army items and seven Air Force were subsequently increased to include one tactical radar system at Danang and 31 Marine Corps amphibious vehicles. Also, the program included reference to the ROK forces in Vietnam, providing that equipment of four of the six ROK brigades are to be transferred to the ARVN.
To implement this program the efforts of the Services, JCS and OSD were marshaled to provide a responsive coordinated effort. Logistics Operations Centers were established in all appropriate headquarters and operated around the clock.
The logistics results of this 16-day effort is portrayed in the following summary:
Army—All 29 Project Enhance items are delivered or enroute by ship to Vietnam. Manifest data on the ships still at sea is attached.
Air Force—The program is complete. All AC–119K’s (22), A–37B’s (90), 32 C–130A’s, 277 UH–1H’s, and 116 F–5A’s have been delivered. Nineteen A–1’s are in-country and nine are enroute by sealift. Eight hundred two of the 855 vehicles are delivered and 53 vehicles enroute from CONUS and PACOM. The Tactical Radar System for Danang has been delivered in-country by airlift.
Marine Corps—The Marine Corps Amphibious Vehicles have been delivered.
Shipping—Thirteen ships are enroute at present (10 from CONUS, Enclosure 3, and three from PACOM, Enclosure 4). Attached as Enclosure 5 is a listing of ships and the Enhance Plus cargo which they are carrying. This Enhance Plus cargo, of course, is in addition to other cargo related to Enhance and Crimp.
Title Transfer of Equipment—For all those Enhance Plus items that have not been physically turned over to the RVNAF by 10 November [Page 418] (regardless of location, e.g., on the water and in US custody in-country), MACV has confirmed that title has been transferred to the RVNAF.
Secondary Items—The delivery of secondary items has been expedited concurrently with Enhance Plus major items. Since replenishment of these items should continue indefinitely, supply operations will be normalized and the one year in-country requisition objective maintained.
Ammunition—Desired stockage objectives (90 days for ARVN, 120 days for VNAF and VNN) have been achieved with the exception of CBU–55’s, 60mm mortar illuminating and Claymore mines, which are production limited, but with substitutes available.
POL—Available secured tankage is near capacity (approximately one million barrels or about 60 days of supply) and the commercial pipeline is adequate to replenish consumption.
Contract Support—Our initial estimate of the amount of annual contract support that will be required to sustain the RVNAF after US military withdrawal, approximates $200 million. We will continue to work with the Services and the JCS as the new organizations in Southeast Asia take shape, in order to insure that adequate controls are maintained over the contracts remaining in-country. We visualize a small coordination staff element in the Defense Resource Surveillance Termination Office (DRSTO) with the Services retaining basic contract administration responsibility.
Base Transfers—All military facilities have been transferred to either the GVN/RVNAF or the Embassy. The Ambassador has requested 23 military facilities and six leased facilities to be transferred to the Embassy and retained for civil agency use.
Costs—The Services have estimated the operating cost impact of Enhance Plus to be $100 million—Army $35.5 million, Air Force $63.7 million, and Navy $1 million. On a category basis, $38.2 million is for matériel cost, $40.5 million for transportation cost and $21.5 million for operating cost. The replacement costs on a preliminary basis are approximately $500 million ($50 million Army and $450 million Air Force). The $500 million replacement cost of Enhance Plus is principally for aircraft programs not previously programmed, such as the C–130 and the 277 UH–1H’s, and above program Army ground equipment. The total excludes value of equipment which had been programmed and was delivered on an accelerated basis, the ROKV and other MAP equipment, and the matériel transferred with the current base turnovers, which may total several hundred million dollars additional. The cost estimates are being examined in detail by my Comptroller. They are unbudgeted costs which should be added to the Defense FY 1973 [Page 419] budget to the extent they cannot be offset by savings in other Southeast Asia operations.
Enhance Plus is thus completed.
- Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 106, Vietnam Subject Files, Vietnam: Cherokee Enhance Plus, October–December 1972. Top Secret. The five enclosures (Enhance Plus Aircraft; Army [weapons and equipment sent]; CONUS Shipping; PACOM Shipping; and Enhance Plus Ships Load List) are attached but not printed.↩