Office of the Historian

352. Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (Warnke) to the Deputy Secretary of Defense (Nitze)1

I–35319/68
Washington, March 28, 1968.

SUBJECT

  • Prairie Fire—Phase III

The Joint Chiefs of Staff have withdrawn their April 1967 proposal for recruiting, training and employing up to 3,000 Kha tribal personnel in the Prairie Fire area of Laos (Tab A).2 The Joint Staff (SACSA) determined in December 1967 to abandon this program after it became clear through our diplomatic channels that the Royal Lao Government was insistent upon the proposed program being under the command and direction of the Lao Armed Forces, instead of being under MACV.

The current JCS paper3 is designed to apprise OSD and the Department of State officially of the close-out of the Prairie Fire Phase III proposal and to indicate that some intelligence collection features of the Phase III proposal are included in a separate JCS recommendation (JCSM–171–68).4 The latter is now being coordinated with the Department of State.

Recommend you sign the attached draft memorandum5 to the Under Secretary of State.

Paul C. Warnke 6
  1. Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 330, OASD/ISA Files: FRC 72 A 1499, Laos 000.1—(Laos 381), 1968. Top Secret; Sensitive. Drafted by Mobley.↩
  2. See Document 282.↩
  3. JCSM–170–68, March 21, attached, but not printed.↩
  4. Dated March 21. (Washington National Records Center, RG 330, OASD/ISA Files: FRC 72 A 1499, Laos 000.1—(381 Laos) For the substance of the proposal, see footnote 2, Document 353.↩
  5. Attached, but not printed.↩
  6. Printed from a copy that indicates Warnke signed the original.↩