363. Intelligence Memorandum Prepared by the Directorate of Intelligence of the Central Intelligence Agency1
ROAD CONSTRUCTION IN THE LAOTIAN PANHANDLE AND ADJACENT AREAS OF SOUTH VIETNAM, 1967–68
Summary
The North Vietnamese are engaged in an intensive program to construct new supply routes, with limited all-weather capability, into South Vietnam from Laotian trunk routes to support military operations (see the map, Figure 1). Work started on a number of new roads during the last quarter of 1967, prior to the Tet offensive, and is still in progress. All of these new roads branch off a north-south trunk route in the Laotian Panhandle and run directly across the border toward important US-South Vietnamese military installations in South Vietnam. The newly completed routes provide the Communists with an increased capability to introduce troops, heavy weapons, and sizable amounts of materials by truck into four widely separated areas in the northern part of South Vietnam.
North Vietnamese strategy provides for connecting their road network in North Vietnam and Laos with the existing road system in South [Page 714] Vietnam. To achieve this goal, the North Vietnamese have simultaneously built or upgraded five new crossings of the South Vietnamese border (a total of 215 miles of road) during the past six months. Two of the new roads parallel Route 9 in Laos and lead toward the Khe Sanh Combat Base. Further south, a road in Laos has been connected with a road in the A Shau Valley in South Vietnam leading to Hue. The North Vietnamese have joined a fourth road with an important north-south route in South Vietnam. From the tri-border area of Laos, Cambodia, and South Vietnam, the North Vietnamese have also extended a new road to the vicinity of the major US base at Dak To. New feeder roads branch off this route and lead southeast towards the provincial capitals of Kontum and Pleiku.
The new and expanded roadnet is an attempt to establish a more reliable year-round logistics system. All the new roads crossing into South Vietnam, except the two roads paralleling Route 9 in Laos, are limited all-weather; all connect with logistical base areas along the main trunk route. Sections of the main north-south route in Laos, and especially the segment north of Chavane, at times become impassable during the rainy season, but the enemy may be able to maintain most of this primary logistical route for a longer period this year than in previous ones. In addition, a new road which appears to have limited all-weather capability is under construction from North Vietnam around the western end of the DMZ.
[Here follows the 13-page memorandum.]
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Laos, Vol. XVIII, Memos 1/68–1/69. Secret; No Foreign Dissem. A note at the bottom of page 1 reads:” This memorandum was prepared solely by CIA. It was prepared by the Office of Economic Research and was coordinated with the Director’s Special Assistant for Vietnamese Affairs and the Office of Current Intelligence.”↩