370. Intelligence Memorandum Prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency1
ROAD CONSTRUCTION AND WET WEATHER LOGISTICS IN THE LAOTIAN PANHANDLE
Summary
The North Vietnamese have made substantial improvements to the wet-season capacity of the road network in Laos used for truck transport [Page 727] of supplies from North Vietnam to South Vietnam in 1967–68. The estimated wet-season capacity for continuous truck movement as far south as the A Shau Valley has been increased from 50 to 100 short tons a day. An additional 50 tons of capacity is available for movements along routes leading into Quang Tin and Kontum Provinces.
The increased wet-season capacity of this road network, if fully used, could sustain traffic volumes amounting to 85 percent of the daily average—175 tons—moved during the 1967–68 dry season (September 1967–April 1968). The current requirement of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam for logistic support from the north via Laos is only slightly more than 30 tons a day.
The improved capacity of the road network strengthens North Vietnam’s capability to provide sustained logistic support to Communist forces in the South. It will also reduce the dependence of these troops on storage areas and porterage for logistic resupply.
[Here follows the 11-page body of the memorandum.]
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Laos, Vol. XVIII, Memos 1/68–1/69. Secret; No Foreign Dissem. A note on the source text indicates that this memorandum was produced solely by the CIA’s Office of Economic Research in coordination with the Director’s Special Assistant for Vietnamese Affairs.↩