Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume VII, Vietnam, July 1970–January 1972

124. Minutes of a Meeting of the Senior Washington Special Actions Group¹

Washington, February 8, 1971, 10:35 a.m.

SUBJECT

• Southeast Asia Dry Season Campaign

PARTICIPANTS

• Chairman—Henry A. Kissinger
• State
  • U. Alexis Johnson
  • William H. Sullivan
• Defense
  • David Packard
  • Dennis Doolin
• CIA
  • Richard Helms
  • George Carver
• JCS
  • Admiral Thomas Moorer
  • LTG John W. Vogt
• NSC Staff
  • Brig. Gen. A. M. Haig
  • Colonel. Richard T. Kennedy
  • John H. Holdridge
• WH Staff
  • H. R. Haldeman

Mr. Johnson: Our Congressional briefings went very well.

Mr. Kissinger: Ziegler says that McCloskey is answering “no comment” to the question of whether Souvanna was consulted.

Mr. Johnson: I didn’t know this. I will check.

Admiral Moorer: (Briefed on movement of forces to date.) The operation is moving on schedule. Six units are in. We lost 4 US killed yesterday.

Mr. Kissinger: Will US losses increase?

Admiral Moorer: Possibly some but not beyond past levels. There will be ambushes. Several subsidiary moves are underway. Airlift into Laos is going ahead to begin setting up blocking positions and fire support bases. There have been 48 B–52 strikes in the past 12 hours. Some enemy forces—about 700 men—are moving toward Tchepone, also one regiment of the 2nd Division is moving west in NVN. One enemy regiment is moving from SVN into the Base 611 area. As to helo losses, there were three incidents. The crews on two were rescued; one crew is missing. The opposition so far has been light. We will have to ford the river at Tchepone. We estimate 72 hours to the intersection of routes 9 and 92 because of engineering work needed on the road.

Mr. Helms: It is not surprising that the enemy is moving west in NVN. It is only surprising that they didn’t move earlier.

Admiral Moorer: They will take at least seven days to get there.

Mr. Kissinger: Will the ARVN move the feint force in mid week?

Admiral Moorer: Yes, they will move 7500 down the road with support on both sides. 2,500 will be flown in later.

Mr. Helms: When?

Admiral Moorer: Later in the week when the movement progresses.

Mr. Helms: There is no basic change in the enemy situation. He is preparing for combat and pushing supplies through on trucks.

Admiral Moorer: We have destroyed or damaged 262 trucks in the last 48 hours. (170 by gunship, 100 by fighters.) We had 52 sorties in North Laos, 587 in South Laos and 244 in Cambodia over the weekend. Chup is going well. There has been sharp fighting—about 300 NVN KIA, 26 ARVN KIA. The enemy is setting defenses up across the road. We have used 36 airlift sorties in Chup so far.

Mr. Helms: There has been no NVN or Pathet Lao reaction so far. Tass has played it as straight news.

Mr. Sullivan: We have a summary of foreign reaction.

Mr. Kissinger: I saw it and it is not bad.

Mr. Johnson: The Russian stress on the Chinese is interesting. The French reaction is about as expected.

Mr. Sullivan: We will wrap this up again later in the day.

Mr. Kissinger: The USSR is tougher on China than on the US. It is a great smokescreen for them.

Mr. Helms: Things are not going well in North Laos. We don’t have an answer on the two Thai battalions yet.

Mr. Kissinger: We need an answer quickly.

Mr. Helms: I will get out to them again.

Mr. Kissinger: The Long Tieng situation has nothing to do with operation in South.

Mr. Johnson: On Congressional consultations, I don’t have full details—but they seemed to go well. The Secretary suggested they hold fire “till they see what happens.” Fulbright is quoted as saying he was not reached but the Secretary did reach him.

Mr. Sullivan: The Stanford daily is going to publish a favorable editorial.

Admiral Moorer: Rennie Davis² says there will be nationwide student demonstrations on Wednesday.

Mr. Johnson: The Souvanna statement was better than we expected. Thieu’s statement was released here by the SVN Ambassador.³ The text was slightly different—more polished English.

Mr. Kissinger: Did Henkin go?

Mr. Packard: Yes, he was on the Today show.

Mr. Kissinger: How about Souvanna’s Press Conference?

Mr. Johnson: No, he has not had it yet. The Department issued a statement.⁴

Mr. Kissinger: Has it gone out on VOA?

Mr. Johnson: Yes.

Mr. Kissinger: Have we done the briefing for NATO and SEATO?

Mr. Johnson: SEATO was briefed; NATO will be today.

Mr. Kissinger: We need those contingency plans on a fall of Souvanna and an NVA move west.

Mr. Johnson: I have put them in the Lao Working Group.

Mr. Kissinger: OK—Please have the plans brought to the WSAG.

Mr. Carver: The Silver Buckle operations and the SGU upgrading effort will be supporting the ARVN operation.

Mr. Kissinger: Do we still think that most of the enemy supplies are north of Tchepone?

Mr. Helms: Yes.

Mr. Kissinger: Their crash effort won’t change the situation before we get there?

Admiral Moorer and Mr. Helms: No.

Mr. Carver: We are working out plans for fire-fight simulations and are planting deception rumors also.

Mr. Johnson: At February 8 briefing the ARVN briefer indicated a possible SVN contact on the operation with the Laos Government.

Mr. Sullivan: It was partly covered by the story that the SVN military contacted RLG military without Souvanna’s knowledge.

Mr. Kissinger: I think we are pretty well up to date. Thank you. We will meet again tomorrow.

1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, NSC Institutional Files (H-Files), Box H–115, WSAG Meetings Minutes, Originals, 1971. Top Secret; Sensitive. The meeting took place in the Situation Room of the White House. According to a chronology attached to a February 9 memorandum from Howe to Haig, the meeting ended at 11:17. (Ibid., Box 84, Vietnam Subject Files, Special Operations File, Vol. IV)
2. Rennie Davis was a prominent student protest leader and a leader of the Students for a Democratic Society.
3. The text was transmitted in circular telegram 21032, February 8, to all diplomatic and consular posts. Thieu broadcast it at 10 a.m. Washington time. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, POL 27 LAOS) The text of Thieu’s message was published in The New York Times, February 8, 1971, p. 14.
4. See footnote 7, Document 123.