MARCH 10 MEETING INTER-AGENCY AD HOC GROUP ON LAOS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: Library of Congress
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): LOC-HAK-174-2-2-4
• Release Decision: RIPLIM
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: January 11, 2017
• Document Release Date: December 2, 2011
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: March 11, 1970
• Content Type: MEMO

No Objection to Declassification in Part 2011/12/02: LOC-HAK-174-2-2-4
CRIET/S
MEMORANDUM F"' p DR. KIS5'INC ER
John H.. Hoidridge
INFORMATION
parch it, 19717
JECTa March U) i eeting Inter-Agency Ad Hot Group on t. os
I attach a brief euxrnr:xr'nary of the proceedings of the Ad Hoc
Meeting an Laos.
The a oct interesting features of the meeting were those:
reoim.e1. Our Mission in Yi.entiaane wants a total of 61 ae
el slots, primarily to support the increased level of
sir activity. It was agreed that Defense should query its
people in Yteentiana, pointing to the political sen.sttivi.ty of
peraonn,l increases and asking whether other personnel slats
can be traded off to meet the Mission's needs. (An increase
would of course require a Presidential decision, )
The Chinese Road. It was agreed to consider again on Thursday
whether we are now In a position to do anything further on the
plan to put guerrilla units in the way of Chinese road building.
Note: At the time of the meeting, we had no authoritative text of Sou rawa s
press conference statement about Chinese rowed-building, and it appeared
that no record had been made of the alleged statement. We have since
received from Vientiane a transcript of ' ouvar-na'sa remarks, taken from a
tape of the press conference. He is more equivocal than we had hoped.
SECRET' S
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-00
As ed whether there sat written agreement for construct en of a road
beyond Mnang Sal toward the A.M.ekea . he said- There is Only our joint
coaErtxareuatque that was published concerning the extension of the Thong
.aly rued to the direction of the oath of Laos. That to to say towards
Meng 5ai and lA2*ng Prabang. " Acked whether this agreement toytred
the present construction toward Pak ]t a ng, he Wd; Me. no. We have
n stponeed the Chinese Charge d"affairea on this n atter and he do~*a not
recognize the existence of this road. The question we will face on
Thursday to whether this fun,y statement is suftictent and #ufftcteatty
public evidence that there 3s a* outstanding request for Chinese roams.
e teat uctton.
RECRETISEN!
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INTER-AG r NCY AD HOC GROUP ON T.,A C S 1,4 E ETING
MARCH 10, 1970
z 'K
SUM, MARY )ANUTE-57
. Intetli aaaace.I Souvanzaa expressed elation at
the Pra ttdeat's March 6 statement, saying that this unequivocal public
assertion of support strengthened his hand with the Congress. He and
other RL,G officials have indicated that they have hopes of engaging soon
in talks with the P*thet Lao.
:'Mtilitaril:y, there are no signs of enemy nnovernent west of Muuag oui
toward the Vientianer/ Luang Pr*barxg road. The enemy is probing Vang
Pao's outer defenses. and pressure against Vang Pa.o is expected. F
then south, some three NVA. battalions are operating east of Faksane,
and a captured notebook suggests that their purpose is to tie down troops
by diversionary taetd+s In that area.
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V.
NSITIVZ
10, 1970
4. p''*rs crawl R aremonts. The military in Ylentlane want S a dttton*1
positions for aircr*ft maintenance and opeeratton plus 6 other positions. The
political sensitivity of any staf.( increase in Vientiane was discussed, and
DOD was askeed to query the field to ask how many new jobs are considered
absolutely essential and whether the slats could be made available by
econies elsewhere in Laos, (This request, if it materializes, clearly
will have to go to the President, )
S. Political and MJ11tsry Initiatives. It was agreed on Thursday to discuss
a. draft paper on possible U. S. actions and position. with respect to the
various political tiativee in the air. It was further agreed that sustained
Corn mlvt military pressure may put Vang Pao under very heavy induce.
meat to pack up his lt`eo follo wr, and move westward. Such a move would
bring the Ca muniasts much closer to Vientiane and would probably bring
about a crtsis in the R L0. It was agreed to examine whether any further
military action, to addition to those already take, would be justified.
6, The Numbers C;anne. i.,indsey Gramt mentioned that any reference to
beers in Laos rn-ust be consistent with the figures used by the President
and Dr. Kissinger, and that no updating and. changes should be taken
nallaterally.
BMW RESTRICTED SESSION',
The ChieeeeRoad.
Sorn
Chinese cadres have been tent back to Yunnan, reinforcing the evidence
that the Chinese are not pressing road construction at this time. the
other hand, a neemy movements between Iluong Haan and the Thai border
how that the Communists are attempting syete natical ' to clear .rat any
presence in that area.
than Moore a tedd that $ouvranaa has yet to make the requested public
cation that there is no outstanding R.LC request for road construction.
His remark to Ambassador Godley as to what he had said at a recent press
conference was tt&f equivocal, and apucane of the correspondents present
picked it up or put it an the record, nor did he Include is in the official.
report of the press conference. Under these circumstances, we could either
EECR TISIt NSITIVi
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SECRET/ SENSITIVE
ARY MI.*+1t: TVS*
.
t4arch icy, 1970
(a) go ahead with the planned exercise south of lvluong
requiring arty R W at rent, or(b) continue to rewire the el*ri 'ics:tion,
or (c) reconsider the whole offer to Ught of changed circumstances.
Lindsey Grant aa`ug *ted that the third alternative was probably ruled out,
given the Preea1daat'a recent lattruction. It was agreed to come to a
recommendation Thureday.
SECRET/ sEHr XVE
JHH:.LG:xnlr:3/11/70
No Objection to Declassification in Part 2011/12/02: LOC-HAK-174-2-2-4