Forty-seven volumes cover U.S. involvement in Indochina from World War II through May 1968, the month the peace talks began in Paris. Among other things, the Pentagon Papers document the activities of sabotage and terror warfare against North Vietnam beginning in 1954 and the moves that encouraged and influenced the overthrow of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963. The papers represent the most complete secret archives of government decision-making on Indochina. Rarely has a collection of documents similar to these papers come to light in modern history.

Included in the papers is McNamara's December 1963 memorandum to President Lyndon B. Johnson summarizing the situation in Vietnam as very disturbing. "Current trends, unless reversed in the next 23 months," he said, "will lead to neutralization at best and more likely to a Communist-controlled state." A coup had just been completed, and the new

Meanwhile, consideration was being given to improving Hardnose--the code name for a Laos covert project not further identified in the document. Options under consideration included greater Thai involvement and getting Hardnose missions to operate more effectively in the corridor infiltration areas.

Operations Plan 34A (OPLAN 34A), which the Pentagon documents call "an elaborate program of covert military operations against the state of North Vietnam," was conceived by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and began on February 1, 1964. President Johnson ordered the implementation of the program based on McNamara's recommendation, though without the support of the intelligence community, in the hope that progressively escalating pressure from the clandestine attacks might eventually force Hanoi to order the Viet Cong guerrillas in Vietnam and the Pathet Lao in Laos to halt their insurrections. McNamara directed the clandestine operations through a section of the Joint Chiefs organization called the Office of Special Assistant for Counterinsurgency and Special Activities.

McNamara highlighted the "Country Team" as the second major weakness and wrote that it was poorly informed and not working to a common plan. He stated flatly: "Lodge [Henry Cabot Lodge, ambassador to South Vietnam, 19631967] has virtually no official contact with Harkins [General Paul Harkins, first commander of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV)]. Lodge sends in reports of military implications without showing them to Harkins and does not show Harkins important incoming

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