McNamara Line
Encyclopedia
The McNamara Line was an unofficial name for a series of defensive barrier projects initiated by the United States
between 1966 and 1968 during the Vietnam War
to prevent infiltration of South Vietnam
by NVA
forces located in North Vietnam
and Laos
.
In December 1965, Robert McNamara met twice with Carl Kaysen
, a former Kennedy-era NSC staff member. Kaysen proposed an electronic barrier to limit infiltration from North Vietnam. McNamara jumped on the idea and asked Kaysen to create a proposal. Starting in January, John McNaughton
and a group in Cambridge including Kaysen and Roger Fisher created the proposal which was submitted to McNamara in March who then presented it to the Joint Chiefs of Staff for comment. The JCS response was that the proposal would still require an infeasible number of troops to be stationed along the barrier and would present difficult construction/logistical problems.
Also in late 1965 or early 1966, Jerry Wiesner and George Kistiakowsky
persuaded McNamara to support a summer study program in Cambridge for the group of 47 prominent scientists and academics that made up the JASON division of the Institute for Defense Analysis. The subject of the study was to find alternatives to the bombing campaign in North Vietnam. As Kaysen and the others involved in the Cambridge group were all members of JASON, the anti-infiltration barrier ideas were included in the JASON agenda.
The JASON study group east meetings took place June 16th to 25th at Dana Hall in Wellesley, Massachusetts. The buildings were guarded 24-7 during the meeting and attendees were given top secret security clearances. After the summer meetings, a report was produced over the course of July and August.
The JASON report of August 1966 called the bombing campaign against North Vietnam a failure saying that it had "no measurable direct effect on Hanoi's ability to mount and support military operations in the South". Their report proposed as an alternative two defensive barriers. The first barrier would run from the coast some distance inland along the DMZ and would seek to block infiltration through conventional means. The second barrier would run from the remote western areas of the border into Laos and would be a barrier of air intradiction, mines and electronic detection requiring minimal troops. While the JCS report had suggested the construction of a barrier would take up to four years, the JASON report suggested the barrier could be in place with available resources within a year.
McNamara presented the JASON group report to the Joint Chiefs in September 1966. The JCS handed the report off to CINCPAC which responded back that the barrier proposal was still impractical from a manpower and construction point of view. On September 15, 1966, without waiting for the response of the JCS, McNamara ordered that the proposal be implemented. General Alfred Starbird was appointed head of Task Force 728 which was to implement the project code-named Practice Nine. Two days later, the JCS reported back favorably on the already-approved proposal.
.
___ 1967___ USMC Engineers in early 1967 were ordered to bulldoze a strip from Gio-Linh westward to Con-Tien. This became known by the Marines as "The Trace". It was cleared to at least 500 meters wide. There is significant history and commentary available including maps available on the internet. See Operation Buffalo or the Battle of 2 July
.
through the special forces camp at Lang Vei was attacked by the multiple North Vietnamese divisions. The special forces camp at Lang Vei was overrun and Khe Sanh was placed under siege for seventy seven days. In July 1968, General Abrams newly appointed as US commander in South Vietnam ordered Khe Sanh and the surrounding area to be abandoned. The base was dismantled and all the construction along Route 9 toward Laos in terms of roads and bridges were systematically destroyed. This marked the end of the "McNamara Line" as an operational strategy.
On 29 October 1968, construction work ceased on the physical barrier to the east along the DMZ in South Vietnam. The physical base infrastructure created for the barrier was converted into a series of support bases for the new strategy of mobile operations.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
between 1966 and 1968 during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
to prevent infiltration of South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
by NVA
Vietnam People's Army
The Vietnam People's Army is the armed forces of Vietnam. The VPA includes: the Vietnamese People's Ground Forces , the Vietnam People's Navy , the Vietnam People's Air Force, and the Vietnam Marine Police.During the French Indochina War , the VPA was often referred to as the Việt...
forces located in North Vietnam
North Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
and Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
.
History
Various schemes had been proposed in the years before 1965 for a defensive line on the northern border of South Vietnam and southeast Laos. These schemes had generally been rejected because of their requirements for large amounts of military personnel to be deployed in static positions and because any barrier in Laos would encourage the Vietnamese to deploy their forces deeper into Laoian territory.In December 1965, Robert McNamara met twice with Carl Kaysen
Carl Kaysen
Carl Kaysen was an economist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-chair of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences' Committee on International Security Studies. He is the father of Girl, Interrupted author Susanna Kaysen. He was married for 50 years to Annette Neutra...
, a former Kennedy-era NSC staff member. Kaysen proposed an electronic barrier to limit infiltration from North Vietnam. McNamara jumped on the idea and asked Kaysen to create a proposal. Starting in January, John McNaughton
John McNaughton
John McNaughton is an American film and television director, originally from Chicago, Illinois.-Biography:His first feature film, made in 1986, was Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, a film McNaughton directed, co-wrote, and co-produced. Numerous complications plagued the controversial film,...
and a group in Cambridge including Kaysen and Roger Fisher created the proposal which was submitted to McNamara in March who then presented it to the Joint Chiefs of Staff for comment. The JCS response was that the proposal would still require an infeasible number of troops to be stationed along the barrier and would present difficult construction/logistical problems.
Also in late 1965 or early 1966, Jerry Wiesner and George Kistiakowsky
George Kistiakowsky
George Bogdan Kistiakowsky was a Ukrainian-American chemistry professor at Harvard who participated in the Manhattan Project and later served as President Eisenhower's Science Advisor...
persuaded McNamara to support a summer study program in Cambridge for the group of 47 prominent scientists and academics that made up the JASON division of the Institute for Defense Analysis. The subject of the study was to find alternatives to the bombing campaign in North Vietnam. As Kaysen and the others involved in the Cambridge group were all members of JASON, the anti-infiltration barrier ideas were included in the JASON agenda.
The JASON study group east meetings took place June 16th to 25th at Dana Hall in Wellesley, Massachusetts. The buildings were guarded 24-7 during the meeting and attendees were given top secret security clearances. After the summer meetings, a report was produced over the course of July and August.
The JASON report of August 1966 called the bombing campaign against North Vietnam a failure saying that it had "no measurable direct effect on Hanoi's ability to mount and support military operations in the South". Their report proposed as an alternative two defensive barriers. The first barrier would run from the coast some distance inland along the DMZ and would seek to block infiltration through conventional means. The second barrier would run from the remote western areas of the border into Laos and would be a barrier of air intradiction, mines and electronic detection requiring minimal troops. While the JCS report had suggested the construction of a barrier would take up to four years, the JASON report suggested the barrier could be in place with available resources within a year.
McNamara presented the JASON group report to the Joint Chiefs in September 1966. The JCS handed the report off to CINCPAC which responded back that the barrier proposal was still impractical from a manpower and construction point of view. On September 15, 1966, without waiting for the response of the JCS, McNamara ordered that the proposal be implemented. General Alfred Starbird was appointed head of Task Force 728 which was to implement the project code-named Practice Nine. Two days later, the JCS reported back favorably on the already-approved proposal.
The Barrier
The barrier would consist of a 20,000 air dropped listening devices combined with 240,000,000 Gravel mine and 300,000,000 Button mines and 19,200 Sadeye cluster bombs at a cost of around one billion dollars a year, not including 1.6 billion dollars for research and development, and the construction of a 600 million dollar command centre in ThailandThailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
.
___ 1967___ USMC Engineers in early 1967 were ordered to bulldoze a strip from Gio-Linh westward to Con-Tien. This became known by the Marines as "The Trace". It was cleared to at least 500 meters wide. There is significant history and commentary available including maps available on the internet. See Operation Buffalo or the Battle of 2 July
Battle of July Two
The Battle of July Two was a short engagement of the Vietnam War that took place along Route 561 between Gia Binh and An Kha, during Operation Buffalo....
.
1968
In 1968, the intended western end of the barrier stretching across South Vietnam from Khe SanhKhe Sanh
Khe Sanh is the district capital of Hướng Hoá District, Quảng Trị Province, Vietnam, located 63 km west of Đông Hà.Khe Sanh Combat Base was a United States Marine Corps outpost in South Vietnam used during the Vietnam War. The airstrip was built in September 1962...
through the special forces camp at Lang Vei was attacked by the multiple North Vietnamese divisions. The special forces camp at Lang Vei was overrun and Khe Sanh was placed under siege for seventy seven days. In July 1968, General Abrams newly appointed as US commander in South Vietnam ordered Khe Sanh and the surrounding area to be abandoned. The base was dismantled and all the construction along Route 9 toward Laos in terms of roads and bridges were systematically destroyed. This marked the end of the "McNamara Line" as an operational strategy.
On 29 October 1968, construction work ceased on the physical barrier to the east along the DMZ in South Vietnam. The physical base infrastructure created for the barrier was converted into a series of support bases for the new strategy of mobile operations.
Sources
- Gibbons, William Conrad The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War: Executive and Legislative Roles
- Stanton, Shelby The Rise and Fall of an American Army: US Ground Forces in Vietnam 1965-1973, 1985