0 - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORPORATION
At the same time, US contingency plans did not reflvt the
prospect of massive Soviet support of North Vietnam's military effort.,
North Vietnam was treated by US planners as a vassal state or proxy of the
Chinese, and the scope of the Soviet-sponsored builaup of Ncrth Vietnam s
ground and air defense forces in the nid-i960s probably took some US
officials by surprise
e. Internal US Constraints
Several constraints prevented the US from preparing contingency
plans which "fit" the real nature of the war. The first constraint
was the faulty nature of US intelligence during the 1950s and early 1960s
(see Chapter 9 Volume VI). This prevented US planners from gaining a true
insight into the capabilities and intentions of both North and South
Vietnam. Another constraint was the general lack of background knowledge
by US planners about the enti'e region (long considered to be on the
"periphery", far from direct US interests), These factors combined to
ensure that faulty assumptions about enemy and friendly states would be
included in some contingency plans. The military services lacked the
political guidance such as that required from the State Department to set
qoals or to define the obstacles which might be encountered in attaining
military goals.40/ Without this necessary guidance, the Joint Chiefs were
left to develop their own concepts of future policy. According to Gen.,
Maxwell Taylor the JCS lacked adequate military guidance as late as 1964,
when the US was turning increased attantion to Vietnam., The JCS had the
Secretary of Defense's encouragement, "but little guidanc- as to standards
of s..f.iciency".41/
Other top military planners have remarked there was no
unified military view of the situation in Vietnam.42/
C, PLANS ACTUALLY IMPLEMENTED
!. OPLANs 34A and 37-64
9uring the watershed year of 1964, the first contingency plan to
be implemented was the joint MACV/CIA OPLAN 34A, an eliborate program of
covert operations designed to punish the North Vietnamese for their support
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