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 leader of a mi

Was the clandestine war of 1964 outlined in the Pentagon Papers successful? Apparently not, for in February 1965, Operation Rolling Thunder--the sustained air war--was ordered to begin. According to the Pentagon Papers, the intelligence panel within the National Security Council working group, composed of representatives from the leading intelligence agencies--the CIA, the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency--"did not concede very strong chances for breaking the will of Hanoi" with Operation Rolling Thunder. Once set in motion, however, the massive bombing effort seemed to stiffen rather than soften Hanoi's will to resist, which would lead to the decision to escalate the war by sending American ground troops to Vietnam.

A State Department aide recorded that the following missions were completed in October 1964:

Some topics in this essay:
William Bundy, Leaping Lena, North Vietnamese, Hon Matt, Mui Dai, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos Cambodia, Pentagon Papers--a, Lyndon Johnson, north vietnam, south vietnam, joint chiefs, viet cong, joint chiefs staff, north vietnamese, chiefs staff, oplan 34a, operations included, maritime operations, pentagon papers, son radar station, maritime operations included, national liberation front, reinforcement in-place teams,