Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011
of their efforts in southern Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam can be expected. The 250 mile border between South Vietnam and Laos, while never effectively sealed in the past, will now be deprived of even the semblance of protection which the friendly, pro-western Laos offers.
Third, the three principal passes through the Annamite Mountains (the Nape Pass, Mugia Gap, and Lao Bao Pass) lie in Southern Laos. These passes control three key military avenues of advance from North Vietnam through Laos into the open Mekong valley leading to Thailand and South Vietnam. A Lao political settlement that would afford the Communists an opportunity to maintain any sort of control, covertly or otherwise, of these mountain passes would make them gate keepers to the primary inland invasion route leading to Saigon and flanking the most important defensive terrain in the northern area of South Vietnam.
The first is of little significance since this government has already indicated that we will not consider ourselves bound by any limitations imposed by the 1954 Geneva Agreements.
As to the second, the neutralization or loss of Laos to the Free World will, of course, compound the problems which the G.V.N. faces in maintaining the security of their border with Laos. It will also improve the Communist capabilities to infiltrate personnel and equipment into Southern Vietnam through Cambodia. The extremely rugged nature of
