[leadpenny]

"Johnson made a quite firm decision not to let American troops outside the borders of (South) Vietnam, and in my view that was the wrong way to fight the war," Rostow said.

I won't comment on the rest of the article, right now, but as for the quote above, I'll just say that Johnson was a liar and Rostow is swearing to that lie. We were trying desperately to cut the trail with everything from mercenaries (including American SF advisors) to B-52's in 67 during my first tour in Pleiku. What we were doing way out west of Dak To in Southern Laos in November 67 is as clear today as it was then.

[lentulusgracchus]

That was "interdiction". They are talking about actually cutting the trail off by sending abundant heavy forces in there. Lots of armor, lots of mechanized infantry. Lots and lots, ladeled out by the corps and the army, until those trails and byways were just crawling with American heavy metal -- not tiny LRRPs and Ranger squads being chased through the jungle by NVA companies and HUK squads almost from the minute they were inserted. (Thus Larry Chambers, Death in the A Shau Valley: L Company LRRPs in Vietnam, 1969-70, Ivy Books, New York, 1998.)

[SJackson]

We were trying desperately to cut the trail with everything from mercenaries (including American SF advisors) to B-52's in 67 during my first tour in Pleiku. What we were doing way out west of Dak To in Southern Laos in November 67 is as clear today as it was then.

I think the author is talking about a massive, permanent ongoing presence on the ground.