The Pentagon Papers In 1967, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara commissioned what has come to be known as the Pentagon Papers--a massive top-secret history of the U.S. role in Indochina. The result was approximately 3,000 pages of narrative and more than 4,000 pages of appended documents--about 2.5 million words. 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 …showed first 75 words of 1024 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1024 total…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.