March 18 was also the day Kissinger got definitive word from General Haig that the operation was a fiasco. During his visit Haig had realized “that ARVN’s enthusiasm for continuation of Lam Son 719 is completely lacking.”50 The South Vietnamese troops were in grave danger, threatened as they were by no fewer than five North Vietnamese regiments. The problem was no longer to convince them to stay but to get them to pull out “in an orderly way.” For all practical purposes, Lam Son 719 was over.
