The Journal of Military History

By mid-1966 the North Vietnamese army had built an elaborate system of truck roads and personnel trails through Laos to support and reinforce some 435,000 communist troops and guerrillas attacking South Vietnam. Interdicting movement on that system was a high priority for U.S. forces helping to defend the South. By arrangement with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, the Jason group of scientists proposed a networked system of sensors and aircraft for the purpose. That system, although not totally successful, significantly affected the course of the war and presaged key aspects of the equipment and operation of America’s armed forces today.