General Vang Pao now found himself in a strategic dilemma. Although his Operation Barrel Roll tactical air allotment had been temporarily increased to 60 daily sorties to support his operation, he knew Vietnamization would slash that quota on 1 July. The U.S. belief that Operation Lam Son 719 was best followed by ongoing interdiction strikes further cut his close air support. His American backers were urging him to go on the defensive as a means of aiding peace negotiations to end the Laotian Civil War. Yet the North Vietnamese were poised on the brink of victory; they had at least two more months dry weather for staging their attacks on Long Tieng, and they held the entire Plain of Jars for a staging area. To survive, the Hmong guerrillas had to at least wage limited spoiling offensives. Not only that, the Hmong Council of Elders had to be reassured that he was still fighting, lest the Elders provoke a migration of the community away from the war.