The opening phase of the mining mission was assigned to USS Coral Sea.

The operation was timed to coincide with a televised speech by President Richard Nixon at 21:00 8 May (Eastern United States time). On 4 May Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Thomas Hinman Moorer ordered Chief of Naval Operations Elmo Zumwalt to plan a naval mining mission under the code name of Pocket Money. was unwilling to suffer the humiliation of accelerating withdrawal as Quảng Trị Province began to collapse before the North Vietnamese Easter offensive.

United States withdrawal of military forces began in June 1969. Naval mining had been frequently considered, but always rejected because of the risk of provoking intervention by the Soviet Union or the People's Republic of China. Nearly 85 percent of North Vietnam's import tonnage came through the port of Haiphong. Pocket Money was the first use of naval mines against North Vietnam.

Its purpose was to halt or slow the transportation of supplies and materials for the Nguyen Hue Offensive (known in the West as the Easter Offensive), an invasion of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), by forces of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), that had been launched on 30 March. Navy Task Force 77 aerial mining campaign conducted against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) from (Vietnamese time), during the Vietnam War.

Operation Pocket Money was the title of a U.S.

Pocket money wikipedia