The Battle of Ban Pa Dong was fought between 31 January and 6 June 1961 in Ban Pa Dong, the Kingdom of Laos. Troops from the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Pathet Lao attacked Hmong recruits being trained as Auto Defense Choc guerrillas via Operation Momentum. Although the Hmong made the tactical error of defending a fixed position, their eventual escape from the communist invaders left their fledgling L'Armee Clandestine intact and able to wage war for the Royal Lao Government. However, they abandoned four howitzers and two mortars to the victorious Vietnamese communists. The partisans had also set a deleterious precedent for themselves with their defense of a fixed position.
As the First Indochina War ended, and the Kingdom of Laos moved towards independence, the departing French bureaucrats and soldiers were gradually replaced by Americans.[1] Captain Kong Le, who was opposed to foreign involvement in his nation's affairs, staged a coup d'etat on 9 August 1960.[2] A counter-coup by General Phoumi Nosavan would eclipse him on 16 December 1960 at the Battle of Vientiane. In the wake of Phoumi's ascension, James William Lair of the Central Intelligence Agency secretly entered Laos. On 9 January 1961, Lair helicoptered out to Ta Vieng on the Plain of Jars to meet a young Hmong lieutenant colonel of the Royal Lao Army named Vang Pao. A Thai officer with Lair arranged a later meeting. On 11 January, Vang Pao told Lair, "Either we fight or we leave. If you give me weapons, we fight," When asked how many troops he could raise, he asked for equipment to begin training 10,000 recruits.[3][4]
Lair knew that his superiors felt that the hostilities in Laos could be settled only one of two ways: either direct military intervention with American troops, or a surrender of Laos to communism.[5] With this in mind, Lair took the offer back to his superior, Desmond Fitzgerald, with the observation that Vang Pao already had gathered 4,300 potential Hmong recruits.[4] Lair's expressed opinion was that the Hmong were the only potential fighting force between the North Vietnamese invasion and Vientiane. He believed the Hmong would defend their way of life with ongoing guerrilla raids that would tie the Vietnamese down. Moreover, a functional guerrilla force would be best instructed by Thai PARU because they shared a commonly intelligible language. The absence of Caucasian faces in the operation would guarantee plausible deniability for the covert operation. The only caveat in Lair's expertise was that the Hmong could never fight for fixed positions as infantry would; they would always need a line of retreat.[6]
The proposition was approved; Lair was placed in charge, with funding coming direct from the office of the Director of Central Intelligence.[7] Fitzgerald arranged for the first class of Hmong basic training. Dubbed Project Momentum, it supplied the military gear necessary for equipping 2,000 soldiers as an experiment. As the Programs Evaluation Office was already in place in the U.S. Embassy, it was tasked with furnishing the needed equipment from Department of Defense stores. Trainers came from Lair's PARU cadre. The new troops became members of 100-man irregular units called Auto Defense Choc (roughly, Self Defense Shock (troops)).[4]
The village of Ban Pa Dong was selected as the base for covert training of Hmong guerrillas for several reasons. Most pressing, it was out of reach of enemy action—barely. The Royal Lao Army (RLA) had just abandoned the Routes 7 and 13 intersection at nearby Sala Phou Khoun. Captain Kong Le's newly formed Forces Armées Neutralistes (Neutral Armed Forces)(FAN) was establishing a presence eastward across the Plain of Jars. The Pathet Lao were intent on cooperation with FAN. There was a very real risk attached to failure of Operation Momentum—attraction of communist retribution upon the Hmong populace.[8]
There was a grass airstrip at Ban Pa Dong, and some old wooden buildings that had been built by the French.[9] It was sited on a ridgeline, at 4,500 feet (1,400m) elevation, about 13 kilometres (8.1mi) south of the Plain of Jars.[10] The altitude would prove problematic for air operations, as an early helicopter crash showed. Flying in to begin the first Operation Momentum instruction cycle, the Air AmericaH-34 carrying Lair ran out of lift to clear a ridge-line. After clipping trees, the helicopter tumbled down a hillside; there were no serious casualties except the demolished helicopter.[11]
The village had a deep emotional resonance with the Hmong, who traditionally traded their cash crop of opium there. It reputedly reminded them of a glorious past in which Hmong were literate urbanites. Vang Pao's call for recruits rallied entire Hmong villages to Padong so the eligible males could undergo guerrilla training. A common attitude among the recruits was, "Just once in my life I want to kill a Vietnamese. Then I can die happy."[9]
The original basis of Momentum was the use of a three-day threshold of opportunity to train Hmong guerrillas before the PAVN could attack from the Plain of Jars. The Hmong were trained in classic hit-and-run guerrilla tactics, with no intent of having the nomadic warriors settle in to defend territory. Their opponent, the PAVN, was a highly trained force, with its infantry reinforced by artillery. It seemed they would be unstoppable if they attacked.[12] However, it was a battalion-size contingent of Pathet Lao who made the first move; the week after Momentum training began, they penetrated within 3,500 metres (3.5km) meters of the training site. By 31 January, early graduates of the ADC program had patrolled 30 kilometres (19mi) into enemy territory, killing a dozen Pathet Lao and bringing back eight captured weapons.[13]
When PAVN did make their move, they brought artillery. They had to cross one intermediate ridge as they moved southward from the Plain; Padong was on the next ridge. Initially, the Hmong held that intermediate ridge against PAVN assaults. PAVN artillery began to shell the Hmong. Return fire from a single 4.2 inch mortar that had been flown in to reinforce the Hmong was insufficient. U.S. Army Captain William Chance, who had accompanied the mortar, advised Vang Pao to abandon the position.[14] The head of the Programs Evaluation Office, General Andrew Boyle, also believed Ban Pa Dong should not be held.[12] In response, Vang Pao had some Hmong dependents hike two days south to safer ground at Pha Khao.[14]
On 3 May 1961, a truce settled over all of Laos except for Ban Pa Dong. Shelling continued there. Ten days later, in a demonstration of their relentless tactics versus fixed positions, the PAVN overran and wiped out the Royalists at Muong Ngat some 125 kilometres (78mi) east of the Momentum site. Two days later, on 15 May, the PAVN took heavy losses while capturing the intermediate ridge shielding Ban Pa Dong.[15] That same day, Vang Pao estimated 100 artillery shells hit Ban Pa Dong.[12] The PAVN built roads for forward movement of their artillery, and sited it in the lee of the ridge, protected from the Hmong mortar.[15] On 26 and 27 May, Ban Pa Dong took almost 400 rounds of incoming fire.[12] There were 17 75mm cannons firing at the guerrilla base.[16]
An attempt was made to set up an overwatch position over Ban Pa Dong on the summit that overshadowed it. However, lack of water foiled the trial. The later discovery of a field phone line on the peak indicated enemy presence.[15] In another approach to a heartier defense, 225 reinforcements were flown in.[12] The Royal Lao Air Force flew 113 hours in support missions with their T-6 Texans in their fledgling combat efforts. However, as they were both inexperienced and armed with only guns and rockets, they were ineffectual.[17]
As local tribes burned off undergrowth to clear fields for their slash-and-burn agriculture, visibility worsened, hampering aerial support for the Hmong. On 31 May, an incoming Air America H-34 helicopter crashed, killing all hands. The superstitious Hmong saw the fatal accident as the latest instance of bad luck. Small packets of ADC troopers began to trickle away from Ban Pa Dong.[18]
Fall of Ban Pa Dong
Dense fog settled about Ban Pa Dong on 3 June, and clung on for three days. Under this cover, enemy infantry infiltrated past Hmong outposts. On 6 June, accurate artillery fire kept the guerrillas crouched in fighting positions.[19] There are two slightly differing accounts of the end of the battle, but both agree a radio intercept sparked it.[19][20]
According to one version, the forwarded radio intercept came in at 15:00 hours, warning of an imminent assault on a company posted about 2 kilometres (1.2mi) south of the Lima 5 airstrip. With the field phone line to that position severed by artillery, a company of Royalist regulars were sent to both warn and reinforce the southern position. Once the regulars were out of view, they fled. The unwarned guerrilla company suffered about ten dead and 15 wounded during the surprise attack, and withdrew to the main force.[19] Another, more dramatic version, said CIA agent Jack Shirley was passed information from an intercepted PAVN radio message that the PAVN assault was due in ten minutes, at 16:00 hours. In either case, an immediate evacuation began. Shirley, Chance and his U.S. Special Forces Team, and the PARU cadre hurriedly destroyed any military gear too heavy to carry, and herded the Hmong away from the flaming village.[20]
Carrying their wounded, with the Americans and the PARUs as a rear guard and heavy small arms fire popping overhead, 400 to 500 Hmong of all ages and both genders began a dispersal into the gloom. At midnight, attracted by flashlights used by some of the Hmong, the PAVN mortared the escaping column. Fortunately for the Hmong, the muddy earth absorbed most of the explosives' force. At daybreak, Air America H-34s showed up to evacuate the PARU, Shirley, and Vang Pao's wife. The Hmong may have lost Ban Pa Dong, but they had not suffered overwhelming casualties in the process.[20] Vang Pao subsequently shifted his headquarters to Long Tieng,[21] which would remain the guerrilla headquarters until war's end.[22]
Aftermath
Losing Ban Pa Dong was a serious defeat for the Hmong guerrillas. They left so hastily that they did not disable their four howitzers and two mortars, but left them usable for the communist victors. The guerrillas had also suffered a substantial number of casualties.[23]
The results of this first defense of a fixed position did not deter Vang Pao from repeating this error in future years, as at the battle of Na Khang.[24] Nevertheless, Ban Pa Dong had served an important purpose; the first 5,000 ADC troopers trained there were the basis of Vang Pao's L'Armee Clandestine. They had ringed the Plain of Jars with guerrilla bases before Ban Pa Dong was overrun.[25]
In April 1963, the Hmong would recapture Ban Pa Dong.[26] It would serve as a defensive base throughout the remainder of the Laotian Civil War.[27]
The Laotian Civil War (1959–1975) was a civil war in Laos waged between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government from 23 May 1959 to 2 December 1975. It is associated with the Cambodian Civil War and the Vietnam War, with both sides receiving heavy external support in a proxy war between the global Cold War superpowers. It is known as the Secret War among the American CIA Special Activities Center, and Hmong and Mien veterans of the conflict.
Operation Barrel Roll was a covert U.S. Air Force 2nd Air Division and U.S. Navy Task Force 77, interdiction and close air support campaign conducted in the Kingdom of Laos between 14 December 1964 and 29 March 1973 concurrent with the Vietnam War. The operation resulted in 260 million bombs being dropped on Laos.
James William Lair was an influential Central Intelligence Agency paramilitary officer from the Special Activities Division. He was a native Texan, raised in a broken family, but a good student. He joined the CIA after serving in a combat unit in Europe during World War II, followed by a geology degree from Texas A&M. In his senior year, he was recruited by the CIA.
Operation Momentum was a guerrilla training program during the Laotian Civil War. This Central Intelligence Agency operation raising a guerrilla force of Hmong hill-tribesmen in northeastern Laos was planned by James William Lair and carried out by the Thai Police Aerial Reinforcement Unit. Begun on 17 January 1961, the three-day Auto Defense Choc course graduated a clandestine guerrilla army of 5,000 warriors by 1 May, and of 9,000 by August. It scored its first success the day after the first ADC company graduated, on 21 January 1961, when 20 ADC troopers ambushed and killed 15 Pathet Lao.
The Auto Defense de Choc (ADC) was a militia training program for the Royal Lao Armed Forces. Begun by a French military mission in 1955, its 100-man companies were placed under command of the local Military Region commander when trained. By 1 September 1959, 20 ADC companies were in training, and there were 16,000 ADC soldiers nationwide. When Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives Theodore Shackley, James William Lair and others slipped into the Kingdom of Laos in the early 1960s, they instituted an American version of the ADC dependent on pre-packed airdropped materiel. Using a three-day training schedule in Operation Momentum, Shackley, Lair and others, worked with Vang Pao to raise a guerrilla force of 5,000 troops in several months.
Operation Pigfat was a crucial guerrilla offensive of the Laotian Civil War; it lasted from 26 November 1968 to 7 January 1969. Launched by Hmong tribal soldiers backed by the Central Intelligence Agency, it was based on the usage of overwhelming air power to clear the path for the guerrillas. The guerrillas were faced with the largest concentration of Vietnamese communist troops stationed outside Vietnam, and hoped to spoil that imminent attack.
Operation Raindance was a military operation of the Laotian Civil War, staged from 17 March to 7 April 1969. It was launched by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) in support of Hmong guerrillas raised by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). As the guerrillas were being pressured by enemy troops pushing to within ten kilometers of their main bases, the aerial campaign was planned to cause a pullback by the pressing communists.
Campaign Toan Thang was the first communist wet season offensive of the Laotian Civil War. Launched on 18 June 1969 and successful by the 27th, the assault by People's Army of Vietnam troops from the 312th Division and sappers of the 13th Dac Cong Battalion captured Muang Soui. Although the defenders outnumbered the assailants by three to one, the only hard surfaced airfield near the Plain of Jars would fall to the communists, depriving the defending Royal Lao Government of its only forward fighter-bomber base.
Operation Off Balance was a hastily planned offensive operation of the Laotian Civil War; it happened between 1 and 15 July 1969 on the Plain of Jars in the Kingdom of Laos. The Royal Lao Government forces in Military Region 1 of Laos had just been evicted from the crucial all-weather airfield at Muang Soui, as well as most of the Plain, on 28 June 1969. Hmong General Vang Pao planned a quick counter-offensive to recapture the airfield from his communist foe; it would kick off on 1 July, supported by 60 sorties per day of tactical air strikes from Operation Barrel Roll.
The Battle of Vientiane was the decisive action of the 1960 Laotian coups. Fought between 13 and 16 December 1960, the battle ended with General Phoumi Nosavan winning control of the Kingdom of Laos with the aid of the Royal Thai Government and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Vientiane was left devastated by the fighting, with about 600 civilians dead, about the same number of homes destroyed, and 7,000 left homeless. The losing Forces Armées Neutralistes under Captain Kong Le retreated onto the strategic Plain of Jars, to begin an uneasy coexistence with the Pathet Lao and the invading People's Army of Vietnam.
Forces Armées Neutralistes was an armed political movement of the Laotian Civil War.
Kou Kiet was a major Laotian Civil War victory for the anti-communist troops of the Kingdom of Laos. Patterned after prior Operation Raindance, it depended upon extensive air strikes blasting communist units and clearing them from the path of the Royalist offensive. Powered by 150 daylight and 50 night sorties daily, with 50 to 80 day strikes directed by Raven Forward Air Controllers, Kou Kiet ran from 6 August to 30 September 1969. It was successful beyond expectations. After the Royal Lao Government troops achieved their objectives, General Vang Pao insisted on pushing forward while they had the initiative. As a result, the Royalists regained control of the entire Plain of Jars while also capturing a huge stock of munitions from the communist forces. Their triumph came at a huge cost. Even though the Royalists were successful, by battle's end their forces were exhausted an the pool of potential recruits were limited, while the Vietnamese could easily replace their personnel losses.
Campaign 139 was a major military offensive of the People's Army of Vietnam, launched against its Royalist enemies during the Laotian Civil War. Larger than previous invading forces, Campaign 139 was also a combined arms expedition containing tanks, artillery, engineers, and Dac Cong sappers. As such, it was a decided escalation in the war. It was also an exceptional rainy season offensive by PAVN, which usually withdrew during the wet season.
Operation Counterpunch, waged 26 September 1970 to 7 January 1971, was a military offensive of the Laotian Civil War. Royalist General Vang Pao's guerrilla army regained the vital all-weather forward fighter base at Muang Soui on the Plain of Jars from the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). The preemptive Counterpunch was credited with delaying an imminent PAVN wet season offensive for a month. The guerrilla army survived, though still heavily outnumbered by the PAVN.
Campaign 74B was a major combined arms offensive by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) during the Laotian Civil War. The Communist offensive, if successful, would knock the last remaining fighting troops of the Kingdom of Laos out of the war, ensuring the Vietnamese conquest of Laos. The PAVN 316th Division—reinforced by artillery, tanks, and sappers—attacked during a period of slackened tactical air support for General Vang Pao's guerrilla army; Operation Lam Son 719 was being waged at the same time. Having captured the highly strategic Plain of Jars during Operation 74B, the Communists attackers managed to penetrate deeply enough to fire upon the main guerrilla base at Long Tieng.
Campaign Z was a military offensive by the People's Army of Vietnam; it was a combined arms thrust designed to defeat the last Royal Lao Army troops defending the Kingdom of Laos. The Communist assault took Skyline Ridge overlooking the vital Royalist base of Long Tieng and forced the restationing of Royalist aviation assets and civilian refugees. However, Communist forces eventually receded back onto their lines of communication without capturing the base.
Operation Strength was a Royalist military offensive of the Laotian Civil War. The attack, undertaken against the advice of his American backers by Hmong General Vang Pao, was launched across the rear of the attacking People's Army of Vietnam forces. A distracting attack was launched from Boumalong in the north while the main assault struck northwards from Ban Pa Dong. A BLU-82 superbomb served as a secondary distraction. Having drawn 11 of the 22 attacking Communist battalions back into their own rear area, the Royalists withdrew after suffering light casualties. The Operation Strength feints into the PAVN rear area sapped the vigor from the ongoing Campaign Z.
Operation Phou Phiang II was one of the final battles of the Laotian Civil War. It was an attempt to relieve the siege on the guerrilla headquarters at Long Tieng on the Plain of Jars. It was designed as a two phase attack consisting of five task forces of Thai mercenaries and Royalist guerrillas upon the People's Army of Vietnam invading Laos. Air superiority was used to direct over 100 air strike sorties daily to support the offense, and air mobility to shuffle attacking troops. A new radar bombing program by F-111 Aardvarks and B-52 Stratofortresses failed to cripple the Communist forces. Designed to overwhelm Communist defenses with its multiplicity, the five Lao task forces were defeated in detail by the Communists despite two new columns being improvised and introduced into the fray.
Operation Phou Phiang III was the final offensive of the Laotian Civil War by the Royal Lao Army's L'Armée Clandestine. Central Intelligence Agency-sponsored Hmong guerrillas and Thai mercenaries formed three attacking task forces in an attempt to clear the People's Army of Vietnam from positions near the Royalist guerrillas' headquarters on the Plain of Jars. All three columns failed to move the Vietnamese invaders before the ceasefire of 21 February 1973 ended the war.
The Battles of Bouamlong came about because the valley of Bouamlong was a center of Royalist guerrilla operations during the Laotian Civil War. Located well into Communist-held territory and maintained by an air bridge, on several occasions Bouamlong served as a launching point for Royalist offensives such as Operation Raindance, Kou Kiet, Operation Counterpunch III, and Operation Strength. It was also targeted for attack by offensives by the People's Army of Vietnam during Campaign 139 and Campaign 74B. Defended by Auto Defense Choc troops led by Major Cher Pao Moua, Bouamlong held out against the Communist forces even after the War ended in a ceasefire in February 1973. There were reports of resistance into the 1990s.
Anthony, Victor B. and Richard R. Sexton (1993). The War in Northern Laos. Command for Air Force History. OCLC232549943.
Castle, Timothy N. (1993). At War in the Shadow of Vietnam: U.S. Military Aid to the Royal Lao Government 1955–1975. ISBN0-231-07977-X.
Conboy, Kenneth and James Morrison (1995). Shadow War: The CIA's Secret War in Laos. Paladin Press. ISBN0-87364-825-0.
Warner, Roger (1995). Back Fire: The CIA's Secret War in Laos and Its Link to the War in Vietnam. Simon & Schuster. ISBN0-684-80292-9.
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