Operation Maeng Da

Last updated
Operation Maeng Da
Part of Laotian Civil War; Vietnam War
Date2 –17 July 1970
Location Tchepone, southern Laotian panhandle
Result Unsuccessful Royalist attempt to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail
Belligerents
Flag of Laos (1952-1975).svg  Kingdom of Laos
Supported by
Flag of the United States.svg  United States 		Flag of North Vietnam.svg  North Vietnam
Supported by:
Flag of the Soviet Union (1955-1980).svg  Soviet Union
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  People's Republic of China
Units involved
Blue Battalion
Black Battalion
Mobile 1		 9th PAVN Battalion
backed by Group 559
Strength
Blue Battalion = 300
Black Battalion = 300
Mobile 1 = 550		 Unknown regimental strength backed by ~50,000
Casualties and losses
Black Battalion = heavy
Other battalions unknown		 Unknown

Operation Maeng Da was a Royal Lao Government military offensive aimed at disrupting the crucial communist supply route of the Second Indochina War, the Ho Chi Minh trail. Launched from a rendezvous point near Vang Tai, Laos, on 2 July 1970 as a three-battalion assault on the major People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) transshipment center at Tchepone, Laos, it ran into stiff resistance from the PAVN 9th Regiment from 11–15 July. An attempt on 16 July to reinforce the Royalist Blue, Black, and Mobile 1 battalions by White Battalion was thwarted by PAVN ground fire and hazardously heavy air traffic over the battlefield. On 17 July, the worst hit Royalist unit, Black Battalion, was airlifted back out of battle. The other two Royalist battalions exfiltrated away from the PAVN troops. In the process, the commander of Mobile 1 was killed; the battalion lost all combat discipline. Both retreating battalions regrouped at the operation's start point. Although ancillary follow-up operations occurred in the vicinity throughout September, the Maeng Da offensive would not resume. However, the Central Intelligence Agency, which had trained and supported the Royalist guerrilla battalions, prepared the Tchepone Operation to follow it.

Royal Lao Government

The Royal Lao Government was the ruling authority in the Kingdom of Laos from 1947 until the communist seizure of power in December 1975 and the proclamation of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The Franco-Lao Treaty of 1953 gave Laos full independence but the following years were marked by a rivalry between the neutralists under Prince Souvanna Phouma, the right wing under Prince Boun Oum of Champassak, and the left-wing, Lao Patriotic Front under Prince Souphanouvong and future Prime Minister Kaysone Phomvihane. During this period, a number of unsuccessful attempts were made to establish coalition governments.

Ho Chi Minh trail

The Hồ Chí Minh trail was a logistical system that ran from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to the Republic of Vietnam through the kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia. The system provided support, in the form of manpower and materiel, to the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), or North Vietnamese Army, during the Vietnam War.

Peoples Army of Vietnam Combined military forces of Vietnam

The People's Army of Vietnam, also known as the Vietnamese People's Army (VPA), is the military force of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The PAVN is a part of the Vietnam People's Armed Forces and includes: Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, Border Defence Force, and Coast Guard. However, Vietnam does not have a separate Ground Force or Army branch. All ground troops, army corps, military districts and specialised arms belong to the Ministry of Defence, directly under the command of the Central Military Commission, the Minister of Defence, and the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army. The military flag of the PAVN is the flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, with the words Quyết thắng added in yellow at the top left.

Contents

Overview

After World War II, France fought the First Indochina War to retain French Indochina. As part of its loss of that war at Dien Ben Phu, it freed the Kingdom of Laos. Laotian neutrality was established in the 1954 Geneva Agreements. When France withdrew most of its military in conformity with the treaty, the United States filled the vacuum with purportedly civilian paramilitary instructors. [1] A North Vietnamese-backed communist insurrection had begun as early as 1949. Invading during the opium harvest season of 1953, a North Vietnamese communist force settled in northeastern Laos adjacent to the border of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. [2]

First Indochina War 1946-1954 war between France and Ho Chi Minhs forces

The First Indochina War began in French Indochina on December 19, 1946, and lasted until July 20, 1954. Fighting between French forces and their Việt Minh opponents in the south dated from September 1945. The conflict pitted a range of forces, including the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps, led by France and supported by Bảo Đại's Vietnamese National Army against the Việt Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh and the People's Army of Vietnam led by Võ Nguyên Giáp. Most of the fighting took place in Tonkin in northern Vietnam, although the conflict engulfed the entire country and also extended into the neighboring French Indochina protectorates of Laos and Cambodia.

French Indochina Federal state in Southeast Asia

French Indochina, officially known as the Indochinese Union after 1887 and the Indochinese Federation after 1947, was a grouping of French colonial territories in Southeast Asia.

Kingdom of Laos former country

The Kingdom of Laos was a constitutional monarchy that ruled Laos beginning with its independence on 9 November 1953. The monarchy survived until December 1975, when its last king, Savang Vatthana, surrendered the throne to the Pathet Lao, who abolished the monarchy in favor of a Marxist state called the Lao People's Democratic Republic, which has controlled Laos since.

As the Laotian Civil War flared from 1961 onward, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) carried out a paramilitary program designed to foster a guerrilla army to support the Royal Lao Government (RLG) in northern Laos. Paralleling that, the U.S. Department of Defense covertly supported the regular Royal Lao Army and other Lao armed forces through a sub rosa supply system, as the U.S. picked up the entire budget of the Kingdom of Laos. Meanwhile, the Annamese Cordillera in southern Laos became the haven for a logistics network, the Ho Chi Minh trail. The communist war effort in South Vietnam depended on that supply route. [3]

Laotian Civil War 1963-1975 civil war in Laos

The Laotian Civil War (1959–75) was fought between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government, with both sides receiving heavy external support in a proxy war between the global Cold War superpowers. It is called the Secret War among the CIA Special Activities Division and Hmong veterans of the conflict.

Central Intelligence Agency National intelligence agency of the United States

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, tasked with gathering, processing, and analyzing national security information from around the world, primarily through the use of human intelligence (HUMINT). As one of the principal members of the United States Intelligence Community (IC), the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is primarily focused on providing intelligence for the President and Cabinet of the United States.

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.

Background

Previous military operations had been launched from the Kingdom of Laos against the Trail during 1969 and 1970. [4] [5] [6] Operation Maeng Da was another of those operations designed to influence the course of the Vietnam War by attacking the crucial North Vietnamese communist supply line. It also served as a test of the Central Intelligence Agency-sponsored Mobile 1 battalion that had been raised for service beyond its parent Military Region 3 (MR 3). Mobile 1 was a new battalion of 550 men. Battalions raised for service within MR3 consisted of 300 soldiers. Other Military Regions in Laos had felt cheated by being reinforced with the understrength battalions. In response, the CIA had reluctantly trained Mobile 1. The CIA trainers were contemptuous of their urban recruits; their disdain was reflected by the fact that a Lao slang meaning of the term "maeng da" is "pimp". [7]

Vietnam War 1955–1975 conflict in Vietnam

The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, and in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America or simply the American War, was an undeclared war in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist allies; South Vietnam was supported by the United States, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Thailand and other anti-communist allies. The war is considered a Cold War-era proxy war from some US perspectives. It lasted some 19 years with direct U.S. involvement ending in 1973 following the Paris Peace Accords, and included the Laotian Civil War and the Cambodian Civil War, resulting in all three countries becoming communist states in 1975.

Beginning in 1955, the Kingdom of Laos was divided into five Military Regions (MR), roughly corresponding to the areas of the country's 13 provinces. The Military Regions were necessitated by the poor lines of communication within the country. The Military Districts were the basis of a culture of warlordism in the Royal Lao Armed Forces (FAR) high command, with most MR Commanders running their zones like private fiefdoms.

The operation

The Ho Chi Minh Trail, 1970. Tchepone, Operation Maeng Da's objective, is in the upper third of the map just right of center. The U.S. Khe Sanh Combat Base opposed Tchepone from across the Vietnamese border. HCMT70.jpg
The Ho Chi Minh Trail, 1970. Tchepone, Operation Maeng Da's objective, is in the upper third of the map just right of center. The U.S. Khe Sanh Combat Base opposed Tchepone from across the Vietnamese border.

The objective of Operation Maeng Da was the vital communist transshipment point at Tchepone. [7] Mobile 1 was not alone on this multi-battalion mission, the first in MR 3 to be launched under a single field commander. It was inserted by helicopter at a rendezvous point near Vang Tai on 2 July 1970. Black Battalion joined it from the west; Blue Battalion came from the north. The three battalions came together at Vang Tai on 8 July. From there they moved southeast, reaching Route 23 on 10 July, finding little communist activity. They expected White Battalion to land 10 kilometers distant from them as the initial reinforcements for the march on Tchepone. Instead, they spent 11–15 July heavily engaged with People's Army of Vietnam 9th Regiment regulars, with Black Battalion taking severe casualties. On 16 July, the three Royalist irregular battalions withdrew to a helicopter landing zone slated for White Battalion's arrival. However, the fighting was too heavy to land the reinforcing White Battalion. The hurly-burly of tactical aircraft supporting the landed troops made the air space surrounding the HLZ exceedingly hazardous. The CIA agent controlling the insertion aborted it. [8] [9]

Irregular military Any non-standard military organization

Irregular military is any non-standard military component that is distinct from a country's national armed forces. Being defined by exclusion, there is significant variance in what comes under the term. It can refer to the type of military organization, or to the type of tactics used. An irregular military organization is one which is not part of the regular army organization. Without standard military unit organization, various more general names are often used; such organizations may be called a "troop", "group", "unit", "column", "band", or "force". Irregulars are soldiers or warriors that are members of these organizations, or are members of special military units that employ irregular military tactics. This also applies to irregular troops, irregular infantry and irregular cavalry.

On 17 July, three flights of U.S. Air Force Douglas A-1 Skyraiders struck in support of Black Battalion. They were followed by Royal Lao Air Force AT-28 strikes delivered within 50 meters of friendly forces. Then the flying weather went bad and tactical air could not support an insertion of White Battalion. [8]

Douglas A-1 Skyraider American single engine attack aircraft

The Douglas A-1 Skyraider is an American single-seat attack aircraft that saw service between the late 1940s and early 1980s. The Skyraider had a remarkably long and successful career; it became a piston-powered, propeller-driven anachronism in the jet age, and was nicknamed "Spad", after the French World War I fighter.

The Royal Lao Air Force, best known to the Americans by its English acronym RLAF, was the air force component of the Royal Lao Armed Forces (FAR), the official military of the Royal Lao Government and the Kingdom of Laos during the Laotian Civil War between 1960 and 1975.

North American T-28 Trojan Family of military training aircraft

The North American Aviation T-28 Trojan is a piston-engined military trainer aircraft used by the United States Air Force and United States Navy beginning in the 1950s. Besides its use as a trainer, the T-28 was successfully employed as a counter-insurgency aircraft, primarily during the Vietnam War. It has continued in civilian use as an aerobatics and Warbird performer.

The American Embassy planning team for the Laotian Civil War met in the embassy in Vientiane on the afternoon of 17 July. When the air attache briefed the meeting on the progress of Maeng Da, the CIA Station chief was humiliated to discover he had not been previously informed of the attack. He furiously reminded his subordinates that his MR 3 staff was supposed to seek approval from him for any multi-battalion operations. After threatening to relieve anyone and everyone responsible for Maeng Da, he cancelled the scheduled insertion of White Battalion. Instead, on the following day, Black Battalion was helilifted back out of combat. The other two battalions began to recede toward Vang Tai. Mobile 1's commander was killed by communist fire; then the battalion lost all unit cohesion. The Maeng Da stragglers reached Vang Tai on 26 July. [8]

Aftermath

Although Maeng Da had ended, military activity in the vicinity did not. South of Maeng Da, Orange and Green Battalions moved southward into Military Region 4. This move was supported by a melange of forward air controllers of the 23d Tactical Air Support Squadron and the Ravens, as well as Laotian forward air guides. On 3 September 1970, they occupied Ban Houei Mun, which was stocked as a forward airstrip for the Raven FACs. Beginning 9 September, the two battalions pushed 28 kilometers southeastward into low ground west of Tuomlane. Black Battalion joined them there. Meanwhile, White Battalion, joined by Mobile 2, spent 4–7 September 1970 combing the nearby Route 23 valley. [10]

Results

The assault on the Ho Chi Minh Trail choked up supply traffic while it lasted; to the Americans, that was a success. As the operation ground to an end, the CIA's Savannakhet Unit was poised with a larger follow-up operation to drive on to Tchepone with the Tchepone Operation. [11]

Notes

  1. ↑ Castle, pp. 7–12, 15–18.
  2. ↑ Dommen, pp. 30–34.
  3. ↑ Castle, pp. 107–110.
  4. ↑ Ahern, p. 316.
  5. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, pp. 217–224, 276–278.
  6. ↑ Castle, p. 118.
  7. 1 2 Conboy, Morrison, p. 269.
  8. 1 2 3 Conboy, Morrison, p. 270.
  9. ↑ Ahern, p. 364.
  10. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, pp. 270–271.
  11. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, pp. 269, 271.

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References

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