Operation Star (Laos)

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Operation Star

Part of Laotian Civil War; Vietnam War

supported by Operation Pony Express and Operation Hardnose
Type Military intelligence program
LocationCamp Siberia, Savannakhet Province, Laos
Planned Royal Thai Government
Objective Gather military intelligence; train irregulars
Date Late 1965—early 1967
Executed by Royal Thai Special Forces, CIA, RTMC, BPP
Outcome Active until early 1967 when subsumed by Operation Hardnose

Operation Star was a highly classified military intelligence gathering program set up in late 1965 by the Royal Thai Government during the Vietnam War. It was co-located with the American Central Intelligence Agency's Operation Hardnose at Camp Siberia 26 kilometers northeast of Savannakhet, Laos. The operation was founded although American intelligence sources in the area already shared their results with the Thais. Royal Thai Special Forces assigned as instructors to Operation Hardnose were utilized as reconnaissance teams. In early 1967, the CIA eventually severed the Thai intelligence operation from the instructional duties for Lao irregular military troops.

Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a range of sources, directed towards the commanders' mission requirements or responding to questions as part of operational or campaign planning. To provide an analysis, the commander's information requirements are first identified, which are then incorporated into intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination.

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.

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.

Contents

Background

American awareness of the importance of the Ho Chi Minh Trail took root early. It was soon concluded that if this sole land supply route through the Annamese Cordillera were cut or blocked, the communist insurgency in South Vietnam would wither for lack of supplies. Because of this, the Trail was subjected to constant air and ground surveillance by American, Lao, and Thai intelligence operations. [1]

Operations

Operating in deep security, Operation Star's four six-man road watch teams generally infiltrated toward the Mu Gia Pass on the border between Laos and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. In one case, Team Red Bull was infiltrated overseeing Route 912 of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, only to be ambushed and dispersed. The survivors took up to a month to emerge from the Annamese Cordillera. [2]

In February 1966, Operation Star got to share in the newly assigned helicopter assets of Operation Pony Express for infiltration and exfiltration of intelligence teams. As 1966 progressed, Operation Star swelled to ten teams. In conjunction with the operation, the CIA tried using Thai espionage agents, in an attempt to hurdle the language barrier between Americans and Lao hill tribesmen. English-speaking Thais from the Royal Thai Marine Corps, Border Patrol Police, and RTSF were trained for 30 days at the old Wapi Project camp 36 kilometers northwest of Pakse. Inserted near the Ho Chi Minh Trail at the end of 1966, they were exfiltrated without moving onto the Trail. This failure saw them discharged by March 1967. It also led impetus to the efforts that developed the Hark-1 radio for Project Hardnose. [2]

Operation Pony Express military operation during the Vietnam War

The Pony Express was the covert transportation of, and the provision of aerial support for, indigenous soldiers and material operating across the Laotian and North Vietnamese borders during the Vietnam War. It was provided by Sikorsky CH-3C helicopters of the US 20th Helicopter Squadron, the only USAF combat helicopter squadron in Vietnam, which had been transferred there in 1965 and was known as the "Pony Express".

Espionage or spying is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information without the permission of the holder of the information. Spies help agencies uncover secret information. Any individual or spy ring, in the service of a -government, company or independent operation, can commit espionage. The practice is clandestine, as it is by definition unwelcome and in many cases illegal and punishable by law. Espionage is a method of intelligence gathering which includes information gathering from non-disclosed sources.

Royal Thai Marine Corps

The Royal Thai Marine Corps or RTMC are the marines of the Royal Thai Navy. The Royal Thai Marine Corps was founded in 1932, when the first battalion was formed with the assistance of the United States Marine Corps. It was expanded to a regiment in 1940 and was in action against communist guerrillas throughout the 1950s and 1960s. During the 1960s the United States Marine Corps assisted in its expansion into a brigade. The Royal Thai Marine Corps saw action on the Malaysian border in the 1970s, and has now been increased to four brigades.

Arrival of a CIA case agent to oversee the Camp Siberia operations in early 1967 led to changes. The five Thai instructors were severed from support of Operation Star, to devote their entire energies to training Operation Hardnose road watchers. A building program included two classrooms, obstacle course, dining hall, and a land navigation course. There was also a move to replace Thai instructors with Lao; to American surprise, the latter performed as well in the instructional role as Thais. [2]

Obstacle course

An obstacle course is a series of challenging physical obstacles an individual, team or animal must navigate, usually while being timed. Obstacle courses can include running, climbing, jumping, crawling, swimming, and balancing elements with the aim of testing speed, endurance and agility. Sometimes a course involves mental tests.

Notes

  1. ↑ Dunnigan, pp. 173, 299.
  2. 1 2 3 Conboy, Morrison, pp. 144-146.

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References

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