Project Copper

Last updated
Project Copper
Part of Vietnam War (Laos • Cambodia • Vietnam)
Type Coordinated military action
Location Laotian and Cambodian border
Planned by RLAF, FANK, CIA, DOD
Commanded by Lim Sisaath, Hatsaty Sinsay, Lon Non
Objective Interdict the Sihanouk Trail; train irregular forces
Date Late-1970—May 1971
Executed by RLAF, FANK, CIA, DOD, ARVN
Outcome Interdiction failed, project abandoned
Project Copper
DateDecember 1970—9 January 1971, February 1971—June 1971
Location Laos and Cambodia
ActionCapture strategic positions along the Sihanouk Trail
Result Forces withdrawn and re-assigned
Belligerents
Flag of Laos (1952-1975).svg  Kingdom of Laos
Flag of the Khmer Republic.svg  Khmer Republic
Supported by
Flag of the United States.svg  United States
Flag of South Vietnam.svg  South Vietnam 		Flag of North Vietnam.svg  North Vietnam
Commanders and leaders
Flag of Laos (1952-1975).svg Hatsaty Sinsay
Flag of the Khmer Republic.svg Lim Sisaath
Flag of the Khmer Republic.svg Lon Non
Units involved
Three commando battalions
15 Brigade d'Infanterie
Bataillon Chasseur 202
Casualties and losses
82 Unknown

Project Copper was a coordinated military action undertaken by the Kingdom of Laos and the Khmer Republic from 1 January–May 1971. It used U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) funds channeled through the Central Intelligence Agency to train three Cambodian battalions to interdict the Sihanouk Trail before it joined the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Committed to battle in southern Laos on 1 January 1971, one battalion deserted the battlefield, a second one mutinied during training, and a third had to be repurposed after suffering 80 casualties. By late January, the project was temporarily suspended.

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.

Khmer Republic former country

The Khmer Republic was the pro–United States military-led republican government of Cambodia that was formally declared on 9 October 1970. Politically, the Khmer Republic was headed by General Lon Nol and Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak that took power in the 18 March 1970 coup against Prince Norodom Sihanouk, then the country's head of state.

United States Department of Defense United States federal executive department

The Department of Defense is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government concerned directly with national security and the United States Armed Forces. The department is the largest employer in the world, with nearly 1.3 million active duty servicemen and women as of 2016. Adding to its employees are over 826,000 National Guardsmen and Reservists from the four services, and over 732,000 civilians bringing the total to over 2.8 million employees. Headquartered at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., the DoD's stated mission is to provide "the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security".

Contents

Project Copper was revived in March 1971. Lon Non committed his 15 Brigade Infanterie (15 BI) to the task. One battalion of the brigade occupied two minor outposts. The Cambodian troops were recalled for duty near Phnom Penh, with the last of them being repatriated in June 1971. Thus began and ended military cooperation between the two governments.

Lon Non was a Cambodian politician and soldier who rose to his greatest prominence during the Khmer Republic (1970–1975).

Phnom Penh Autonomous municipality in Cambodia

Phnom Penh, formerly known as Krong Chaktomuk or Krong Chaktomuk Serimongkul, is the capital and most populous city in Cambodia. Phnom Penh has been the national capital since French colonization of Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's economic, industrial, and cultural center.

Overview

Map of Southern Laos and the Ho Chi Minh Trail network. The Sihanouk Trail portion is limned in dark gold at the bottom of the map. HoCMT.png
Map of Southern Laos and the Ho Chi Minh Trail network. The Sihanouk Trail portion is limned in dark gold at the bottom of the map.

Located in the southern panhandle of the territory of the Kingdom of Laos, the Ho Chi Minh Trail was the logistics backbone of the communist forces during the Second Indochina War, as it was the main supply route for Viet Cong and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) forces fighting in South Vietnam. It was characterized as, "the lifeline of Hanoi's efforts to topple the South Vietnamese Government." At the southern end of the Ho Chi Trail was a dirt road, Route 110, and a surrounding network of logistical trails running into Cambodia that comprised the Sihanouk Trail. [1] [2] [3] The Sihanouk Trail connected the Ho Chi Minh Trail with the deep water ocean port of Sihanoukville, the entry point for thousands of tons of communist war materiel. [4] [5] From December 1966 through April 1969, over 21,000 tons of ordnance entered the Sihanouk Trail from the post of Sihanoukville; it was estimated there were sufficient crew-served weapons to equip 240 battalions, and small arms enough for 585 battalions. [6]

Viet Cong mass political organization in South Vietnam and Cambodia

The Việt Cộng, also known as the National Liberation Front, was a mass political organization in South Vietnam and Cambodia with its own army – the People's Liberation Armed Forces of South Vietnam (PLAF) – that fought against the United States and South Vietnamese governments during the Vietnam War, eventually emerging on the winning side. It had both guerrilla and regular army units, as well as a network of cadres who organized peasants in the territory it controlled. Many soldiers were recruited in South Vietnam, but others were attached to the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), the regular North Vietnamese army. During the war, communists and anti-war activists insisted the Việt Cộng was an insurgency indigenous to the South, while the U.S. and South Vietnamese governments portrayed the group as a tool of Hanoi. Although the terminology distinguishes northerners from the southerners, communist forces were under a single command structure set up in 1958.

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.

South Vietnam former country in southeast Asia

South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam, was a country that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of the Cold War. It received international recognition in 1949 as the "State of Vietnam", which was a constitutional monarchy (1949–1955). This became the "Republic of Vietnam" in 1955. Its capital was Saigon. South Vietnam was bordered by North Vietnam to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, Thailand across the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest, and the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia across the South China Sea to the east and southeast.

Background

The Sihanouk Trail was activated in 1965, stretching from the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville through Cambodia to the southern end of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. In Military Region 4 (MR 4) of the Kingdom of Laos, the two trails joined. The Royal Lao Government (RLG) commander of MR 4 and the communist interlopers from the Trails shared a truce by gentleman's agreement. The agreement had been breached in 1966 by fleeting Royal Lao Air Force (RLAF) raids against the Sihanouk Trail. MACV-SOG also sent patrols from South Vietnam against both Trails, though with little or limited success in interdiction. [7] The Sihanouk Trail was a product of Norodom Sihanouk's accommodations with the Vietnamese communists. As a counter to this supply effort, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sponsored guerrilla unit raids by hill tribesmen in MR 4; from 21–26 June 1969, they cut the Sihanouk Trail for three days during Operation Left Jab. [8] When Sihanouk fell from power in March 1970, the new republican government of Cambodia clamped down on communist traffic in the nation. [9] In May, a RLG delegation led by Prince Boun Oum offered Lon Nol the opportunity to station Khmer troops in southern Laos and fight the communists there instead of in Cambodia. The RLG offer was originally declined, then rethought. [10]

Sihanouk Trail Military supply route in Cambodia

The Sihanouk Trail was a logistical supply system in Cambodia used by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and its Viet Cong (VC) guerillas during the Vietnam War (1960–1975). Between 1966 and 1970, this system operated in the same manner and served the same purposes as the much better known Ho Chi Minh Trail which ran through the southeastern portion of the Kingdom of Laos. The name is of American derivation, since the North Vietnamese considered the system integral to the supply route mentioned above. U.S. attempts to interdict this system began in 1969.

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.

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.

Planning and training

Project Copper was planned by a combination of paramilitary and military forces. The admixture began with U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) funding for a CIA paramilitary operation. The new CIA Chief of Station had just transferred in from the battlefields of Military Region 2; thus, he was familiar with operational planning. Actual planning and execution of the planned operation depended on a coterie of Cambodian and Lao officers who were personally and professionally acquainted. Colonel Hatsaty Sinsay, the Royal Lao Army (RLA) commander of Military Region 4, had trained in Phnom Penh in 1960. When Cambodian Lieutenant Colonel Lim Sisaath visited the Khong Island headquarters of Sinsay during Summer 1970, the two became friends. Lim had been military academy classmates with Lon Nol's younger brother, Lon Non. In September 1970, Lon Non tasked Lim with recruiting two battalions of trainees from Phnom Penh for training by the CIA. The recruits were transported to Pakse Site 18 to be secretively trained by a couple of CIA case officers and six Khmer veteran sergeants of the South Vietnamese Army. [11]

Royal Lao Army

The Royal Lao Army, also designated by its anglicized title RLA, was the Land Component of the Royal Lao Armed Forces (FAR), the official military of the Kingdom of Laos during the North Vietnamese invasion of Laos and the Laotian Civil War between 1960 and 1975.

Khong Island island

Khong Island or Don Khong is the largest island and the seat of administration in the Si Phan Don riverine archipelago located in the Mekong River, Khong District, Champasak Province, southern Laos.

With DOD funding available, the Khmer trainees were better supplied than the usual run of CIA-trained guerrillas. They were completely armed with M16 rifles, and had bazookas, and both 60mm and 81mm mortars, for heavier weaponry. Most of them completed training by the end of 1970. [12] A few select commando teams continued training. [13]

M16 rifle Military assault rifle

The M16 rifle, officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16, is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56mm automatic rifle with a 20-round magazine.

Bazooka man-portable recoilless rocket antitank weapon

Bazooka is the common name for a man-portable recoilless anti-tank rocket launcher weapon, widely fielded by the United States Army. Also referred to as the "Stovepipe", the innovative bazooka was among the first generation of rocket-propelled anti-tank weapons used in infantry combat. Featuring a solid-propellant rocket for propulsion, it allowed for high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warheads to be delivered against armored vehicles, machine gun nests, and fortified bunkers at ranges beyond that of a standard thrown grenade or mine. The universally-applied nickname arose from the M1 variant's vague resemblance to the musical instrument called a "bazooka" invented and popularized by 1930s U.S. comedian Bob Burns.

Mortar (weapon) Artillery weapon that launches explosive projectiles at high angles

A mortar is usually a simple, lightweight, man portable, muzzle-loaded weapon, consisting of a smooth-bore metal tube fixed to a base plate with a lightweight bipod mount and a sight. They launch explosive shells in high-arcing ballistic trajectories. Mortars are typically used as indirect fire weapons for close fire support with a variety of ammunition.

Activities

In December 1970, one of the Khmer battalions was transported to Pakse Strip 22 (PS 22), while a third battalion entered training. On 1 January 1971, the 470 Khmer soldiers of the first battalion were helilifted 38 kilometers southeast to occupy an abandoned outpost at Pakse Strip 43 (PS 43). On 9 January, they were shuttled 20 kilometers further east, to take Pakse Strip 38 (PS 38) without a fight. By the time the second trained battalion joined them a fortnight later, the Khmer had suffered their first two killed in action during some skirmishes and were having second thoughts about soldiering. The People's Army of Vietnam attacked PS 38 at night soon thereafter, inflicting 80 casualties on the second battalion within 12 hours. By the next day, the Khmer had abandoned their positions and straggled away to Paksong. From there they were helicoptered back to PS 18. [12]

The first battalion then returned to Phnom Penh for a break; they deserted. The second battalion shipped off to Commando Raider training in Thailand. The new third battalion mutinied rather than train, and were discharged. Lim had spent little time with his troops in the field, and had lost control of them; he was transferred out. His second in command was caught smuggling opium into Cambodia, and was canned. Lon Non forwarded three Khmer National Armed Forces (FANK) officers to take charge of Project Copper. [12]

Restart and end

Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia is southeast of Khong Island, Laos. The Sihanouk Trail ran through the province. Cambodia Ratanakiri locator map.svg
Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia is southeast of Khong Island, Laos. The Sihanouk Trail ran through the province.
Stung Treng Province, Cambodia is located directly downriver from Khong Island, Laos. Cambodia Stung Treng locator map.svg
Stung Treng Province, Cambodia is located directly downriver from Khong Island, Laos.

Detailed by his brother to restart Project Copper in February 1971, Lon Non used his already trained five-battalion 15 Brigade d'Infanterie. With only three days warning, the Brigade was lifted to the southeastern edge of the Bolovens Plateau. Some 15 commando teams were detailed for training at PS 18. Bataillon Chasseur 202 (BC 202) met little resistance when it occupied PS 38 and PS 43. [14]

In March 1971, the commando teams were inserted into Stung Treng Province and Ratanakiri Province to spy on PAVN supply traffic for a month. Lon Non recalled the Brigade in May for a sweep outside Phnom Penh. This ended Project Copper. The road watch teams were withdrawn to PS 18, then subsequently repatriated in early June 1971. [13]

Result

Project Copper both began and ended any significant military cooperation between the Royal Lao Government and the government of the Khmer Republic. [15]

Notes

  1. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, pp. 222, 443.
  2. ↑ Nalty, p. 117.
  3. ↑ Castle, pp. 107–110.
  4. ↑ Tambini, pp. x – xi.
  5. ↑ Knott, pp. 47 – 48.
  6. ↑ Ahern, p. 350 note 5.
  7. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, p. 173.
  8. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, p. 222.
  9. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, p. 274.
  10. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, p. 281.
  11. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, pp. 282–283.
  12. 1 2 3 Conboy, Morrison, p. 283.
  13. 1 2 Conboy, Morrison, p. 284.
  14. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, pp. 283–284.
  15. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, pp. 282, 284.

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References

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