Wapi Project

Last updated
Wapi Project
Part of Laotian Civil War
Supported by Operation Pincushion
Type Civic action program, military training program
Location
Southern Laos
PlannedEarly 1963
Planned byPhasouk Somly Rasphakdi, U. S. Embassy in Laos, CIA
Commanded byPhasouk Somly Rasphakdi, CIA, USAID
ObjectiveSupport agricultural cooperatives, train defensive militia units
DateLate 1963—mid 1967
Executed byPhasouk Somly Rasphakdi, CIA, USAID
OutcomeProgram highly successful, but ultimately abandoned in favor of other projects

The Wapi Project was a civic action program originated by the Royal Lao Government; it was performed in Military Region 4 of Laos from late 1963 through 1967. Notable for being among the first integrated programs to offer integrated services to the Lao Theung populace of southern Laos, it became a victim of its own success. Its lean efficiency led to its being crowded out of funding by more expensive programs.

Civic action program

A civic action program also known as civic action project is a type of operation designed to assist an area by using the capabilities and resources of a military force or civilian organization to conduct long-term programs or short-term projects. This type of operations include: dental civic action program (DENTCAP), engineering civic action program (ENCAP), medical civic action program (MEDCAP), and veterinarian civic action program (VETCAP). Entities of foreign nations usually conduct these operations at the invitation of a host nation.

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.

Lao Theung ethnic group

The Lao Theung or Lao Thoeng is one of the traditional divisions of ethnic groups living in Laos. It literally indicates the "midland Lao", and comprises a variety of different ethnic groups of mostly Austro-Asiatic origin. In 1993, the Lao Theung formed 24% of the country's population.

Contents

Background

Beginning in 1950, the United States gradually slid into supporting a proxy war in the Kingdom of Laos. In time, it took over support of the Royal Lao Government and the Royal Lao Armed Forces. The latter was centered in five separate military regions, with few lines of communication to link them. As a result, the generals in command of military regions tended to act autonomously from one another or from a central command. [1]

Proxy war conflict between two actors where none of them directly engages the other

A proxy war is an armed conflict between two states or non-state actors which act on the instigation or on behalf of other parties that are not directly involved in the hostilities. In order for a conflict to be considered a proxy war, there must be a direct, long-term relationship between external actors and the belligerents involved. The aforementioned relationship usually takes the form of funding, military training, arms, or other forms of material assistance which assist a belligerent party in sustaining its war effort.

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.

Royal Lao Armed Forces Combined military forces of Laos (1949-1975)

The Royal Lao Armed Forces, best known by its French acronym FAR, were the official armed defense forces of the Kingdom of Laos, a state that existed from 1949 to 1975 in what is now the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The FAR was responsible for the defense of the Kingdom since its independence in October 1953 from France.

During the Laotian Civil War, the Royal Lao Army in Military Region 4 of Laos chose a policy of minimal aggression toward the communist troops shielding the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the eastward reaches of the MR. [2]

Laotian Civil War 1959-1975 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.

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.

Mu Ban Samaki becomes the Wapi Project

Laotian General Phasouk Somly Rasphakdi, who commanded MR 4, began investigating possibilities for a civic action program in Wapikhamthong Province as early as 1963. The development zone envisioned by the general would stretch from the Mekong River eastward through the lowlands to Salavane. Its populace was largely Lao Theung hostile to the Royal Lao Government. It was a fertile rice growing area. [2]

Salavan (city) District & municipality in Salavan Province, Laos

The city of Salavan (ສາລະວັນ) is the capital of the Salavan Province in southern Laos. Located 125 km away, from Pakse on a partially paved road, it is located in one of the most isolated parts of Laos.

On 25 June 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy approved National Security Action Memorandum 249. One of its provisions called for the Central Intelligence Agency to increase their Auto Defense Choc troops to 23,000 militia. The new ADC would be used to link up zones of Royal Lao Government influence and to safeguard the villages within them, similar to the Strategic Hamlet Program in Vietnam. [3]

John F. Kennedy 35th president of the United States

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy, often referred to by initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. He served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his presidency dealt with managing relations with the Soviet Union. A member of the Democratic Party, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate prior to becoming president.

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.

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.

It took two years to fully involve Americans from the U.S. Embassy in the concept that was dubbed Mu Ban Samaki by the Lao. The proposed Auto Defense Choc (ADC) program would train militia that would provide security to new assistance programs in schooling, public health, and agriculture. The first pilot program, launched in late 1963, was concentrated in six locations scattered along the Mekong Valley from Sayaboury to Attopeu. It was run by a disorganized committee of U.S. Embassy staff members. By mid-1964, the pilot project in MR 4 at Houei Kong was the only one prospering, due to its unitary command and security from the 400 remaining militia from Operation Pincushion. At the same time, overall security in MR 4 was diminished when an 1,800 man regiment of regulars was transferred out to join Operation Triangle on the Plain of Jars in Military Region 2. [2] [4]

Operation Pincushion was a covert training program for hill tribe recruits to become guerrilla soldiers during the Laotian Civil War. Run by United States Special Forces and funded by the Central Intelligence Agency, it trained 12 companies of irregulars in southern Laos between December 1961 and September 1962. These guerrilla forces were near the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and intended to secure the Royal Lao Government's hold on the Bolovens Plateau.

Operation Triangle was a military operation of the Laotian Civil War staged from 19—29 July 1964. Although planned by the General Staff of the Royal Lao Army, it was subject to American approval because the RLA depended on the Americans for finances, supplies, and munitions. Operation Triangle was an ambitious undertaking dependent on martial skills unfamiliar to the Lao. It not only called for coordination of infantry, artillery, and tactical air strikes among forces of three different nationalities; as a covert operation, it also had to have plausible deniability.

Plain of Jars megalithic archaeological landscape in Laos, consisting of thousands of stone jars scattered around the upland valleys and the lower foothills of the central plain of the Xiangkhoang Plateau

The Plain of Jars is a megalithic archaeological landscape in Laos. It consists of thousands of stone jars scattered around the upland valleys and the lower foothills of the central plain of the Xiangkhoang Plateau. The jars are mostly arranged in clusters ranging in number from one to several hundred.

The transformation of Mu Ban Samaki into the Wapi Project was based on explicitly linking the newly offered civic services to a militia effort to defend them. The Wapi Project was offered to a population of about 120,000. Half of those were estimated to be communist sympathizers; however military intelligence reported only 300 communist guerrillas among them. Even pro-communist village leaders were swayed by such improvements as agricultural cooperatives. [5] The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) cooperated in the effort. This made it among the first integrated civic aid projects in Indochina, and it ran at a relatively low cost. [6] The ADC training camp opened at a site dubbed PS 18 in November 1965; it would train militia for a year. [7] One of the three CIA case agents assigned to the ADC effort had experience dealing with Lao Theung from a previous assignment with Operation Pincushion. [8]

In April 1965, the Wapi Project doubled in size as it extended into the Sedone Valley. The communists there ruled by coercion, so the new government project found fertile ground for its expansion. By June 1966, the Wapi Project had pacified 5,400 square kilometers of Laos. [5] However, by the end of 1966, with American interest fading, Phasouk also turned back toward military action. [9] However, he did manage to evade joining the CIA's nascent road watch program, fearing the distraction from the Wapi Project. [10]

During the first half of 1967, new CIA Chief of Station Theodore Shackley withdrew the Agency's support, dooming it. [11] Ironically, the Wapi Project's efficiency doomed it in the battle for budgeting, as more elaborate efforts with larger budgets choked it out of existence. [6]

Aftermath

The militia, which had been raised for home defense, were pressed into offensive service in Special Guerrilla Units. They did not make very determined soldiers. [5]

In March 1968, Pathet Lao troops moved in to commandeer the rice harvest in the old Project Wapi area. The Lao communists propagandized against the remaining effects of the Project. [12]

Notes

  1. ↑ Castle, pp. 7–35.
  2. 1 2 3 Conboy, Morrison, p. 141.
  3. ↑ Ahern, pp. 161-162.
  4. ↑ Ahern, pp. 196-197.
  5. 1 2 3 Ahern, pp. 199-200.
  6. 1 2 Conboy, Morrison, pp. 141–142.
  7. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, p. 145.
  8. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, p. 148.
  9. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, p. 170.
  10. ↑ Shackley, p. 143.
  11. ↑ Ahern, pp. 267-268.
  12. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, p. 198.

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References

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