LG Military Operations And Activities In The Laotian Panhandle
()
About this ebook
“The Kingdom of Laos, because of geographical location, was destined to play a major role as North Vietnam endeavored to expand her area of influence throughout Indochina. This is especially true of the Laotian Panhandle which borders both South Vietnam and Cambodia. Following the March 1970 coup in Cambodia, the closure of the port of Sihanoukville to the Communists and the increasing effectiveness of navy Market Time barrier operations, southern Laos became even more important to the enemy for the movement of supplies and men to support Communist activities in South Vietnam and Cambodia.
This monograph reviews and analyzes Royal Lao Government military operations and activities in the Laotian Panhandle. I have devoted special attention to the significance of the panhandle for enemy military operations in South Vietnam and Cambodia, the initiation of conventional warfare in southern Laos, lessons learned during the employment of regular and irregular forces and developments following the 1973 cease-fire. As author, I am fortunate to be able to draw on my personal experience as Commanding General of Military Region 4 from 1 July 1971 until my exodus 13 June 1975.”-Author’s Preface.
Brig. Gen. Soutchay Vongsavanh
See Book Description
Related to LG Military Operations And Activities In The Laotian Panhandle
Titles in the series (11)
Intelligence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStrategy and Tactics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Territorial Forces Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCambodian Incursion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReflections On The Vietnam War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Easter Offensive Of 1972 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe US Adviser Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLG Military Operations And Activities In The Laotian Panhandle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe South Vietnamese Society Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPacification Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeadership Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related ebooks
The Easter Offensive Of 1972 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPacification Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReflections On The Vietnam War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe US Adviser Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTerritorial Forces Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeadership Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5North Vietnam's 1972 Easter Offensive: Hanoi's Gamble Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVictory Betrayed : Operation Dewey Canyon: US Marines in Vietnam Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChronicles of a Marine Rifleman: Vietnam, 1965-1966 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe 1968 Tet Offensive Battles Of Quang Tri City And Hue [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsForsaken Warriors: The Story of an American Advisor with the South Vietnamese Rangers and Airborne Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnited States Army Special Forces in Thailand Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIntelligence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVietnam Studies - U.S. Army Special Forces 1961-1971 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCambodian Incursion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhy The North Vietnamese Launched A Major Military Offensive During Tet 1968 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVietnam Studies - The Role Of Military Intelligence 1965-1967 [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVietnam Studies - The Development And Training Of The South Vietnamese Army, 1950-1972 [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArmored Warfare In The Jungle Environment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVietnam Studies - Field Artillery, 1954-1973 [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5U.S. Marines In Vietnam: The Advisory And Combat Assistance Era, 1954-1964 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLam Son 719 [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Easter Offensive: Vietnam 1972: Volume 2 - Tanks in the Streets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAirpower And The 1972 Easter Offensive Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOPERATION MILLPOND: U.S. Marines In Thailand, 1961 [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Green Berets in the Land of a Million Elephants: U.S. Army Special Warfare and the Secret War in Laos 1959–74 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Vietnamese Air Force, 1951-1975 — An Analysis Of Its Role In Combat And Fourteen Hours At Koh Tang [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAcross The Border: The Successes And Failures Of Operation Rockcrusher Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsU.S. Marines in Vietnam: High Mobility and Standdown 1969 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Soviet-Afghan War: Another Look Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Wars & Military For You
The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Art of War: The Definitive Interpretation of Sun Tzu's Classic Book of Strategy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Happiest Man on Earth: The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Making of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wager Disaster: Mayem, Mutiny and Murder in the South Seas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The God Delusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of War & Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World--and Why Their Differences Matter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unit 731: Testimony Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The History of the Peloponnesian War: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for LG Military Operations And Activities In The Laotian Panhandle
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
LG Military Operations And Activities In The Laotian Panhandle - Brig. Gen. Soutchay Vongsavanh
This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.picklepartnerspublishing.com
To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – picklepublishing@gmail.com
Or on Facebook
Text originally published in 1981 under the same title.
© Pickle Partners Publishing 2015, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.
Publisher’s Note
Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.
We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.
INDOCHINA MONOGRAPHS
RLG MILITARY OPERATIONS AND ACTIVITIES IN THE LAOTIAN PANHANDLE
BY
BRIG. GEN. SOUTCHAY VONGSAVANH
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS 4
INTRODUCTION 5
PREFACE 6
CHARTS 7
MAPS 8
ILLUSTRATIONS 9
CHAPTER I—INTRODUCTION 10
The Laos Panhandle 10
The Ho Chi Minh Trait 12
The Sihanouk Trail 21
The Pathet Lao 23
Relations Between the Pathet Lao and the NVA 24
Significant Developments Following the 1962 Geneva Agreement 25
CHAPTER II—THE ORGANIZATION AND EMPLOYMENT OF IRREGULAR FORCES IN SOUTHERN LAOS 28
The Military Regions 28
Interdiction of the NVA Logistics System in the Panhandle 30
South Vietnamese Activities in the Panhandle 33
Coordination between Cambodia and Laos in the Panhandle 34
Laos Irregulars Before 1970 35
Laos Irregulars After 1970 40
Command Problems 42
CHAPTER III—THE INITIATION OF CONVENTIONAL WARFARE IN SOUTHERN LAOS 47
Attopeu 49
Saravane 51
Tchepone 52
CHAPTER IV—THE NVA PANHANDLE OFFENSIVES OF 1971 AND 1972 56
Paksong and Route 23 57
Reorganization 60
Saravane 62
Khong Sedone 66
Saravane Again and the Approach of Cease-Fire 68
CHAPTER V—DEVELOPMENTS FOLLOWING THE FEBRUARY 1973 CEASE-FIRE 72
Agreement to Restore Peace and Achieve National Concord 72
Violations of the Cease-Fire 77
Reduction of Royal Lao Military Strength 79
CHAPTER VI—OBSERVATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 83
Successes and Failures 83
Observations 85
APPENDIX A—THE AGREEMENT ON THE RESTORATION OF PEACE AND RECONCILIATION IN LAOS 89
Chapter I—General Principles 89
Article 1 89
Chapter II—Military Provisions 89
Article 2 89
Article 3 90
Article 4 90
Article 5 90
Chapter III—Provisions on Political Affairs 91
Article 6 91
Article 7 91
Article 8 91
Article 9 92
Article 10 92
Chapter IV—The Joint Commission for Implementation of the Agreement and the International Commission for Supervision and Control 92
Article 11 92
Article 12 92
APPENDIX E—PROTOCOLS TO THE AGREEMENT 93
Summary of Main Provisions 93
GLOSSARY 95
REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 97
INTRODUCTION
This is one of a series published by the U.S. Army Center of Military History. They were written by officers who held responsible positions in the Cambodian, Laotian, and South Vietnamese armed forces during the war in Indochina. The General Research Corporation provided writing facilities and other necessary support under an Army contract with the Center of Military History. The monographs were not edited or altered and reflect the views of their authors—not necessarily those of the U.S. Army or the Department of Defense. The authors were not attempting to write definitive accounts but to set down how they saw the war in Southeast Asia.
Colonel William E. Le Gro, U.S. Army, retired, has written a forthcoming work allied with this series, Vietnam: From Cease-Fire to Capitulation. Another book, The Final Collapse by General Cao Van Vien, the last chairman of the South Vietnamese Joint General Staff, will be formally published and sold by the Superintendent of Documents.
Taken together these works should provide useful source materials for serious historians pending publication of the more definitive series, the U.S. Army in Vietnam.
JAMES L. COLLINS, JR.
Brigadier General, USA
Chief of Military History
PREFACE
The Kingdom of Laos, because of geographical location, was destined to play a major role as North Vietnam endeavored to expand her area of influence throughout Indochina. This is especially true of the Laotian Panhandle which borders both South Vietnam and Cambodia. Following the March 1970 coup in Cambodia, the closure of the port of Sihanoukville to the Communists and the increasing effectiveness of navy Market Time barrier operations, southern Laos became even more important to the enemy for the movement of supplies and men to support Communist activities in South Vietnam and Cambodia.
This monograph reviews and analyzes Royal Lao Government military operations and activities in the Laotian Panhandle. I have devoted special attention to the significance of the panhandle for enemy military operations in South Vietnam and Cambodia, the initiation of conventional warfare in southern Laos, lessons learned during the employment of regular and irregular forces and developments following the 1973 cease-fire. As author, I am fortunate to be able to draw on my personal experience as Commanding General of Military Region 4 from 1 July 1971 until my exodus 13 June 1975.
I am indebted to General Oudone Sananikone, former Chief of Staff for the Royal Lao Armed Forces and subsequently Under Secretary, Ministry of National Defense, for his guidance, assistance and comprehensive knowledge of developments in Laos. I am especially grateful for his review and critique of my final draft with the objective of providing a highly professional contribution to the Indochina Refugee-Authored Monograph Program.
Finally, I wish to express my personal appreciation to Ms. Pham Thi Bong. Ms. Bong, a former Captain in the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces, devoted long hours typing, editing and in the administrative preparation of my manuscript in final form.
SOUTCHAY VONGSAVANH
Brigadier General, RLA
McLean, Virginia
21 February 1978
CHARTS
No.
The Irregular Organization in Military Region IV Before 1970
Lao Irregular Heavy Weapons Company (Organic to GM)
Lao Irregular Battalion (Organic to GM)
The Organization Irregular Forces in MR IV After 1970
Organization of Irregular Forces in Military Region III After 1970
Organization of Military Region IV in September 1971
MAPS
No.
The Key Position of Laos in Indochina
Ho Chi Minh Trail
Annual Rainfall in Laos
The Ho Chi Minh Trail After 1970
The Enemy Base Area Complex in Eastern MR III and MR IV
Sihanouk Trail
Indochina Military Regions
Zones of Control and the Ho Chi Minh Trail
The Guerrilla Zones in Military Region IV Before 1970
The Battle of Attopeu
The Battle of Paksong
The Battle of Saravane
The Battle of Khong Sedone
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Heavily Camouflaged NVA Storage Bunker on the Ho Chi Minh Trail near Tchepone in the Laos Panhandle
2. North Vietnamese Petroleum Pipe Line in the Laos Panhandle. The installation was under air attack at the time this photo was taken (probably in 1972)
3. Camouflaged storage bunker on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the Laos Panhandle. A road-widening bulldozer has cut into the bank revealing the hidden entrance and destroying a bicycle
4. A South Vietnamese Army Unit advances in the Laos panhandle near Tchepone in Operation Lam Son 719, February 1971
5. Laos Irregulars in Training at an Irregular Base Camp on the Plateau des Bolovens Before 1970
6. In Lam Son 719, South Vietnamese soldiers ran a captured NVA amphibious tank. This Soviet-built light tank mounted a 76-mm gun
7. Troops of BV 44 Assemble in the Saravane Area
8. NVA Ammunition Truck Destroyed by Air Attack in Support of the Saravane Operation
9. Pathet Lao at Wattay Airport Waiting to Unload Another Soviet Transport
10. Soviet Transports Used to Bring the Pathet Lao into Vientiane at Wattay Airport
CHAPTER I—INTRODUCTION
In the years following World War II and the demise of the French colonial empire in Indochina, Laos bore a tragic resemblance to the small state of Belgium, which like Laos, was an unwilling but helpless battleground of its larger, more powerful neighbors. No external power coveted Laos for its wealth—it was surely the most undeveloped, poorest state in the region—or actively sought its support in a larger alliance. But it occupied, by the arbitrary politics of its boundaries and its geographical situation, a position that impelled the North Vietnamese to occupy and use its territory in the furtherance of the conquest of South Vietnam. (Map 1) The part of Laos essential to North Vietnam’s logistical support of the war in South Vietnam was the panhandle. This monograph seeks to explain why this was so and to describe from the Laotian point of view the significant events of the conflict in Indochina which occurred in the panhandle of Laos.
The Laos Panhandle
When we speak of the Laos panhandle, we are referring to that part of the country that extends south from about the 18th parallel and forms the corridor between Thailand’s Korat Plateau and the narrow waist of Vietnam. Not only is the nation of Laos shaped like a key, but the shaft of the key—the panhandle—became the key to North Vietnam’s successful prosecution of the war against the South.
Map 1—The Key Position of Laos in Indochina
The Annamite chain runs along the entire eastern side of Laos. The chain extends northeast to southeast, paralleling the direction flow of the Mekong River. In its upper portion, the mountains resemble those in northern Laos, having rugged peaks and deep valleys. The peaks are from approximately 5,000 to 8,000 feet in elevation and this portion, of the chain presents a formidable barrier to movement between Laos and North Vietnam. In central-east Khammouane Province, the elevations are somewhat lower and passes allow easier crossing. Farther south, at about the latitude of the city of Khammouane, the chain enters