Undercover Armies - CIA FOIA - Central Intelligence Agency

C05303949
Chapter Eighteen
across the border, Hanoi was free to quicken the pace and, in mid-May, drove
the last of Vientiane's forces.off the Bolovens Plateau. 26D
Washington saw the balance of forces in the Panhandle as now dangerously
tilted in favor of Hanoi. The NVA could take Pakse or Savannakhet anytime it
wished; the only question was Hanoi's intentions in the matter. In this climate,
Headquarters judged that the Agency had contributed to the imbalance with
excessively ambitious interdiction operations. Conducted with insufficient
reserves to relieve combat-weary units or those under heavy enemy pressure,
these efforts had left MR 4, for example, with only three functioning battalions.
The other seven had to be reorganized and retrained and even that had to
await enough new recruits to fill the gaps in their ranks."D
The NVA decided not to exploit its advanl-~~~~-c-.-.~-c-~~
tage-the onset of the rainy season was doubtless a factor-and as of early
June 1971, the government's position had stabilized in 'both north and south.
Headquarters' fears of a march on the Mekong now gave way to talk in Long
Tieng and Pakse of rainy-season offensives against the communists. In the
north, despite Yang Pao's enduring dream of Hmong mastery of the Plain of
Jars, the objective would be entirely tactical: to push the enemy far enough
from the "heartland" area, south and west of the plain, to deny it the opportunity
for a decisive move against the plain when the weather cleared once
again. In the south, the motivation was more complicated."D
To begin with, Lao proprietary feelings toward the fertile Bolovens Plateau
equaled the Hmong attachment to the Plain of Jars. Also, the Bolovens lay
between the Trail network and Route 13, the main road into northeastern
.Cambodia. Prince Sisouk, Souvanna's deputy defense minister, judged that
the government must hold the plateau at least as far east asPaksong in order to
deny Hanoi easy access into northeastern Cambodia. Finally, there was the
sudden and violent rift between the Pathet Lao and the North Vietnamese in
southern Laos that offered the government the prospect of reclaiming the loyalty
of villagers long under communist sway.29D
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