Undercover Armies - CIA FOIA - Central Intelligence Agency

C05303949
Chapter Twenty
The fate of Long Tieng thus rested on the ability of air power and new artillery
to delay the NVAI
~n a climate of grim
pessimism, Washington engaged in another round of the perennial strategy
debate. Should the effort be directed at the military and psychological benefits
of holding Long Tieng, or should scarce manpower be conserved by having
the irregulars revert to mobile guerrilla warfare?C] ,
As had been the case before Vang Pao's move onto the Plain of Jars, Washington
tried to split the difference. Alluding to the early 1968 siege of US
Marine positions in South Vietnam, the authoritative interagency committee­
WSAG-asserted that "we do not want another Khe Sanh." The goal should
be more limited, to force the enemy to concentrate his forces, making them
vulnerable to air attack, but with friendly forces withdrawing before casualties
became excessive. 5 0
All three regiments of the NVA 312 1h Division had now infiltrated southwest
toward Yang Pao's defensive arc above Long Tieng. Other elements
managed to go around or through it and closed in on the base itself. SaEEers
raided it twice in early January 1972, inflicting embarrassing damage[ ~
I IYang Pao's house, and on reconnaissance aircraft and an
Iammunition dump·1
I
A Journalistic Junket to Long TiengD
In the midst of all this, Hugh Tovar found himself under a different kind of
siege. Word of the December rout from the Plain of Jars had reached the press,
and journalists were converging on Vientiane, demanding to see what they
called "the most important battleground of the Indochina war." Wanting to
protect the identities of its personnel, the station had always resisted this, but
Mac Godley found the pressure too much and told Tovar to workout some
accommodation. D '
7
~ ~
6 Conboy, Shadow War, 329-30. Hanoi had been so confident oftaking Long Tieng that on 14
January the NVA's newspaper, Nhan Dan, published the disposition of NVA forces there and proclaimed
imminent victory. (Tovar interview.r=J
SEr~FT/tMR
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