Undercover Armies - CIA FOIA - Central Intelligence Agency

C05303949
SEcl- T1IMR
REV. LIGHTAT THE END OF THE TUNNEO
At this point, in the first days of September, another Hmong task force
south of the plain was repulsed after making some promising gains, and its
effectiveness evaporated when two accidental bombings by Laotian T-28s
killed 64 and wounded 43 of its troops. These disasters might have impelled
Yang Pao to write finis to Operation'
Ibut the fast-movers
finally arrived, and additional B-52s as well, and the morale of the irregulars
rose as the NVA gave some ground. By mid-September, one task force was
making good progress along and into the northwestern Plain of Jars, and Task
Force Delta, the one mauled by the NVA north of the plain, had a new commander.
In addition, several hundred of its troops were discovered to have
stayed behind-AWOL or on leave-at the initial deployment and were now
available to help reconstitute its constituent BGs. The ever-reliable GM 30
was back from Savannakhet,I
D2D
These modestly encouraging developments drew' no 'applause from the
newly appointed CINCPAC, Adm. Noel Gayler, when he arrived at Udom on
14 September. He had visited Laos before, and] Iremembered him as
having been impressed by the effort at Long Tieng and visibly moved by the
sight of the wounded at the Sam Thong hospital. Now, he surprised his hosts
when he refused to see Yang Pao, on the ground that such a visitation might
generate fjlSe hOPis of expanded support. It also seemed that he was determined,
in . words, to avoid "losing his objectivity thriU8i intimate
contact with a situation about which he had deep misgivings." 63
Gayler derogated Operation I
las a hopeless failure, and
questioned the authority for launching it in the first place] Iefforts to
explain the various equities-Yang Pao's military and strategic considerations,
the conditions for a peace agreement, and explicit White House
encouragement ofl ~elicited only Gayler's assertion that he
worked for the JCS, and no one else. Ifthe terms of reference were asl I
had stated them, he might well approach "higher authority" to get' them
changed. Concerned Ithat ~aYr might substantially influence "what we do or
do not do out here," described the encounter in grisly detail for the
benefit of Headquarters. 64 "
I
I
Iattended the session and later pointed out that
the JCS had just ordered Gayler to determine "why there was not more bombovar
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