Undercover Armies - CIA FOIA - Central Intelligence Agency

C051303949
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rely on the capacities of the weird little craft, which took off in the length of a
football field and landed at 35 miles an hour. At such slow speeds, nearly
every pilot and all the passengers-the plane carried as many as three Americans,
but five or six of the much s.maller HjOnj-SUrVived the numerous
crash landings during the years that followed."?
In takingl
Ito Phou Fa, Lair had more in mind than mere thrills, for
it was an article of faith with him that, however much a program of irregular
warfare in Laos needed American material aid, it did not require Americans to
run it on the ground. Phou Fa, he thought, demonstrated the point. 0
71
The point had mainly to do with leadership. No American was stationed at
Phou Fa. The 0 eration there was being run by the exceptionally capable
and the able and influential leader of the local
"C"a-cth'o'I'ic~H'm-o-n-g-.,------rd'id~the briefing-the Hmong leader, of course, spoke
no English-and Lair characteristically stayed in the background, letting
I Iget his information and impressions directly from the men on site.
When the visitors finally roared down the slipe lor takeoff, Lair was confident
that I
~ad absorbed the message."
mONAGEGUERR~USc=J
Completing the ArcD
The encirclement of the Plain of Jars continued when aI Iteam leapfrogged
Phou Fa to set up a base directly north of the plain.]
I then
pushed farther to the east. Joined by a =:Iteam, he set up a command post
at a village known as Ban Tha Northeast, about II miles north of the key road
junction at Ban Ban."D .
Yang Pao had guaranteed 1,000 volunteers from the area around Ban Tha
Nottheast, but when]
Iarrived, local Hmong leader
Nghia Tong had perhaps 30 men waiting to be equipped and trained. Many
more were on the way, he kept assuring the advisers, but after three weeks no
more than 300 had showed up. There was, fortunately, no immediate enemy
reaction, and the standard training regime got under way. 0
74
Ban Tha Northeast straddled a ridge on which the volunteers cleared a
Helio strip. Even more than most, this one mocked all safety prescriptions.
Nearly all guerrilla bases were located on mountain slopes, usually at eleva-
70 Despite thetheoretical disadvantage of its single engine, the Hello-Courier was involved in no
fatal accidents in its first five years of operation in Laos; the only fatalities occurred when one
wasdowned b enemy ground fire.]
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71 Bill F'La=ir'1,---.J
72 Ibid
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