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The CIA had founded a Momentum type program in South Vietnam among the Degar hill tribe; it had been handed over to the Green Berets in mid-1963. [16] Bill Lair continued his sub rosa operations in Laos via the PARU in early 1964, extending Momentum's reach northeastward around the Plain of Jars and towards the border of the DRV. During this ...
Covert sites of the Laotian Civil War were clandestine U.S. military installations for conducting covert paramilitary and combat operations in the Kingdom of Laos. Airstrips within the Kingdom of Laos were originally designated by Air America as "Site XX" (with XX being a number). In September 1961, the designation changed to "VS XX", meaning ...
Faced with the conundrum of founding a secret army in the face of an active enemy during wartime, CIA case officer James William Lair founded Operation Momentum.This was a three-day course in basic military training, using small arms and equipment parachuted in to the Hmong recruits and their Thai trainers.
The Pathet Lao were intent on cooperation with FAN. There was a very real risk attached to failure of Operation Momentum—attraction of communist retribution upon the Hmong populace. [8] There was a grass airstrip at Ban Pa Dong, and some old wooden buildings that had been built by the French. [9]
The American government became convinced that Laos could not be allowed to fall under communist control, lest other countries in Southeast Asia follow suit. [1] In January 1961, Central Intelligence Agency case officer James William Lair founded the Operation Momentum training program in northern Laos for Hmong guerrillas. In the following ...
While Operation White Star was concluded as part of the American military leaving Laos, Operation Momentum went into suspended animation. Nevertheless, the CIA tried to maintain contact with the 13,500 ADC troops it had trained in northern Laos. Much to the disgust of Vang Pao, the CIA's supply of munitions to his Hmong guerrillas was suspended.
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17 January 1961–30 September 1974: Operation Momentum, in Military Region 2 (MR 2) 31 January–6 June 1961: Battle of Ban Pa Dong, in Military Region 1 (MR 1) 13 March–August 1961: Operation Millpond, nationwide, (cancelled) 13 December 1961–10 September 1962: Operation Pincushion, in Military Region 4 (MR 4)