air america laos

 

Laos represented one of the dominos in Southeast Asia that concerned President Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Under this code name, General Vang Pao, who served the royal Lao family, recruited and trained his Hmong soldiers. Operation About Face was a huge success. At one point, the PARU program was in danger of losing CIA support. Impressed with the Hmong commander, Lair returned to Vientiane and reported the contact to station chief Gordon L. Jorgensen. In 1959, U.S. Special Operations Forces (Military and CIA) began to train some Laotian soldiers in unconventional warfare techniques as early as the fall of 1959 under the code name "Erawan". Lair then outlined a program to support the Hmong. Due to the operating limitations of the H-19s, the underpowered helicopters could fly only at lower elevations in the country. 29. The most shot at airline in world history with the motto "Anything, Anytime, Anywhere, Professionally" provided logistical and humanitarian support to the Lao government in its civil war against the communist Pathet Lao. 31, Driven from Pa Dong, Vang Pao moved his headquarters to Pha Khao, 10 miles to the southwest. There were more than 300 pilots, copilots, flight mechanics, and air-freight specialists flying out of Laos and Thailand. 49. By the end of the year, a reported 20,000 Hmong were armed. . The case officer frequently called on Blevins to carry personnel and supplies. B-910 (c/n 427) Air America since Nov. 60 reregd. Laotian independence suited the policy of the United States, so long as the government remained non-Communist. Aware of the Army's sensitivity, Lair selected an innocuous name for the new organization: Police Aerial Reinforcement Unit (PARU). Although the end of the war was clearly in sight, Air America continued to lose people. Although the full extent of the conflict was not revealed to the American people until 1969-70, the war was not all that secret. It supplied and supported covert operations in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, including providing support for drug smuggling in Laos. The USAF used enlisted men as forward air controllers in Laos in 1963. Col. Jean-Louis Nicot, head of the French Air Transport Command in Indochina, lacked sufficient aircrews to meet the Army's demands. The following month, a cease-fire agreement was signed in Vientiane, leading to the formation of a coalition government for Laos. In fact, the NVA was expanding its areas of control, attacking both neutralist and Hmong positions throughout Laos. Blevins also was kept busy, landing throughout the country and making numerous airdrops to isolated FAR posts. Air America was an American passenger and cargo airline established in 1946 and covertly owned and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1950 to 1976. It was saved by Aderholt, who believed in the aircraft's capability and was determined to see it work, and by Rousselot, who feared that the CIA would give the STOL mission to a rival company--Bird & Son--if Air America proved incapable of doing the job. The STOL program got off to a poor start. Little did Rousselot realize that this would be the beginning of a major rotary-wing operation in Laos. "My arguments became more forceful," Colby recalled, "reflecting the intense cables I was receiving from the two CIA officers who were still up in the hills observing and reporting on what was happening." In 1965, Air America had many piston-powered Helio Couriers, a few Porters, and a variety of other aircraft. In July 1955, USOM officials learned that a rice failure threatened famine in several provinces in Laos. On 21 April 1972, he ended a lengthy debate within the CIA over the continued need for a covert airlift capability, and ordered the Agency to divest itself of ownership and control of Air America and related companies. 7 For a detailed account of CAT, see Perilous Missions: Civil Air Transport and CIA Covert Operations in Asia (University of Alabama Press, 1984). CIA activities in Laos started in the 1950s. 56 Telex, VP-NTD UTH to Chief Executive Office, 3 June 1974, Hickler Papers. During the Vietnam War the air base at Long Tieng was a hub of Air America, Air commando, and Raven forard air control operations. 21 Leary interview with Aderholt, 28 August 1990. Rousselot hired four experienced US Marine Corps helicopter pilots who obtained their discharges in Okinawa to fly the H-19s. Gravely concerned that the Laotian government was in danger of being overwhelmed by a growing Communist insurgency known as the Pathet Lao, President … The North Vietnamese, impatient with the progress of the Pathet Lao, introduced major new combat forces into Laos and took control of the year's dry season offensive. Phoumi also obtained support from his close friend, Thai Prime Minister Marshal Sarit Thanarat, who sent teams from the elite Police Aerial Reinforcement Unit to work with Phoumi's soldiers. 13, CAT soon became involved in USOM's aid program. Gen. Edward G. Lansdale--at that time a US security adviser--reported to Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, President Kennedy's military adviser, that 13 PARU teams (99 men) were working with the Hmong, assisted by nine US Special Forces personnel. Legend: Airfield Name: Small Capitals are 1:250,000 map airfields of Vietnam era; Red Italic names are from Air America Flight Listings. VP, as he was known to the Americans, said that he either had to fight the Communists or leave the country; if the United States supplied the weapons, Vang Pao said that he would fight and that he could easily raise an army of 10,000. In Laos and Thailand, where the rest of Air America Operations took place there were a total of more than 300 pilots, co-pilots, air freight specialists all working for the C.I.A.’s covert airline. 15 Leary interview with Blevins, 11 July 1987. Laos, a mountainous and somewhat primitive country, lacked significant infrastructure, and the CIA had to rely on Air America for communication, transportation, and supply. Admiral Felt cabled the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 29 December: "With full realization of the seriousness of the decision to intervene, I believe strongly that we must intervene now or give up northern Laos." FitzGerald asked him to write up the proposal and send it to Washington. During the dry period, which lasted from October to May, the North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao went on the offensive, applying pressure on the Hmong in northern Laos and on government forces throughout the country. Special Forces personnel conducted intensive training of Phoumi's troops, while Air America transport flew in supplies from Bangkok. Some Air America pilots flew in Laos for more than a decade, braving enemy fire and surmounting challenging operational conditions with rare skill and determination. Air America, an airline secretly owned by the CIA, was a vital component in the Agency's operations in Laos. As I drive down the old strip it’s just a wide open space now with great views of the Karst mountains, surrounding hills and palm trees of Vang Vieng. 33, Air America transports were also the key to feeding the people in the Hmong villages where the men had gone off to fight. Air America's operating authority was cancelled by the CAB on January 31, 1974. When plans for a new stay-behind company in Thailand, staffed by a contingent of select helicopter and transport pilots, fell through, all Air America personnel were discharged. In August 1950, the Agency secretly purchased the assets of Civil Air Transport (CAT), an airline that had been started in China after World War II by Gen. Claire L. Chennault and Whiting Willauer. Although the Thai Army was not happy about the appearance of a paramilitary police organization, Thailand's government approved its creation. By mid-March, they had captured a strategic valley north of Luang Prabang, successfully assaulted a key navigational facility that was used by the US Air Force for bombing North Vietnam, and threatened to push the Hmong out of their mountaintop strongholds surrounding the PDJ. The Ambassador in Vientiane delegated responsibility for the tactical conduct of the war to his CIA station chief. After a two-month trek around the perimeter of the PDJ, Buell arranged through Lair for Air America to make scheduled airdrops of rice to the Hmong villages. The effect, Burke warned, would soon be felt throughout Asia, Latin America, and Africa. The CIA's main focus in Laos remained on fighting the war, not on policing the drug trade. Between December and April, six Air America crew members died in Laos. 9, The war in Indochina, however, continued to go badly for the French. Air America was a civilian airline doing paramilitary work for the CIA in Laos from the late 1950's to mid 1970. Blevins found flying conditions primitive in Laos. In early May, a group of CAT personnel arrived at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines for 72 hours of concentrated ground and flight school on the unfamiliar C-119s. If the CIA was not involved in the drug trade, it did know about it. 54, At the same time that Air America crews were being reminded about the hazardous nature of operations in Laos, DCI Helms was deciding the fate of the air proprietary. More than 9,000 Hmong had been equipped for guerrilla operations, with the possibility of securing 4,000 additional recruits. Restricted to food resupply to the Hmong, which averaged 40 tons a month by summer, the airline laid off people and mothballed airplanes. On 27 January 1973, the Paris agreement on Vietnam was concluded, providing for the withdrawal of American troops. The PARU team conducted a three-day training program for the Hmong, involving the use of their weapons and basic ambush techniques. 5. He developed an especially close relationship with a CIA case officer who had arrived in October 1958 and who was assigned to support neutralist Capt. Air America, an airline secretly owned by the CIA, was a vital component in the Agency's operations in Laos. Vang Pao again captured the PDJ in July and established a network of artillery strongpoints, manned by Thai gunners. To connect the scattered Hmong outposts that were separated by mountainous terrain, Lair ordered the construction of a chain of airstrips, labeled Victor Sites (later called Lima Sites), that could be used by Air America's STOL airplanes. 50 CIA, Office of National Estimates, Stocktaking in Indochina, 17 April 1970, DDRS 1977: 270C. The skilled aircrews and ground personnel of the air proprietary had given CIA the air transport capability required for a variety of covert operations in Asia. The largest paramilitary operations ever undertaken by the CIA took place in the small Southeast Asian Kingdom of Laos. The Hmong, at least at first, countered with guerrilla tactics. The summer of 1959 saw the introduction into Laos of a US Special Forces Group, codenamed Hotfoot, under the command of Lt. Col. Arthur "Bull" Simons. 29-30, 43-44. 24-25. 58 An oft-used term at the time, encompassing all of the various elements of CIA's air proprietary in Laos. In April 1961, William R. Andersevic arrived in Vientiane to take charge of Air America's Helio program. Three CAT C-46s arrived at the northeastern railhead of Udorn, Thailand, on 11 September to begin the airlift. Air America, an airline secretly owned by the CIA, was a vital component in the agency’s operations in Laos. As Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) Richard Helms later observed: "This was a major operation for the Agency. In general, Ambassador Sullivan and his successor, G. McMurtrie Godley, successfully carried out this policy. Jorgensen suggested that he and Lair get together with FitzGerald for dinner. 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