Red Tide, Yellow Peril: Indochina (1955-1970, Part 1)
For Indochina during the 1940s to mid-1950s, see here:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=8586294&postcount=61
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The war between the French and the Viet Minh was brought to an end by the Geneva Accords which divided Vietnam between a socialist state to the north of the 17th Parallel and a western-aligned state in the south headed by the French puppet emperor Bao Dai. A three-nation International Control Commission (ICC), composed of India, which headed the group, Poland and Canada, was tasked with overseeing elections for the reunification of Vietnam. As it turned out, the ICC decided that conditions in both the north and the south weren't appropriate for reliable nationwide referendums and the division of the country would remain until it was united by force.
The Emperor Bao Dai in the last days of French colonialism
Although Bao Dai was the head of state for the southern State of Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem was elected prime minister, and in an April 1956 referendum (which is widely believed to have been fraudulent), Diem abolished the monarchy and became the first President of the Republic of Vietnam (ROV). Diem's presidency would prove short-lived. In November he was overthrown by Le Van "Bay" Vien, leader of the Binh Xuyen Force militia/criminal syndicate. Bay Vien had been given total control over the policing of the Saigon-Cholon area by the French in gratitude of his extermination of Viet Minh forces in Saigon and the execution of their commander, Nguyen Binh. He then cleared out Route 15 to Vung Tau, after which he was promoted to Major General by the French colonialists. Under Bay Vien's command was five regular battalions and two battalions of public security shock troops. With these he ousted Diem and declared himself the Provisional President of the Republic of Vietnam. The only resistance to this coup was by Catholic refugees, many of whom were gunned down by Bay Vien's "public security" forces.
Bay Vien appears in LIFE magazine
The Republic of Vietnam had virtually ceased to exist as a coherent state. Only Saigon-Cholon and areas with remaining French garrisons were under de facto government control. In much of the centre of the country, numerous officers began to either operate as independent warlords or throw in their lot with the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang (VNQDD), also known as the Vietnamese Koumintang. In the Mekong Delta, numerous armed groups existed in perpetual conflict with each other. Many of these groups were associated with religious sects, mainly the Hoa Hao and the Cao Dai. The most notorious of the Hao Hao leaders was the self-proclaimed "General" Ba Cut, who had been described as "war drunk". Ba Cut extorted payment out of locals, justifying the shake-downs as payment for the elimination of pirates. Piracy virtually ceased within Ba Cut's sections of the Mekong, deterred by the heads mounted on pikes down the river and near towns under his control. The most powerful Cao Dai warlord was Trinh Minh The, who controlled the area around Tay Ninh and frequently battled with Ba Cut's forces. Alongside these groups were the Viet Minh, who continued to operate in the jungles and along the rivers, gathering their strength for the coming conflicts.
In the north of Vietnam, the so-called Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) engaged in a campaign of systematic persecution of landowners. Using much of the same language as Stalin had in his campaign against the
kulaks, the North Vietnamese communists killed at least 14,000 people who had been defined as "class enemies". According to some sources, likely numbers of those killed is around 150,000. A 1957 visit to Moscow by Ho Chi Minh and Le Duan gained the approval of the preeminent communist power for a militant struggle for the liberation of Vietnam. The North Vietnamese leadership constructed a chain of command for communist insurgents in the Republic of Vietnam. The primary issue for the National Liberation Front (NLF, also known as Viet Cong) in the south was supply. To rectify this issue, the Viet Cong were instructed to prepare logistical infrastructure such as roads to allow greater volumes of men and materiel to be sent south. The main supply route for this cargo was the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a network of roads which wound through neighbouring Laos and Cambodia. Protection of these supply lines prompted a number of Vietnamese interventions in the aforementioned states, which were vital in installing communist governments in all of the former French Indochinese countries.
In Laos, prime minister Prince Souvanna Phouma announced that, with the holding of elections, the Royal Lao Government had fulfilled its Geneva obligations. The International Control Commission in Laos adjourned
sine die in response. Souvanna's government began to expand diplomatic relations, admitting diplomats from Taipei and Saigon, thus angering Moscow, Peking and Hanoi. Furthermore, as the French military mission in Laos wound down, they were replaced the the US Programs Evaluation Office (PEO). In December 1958, the PAVN occupied several villages in the Laotian Tchepone District near the DMZ between North and South Vietnam. The new prime minister, Phoui Sananikone, who had been the primary force promoting greater alignment with the United States, protested against the illegal occupation of these villages. The North Vietnamese responded by claiming that these villages were historically part of the Dai Viet, representing a unilateral reinterpretation of the French map used by the Troung Gia Armistice Commission in the summer of 1954 to draw the DMZ. This response bolstered the anti-Vietnamese nationalist opposition, allowing Phoui to bestow upon himself emergency powers from the National Assembly to deal with the crisis.
Whilst a state of emergency was being declared in Laos, the local communist militias, the Pathet Lao, were to be partially integrated into the Royal Lao Army (RLA) in accordance with the Geneva Accords. As monsoon rains descended upon the Xieng Khouang plateau and the Plain of Jars, the two battalions that were supposed to be absorbed into the RLA instead mutinied and marched east, prompting a renewed civil war between the communists and the royalists. Between July 28 and July 31, PAVN units led offensives on RLA positions and transferred immediately their gains to Pathet Lao troops, thus providing a degree of plausible deniability to their involvement in the Laotian conflict. The PAVN also began to provide specialist and technical support to Pathet Lao forces, thus increasing their combat potential.
Graphical representation of the Ho Chi Minh Trail
Back in South Vietnam, Bay Vien had been slowly consolidating his power over other anti-communist elements throughout the country. He cultivated an alliance with the VNQDD who dominated the Central Highland area, as well as securing the loyalty of many ARVN officers by bribing them with funds gained from the drugs, extortion and prostitution in the capital. In the Mekong Delta, ARVN forces began to drive the sects out. After a long and indecisive campaign against Ba Cut, the notorious warlord was killed during a parlay which was supposed to negotiate Ba Cut's normalisation with the regime. The destruction of the sects' military presence created fertile ground for the ever-increasing Viet Cong insurgency.
1960 saw the Laotian issue arise again. On August 9th, Captain Kong Le and his special forces-trained paratroop battalion seized control of Vientiane in a bloodless coup, styling themselves the "Neutralists" and promoting peace, an end to foreign interference, an end to the corruption caused by foreign aid and better treatment for soldiers. Prime minister Tiao Samsanith, as well as government officials and military leaders met in the royal capital Luang Prabang to discuss their response. Anti-coup units flocked around General Phoumi Nosavan, the first cousin of Thailand's prime minister, Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat. With CIA support, Sarit set up a covert military advisory group called "Kaw Taw". Kaw Taw supplied artillery, technical personnel and advisors to Phoumi's forces. Thailand also committed the Thai Police Aerial Reinforcement Unit to operate within Laos, as well as initiating a land blockade, cutting off the main source of imported goods to Vientiane. With supply assistance from Air America (organised through CIA channels) and covert military assistance from the Thais, Phoumi's troops began to move north from Savannakhet to Vientiane. The USSR instituted a military air bridge from Hanoi to Vientiane in early December, flying in PAVN artillery and gunners to reinforce the Neutralist-Pathet Lao coalition against the coming assault. On December 13, Phoumi's army began a 3-day bombardment of Vientiane. 500 civilians and 17 soldiers were killed by shellfire. The Neutralists and Pathet Lao saw that attempting to hold against the royalist army would be impossible, and began a fighting retreat, covered by PAVN 105mm howitzers, to the Xieng Khouang plateau. From December 23, the Neutralists and Pathet Lao became official allies. On January 1, 1961, Neutralist, Pathet Lao and PAVN forces drove 9000 royalist troops from the Plain of Jars. Two days later, the Royal Laos Air Force (RLAF) acquired its first counterinsurgency aircraft, four reconfigured T-6 Texan training aircraft from the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF). On 7 January, the PAVN presence was escalated by the introduction of another four North Vietnamese battalions into the conflict. Two of these battalions immediately entered combat on Route 7, one of the roads to Vientiane, and another moved into action at Tha Thom. The fourth battalion was kept as a reserve force. On 15 January, the 925 Independent Brigade of the PAVN crossed into Laos to reinforce the anti-government coalition. The US began supply of Hmong guerrillas later that month to oppose the Vietnamese and the Laotian communists. In February the first four volunteer pilots from the Royal Thai Air Force arrived to fly more four more T-6s supplied to the RLAF. The volunteer pilots had been officially discharged from the RTAF to discourage scrutiny by international observers. By the end of March, five out of eight RLAF T-6s had been destroyed by enemy action. On 9 March, the communists seized the only road junction between Luang Prabang and Vientiane. RLA troops sent to counterattack dropped their weapons and ran. US special forces Team Moon had been assigned as advisors to the RLA units in the area. On 22 April Team Moon was overrun. Two sergeants were killed and team leader Captain Walter H. Moon was captured. He was later executed whilst trying to escape captivity.
Child soldiers in the Laotian Civil War
As the conflicts in Indochina increased in intensity, President Gore began to provide greater support for the local anti-communist forces, including the governments of Prince Norodom Sihanouk in Cambodia, Prince Souvanna Phouma in Laos and Bay Vien in Vietnam. Whilst he was wary of involving any American forces beyond special forces, given the remaining memories of the failed US intervention in China, he did encourage the involvement of other Western-aligned governments. Japanese, Malayan and Thai troops were all involved in fighting in South Vietnam, with mixed success.
Despite Thai and American aid, the situation for the Royal Lao Army continued to deteriorate. In April 1961, General Phoumi urgently requested US air support to ward off communist assaults on Luang Prabang, Pakxan, Vientiane and Savannakhet. President Gore authorised the actions and 16 A-26 Invader light bombers attacked the communist assault groups, effectively deterring them from taking the major urban centres of the country. The Programs Evaluation Office shedded its civilian disguise and was redesignated the Military Advisory Assistance Group (MAAG). Having barely survived a brush with certain defeat, the RLA had been rendered all but ineffective. The defense of the kingdom was solely in the hands of tribal irregular militias, primarily from the Hmong people, but also including some Yao and Lao Theung (Midland Lao). By the summer of 1961, the CIA had mustered 9,000 hill tribesmen into the ranks of the "Secret Army". They were aided by 9 CIA agents, 9 special forces augmenters, and 99 Thai special forces troopers from the Police Aerial Resupply Unit. In December, the royalists decided that they would reassert control over the provincial capital of Nam Tha, near the Chinese border to the northwest. By February 1962, Nam Tha had been reinforced by royalist paratroopers. A major PAVN assault broke the RLA forces and routed them. The royalists retreated over a hundred miles into Thailand. Seeing the writing on the wall, the Americans pressured the Royal Lao Government into entering into a coalition with the Pathet Lao and Kong Le's Neutralist. The US also disbanded its MAAG in Laos, hoping that Laos could be "neutralised" as rather than falling wholesale to the Vietnamese and their local allies.
By mid-1962, however, the Pathet Lao and Neutralists had begun to squabble with each other. This was primarily driven by disagreements within the right-wing (exemplified by Kong Le) and the left-wing (Quinim Polsena and Col. Deuane Sunnalath) factions of the Neutralists. On the 12 February 1963, Col. Ketsana, Kong Le's second-in-command, was assassinated. Shortly afterwards, Quinim Polsena and his deputy were assassinated, likely in retaliation. Hmong leader Vang Pao, whose forces had been trained in Hua Hin in Thailand, gathered three irregular battalions and spearheaded a drive into Sam Neua against the Pathet Lao. The US reestablished the local MAAG group to support their efforts. In August 1963, the RLAF received its first four T-28 Trojan trainer aircraft, retooled for counter-insurgency warfare. Hmong forces began serious attempts to infiltrate the Ho Chi Minh Trail, prompting King Sisavong to promote Vang Pao to Brigadier-General in September. Hmong support for the royalist cause would prove unwise, with 18-20,000 Hmong tribes-people killed between 1963 and 1965, with many more suffering the same fate after the end of the war at the hands of the Vietnamese and the Pathet Lao. During this period, Laos was rocked by a number of coup attempts in Vientiane. With the capital in turmoil, the PVAN and Pathet Lao troops overran the royalist and Neutralist positions on the Xieng Khouang plateau. By the 19 May, the USAF began flying missions over the renewed fighting under the code-name Yankee Team. These were primarily (but not exclusively) reconnaissance missions over the Laotian panhandle to obtain target information on men and materiel being moved to the ROV via the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Summer of 1964 saw the RLA successfully clear Route 13 between Vientiane and Luang Prabang of communist forces. By December the USAF initiated Operation Barrel Roll, a bombing campaign over the Xieng Khouang plateau. In February 1965, Kouprasith Abhay, the commanding officer of Military Region 5, mounted a coup. Phoumi fled into exile. On 3 April, the US began Operation Steel Tiger over the Laotian panhandle to locate and destroy enemy forces and materiel being moved south at night into South Vietnam. By the later part of the year, this strategy had shifted to greater concentration on the border area between Laos and South Vietnam in Operation Tiger Hound.
In July 1966, RLA forces seized the Nam Bac Valley. Three infantry regiments, one independent infantry battalion and one artillery battalion took Nam Bac and established a defensive line north of Luang Prabang. On the plateau, the Pathet Lao advances were ground to a halt by air attacks on their rear supply areas and counterattacks by RLA forces. 1967 saw increases in the bombing campaign and slow advances by the communists. Laotian irregular troops continued to operate out of Nam Bac, whilst RLA troops garrisoned the area in order the secure the airstrip for their resupply. In order to destroy this threat, the PAVN dispatched the 316th Infantry Division to Laos to assault Nam Bac. The royalist garrison in the valley was soon surrounded. The RLA defenders possessed 105mm howitzers for artillery support and could call on RLAF T-28s for close air support. USAF fighter-bombers struck the communist supply lines. Communist anti-aircraft fire closed the Nam Bac airstrip to fixed wing resupply. On 25 December, a Vietnamese artillery barrage kicked off their offensive. On 13 January 1968, the Vietnamese launched a multi-divisional attack on the RLA at Nam Bac, achieving a decisive victory over the RLA and leaving only tribal irregulars responsible for the entirety of the Kingdom's defensive needs. Throughout 1968, the communists seized control of northern Laos. At the Battle of Lima Site 85, they even threatened US technical personnel, who were evacuated at the last minute, although the Hmong and Thai defenders weren't as fortunate. This marked the beginning of a dry season offensive which finally crushed the Lao Royal Government. The United States withdrew air support, redirecting USAF resources to Biafra and by March 1969, the communists were in control of the entire country with the exception of Vientiane, Luang Prabang, Tchepone and the extreme southeast of the country, besides the ROV border. In April, ROV forces crossed into Laos and drove towards Tchepone, seizing the city and cutting off the Ho Chi Minh Trail. In May, the PAVN and Pathet Lao forces managed to drive the ARVN troops out of the country, followed by the remaining royalist bastions. In June, the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR) was declared.
Viet Cong guerrilla armed with Soviet-produced RPG-2
In South Vietnam itself, the ARVN gradually developed tactics to counter the guerrilla tactics of the Viet Cong. Whilst the Viet Cong ran rampant in the early 1960s, by 1966 the Viet Cong were beginning to be pushed out of certain districts. ARVN control of the cities was essentially unchallenged, but whilst the Viet Cong remained a threat, Thai troops discovered a massive underground network of tunnels and had secured a number of intelligence documents which forced the Viet Cong to rework strategies. As concern continued to mount in Hanoi, it was eventually decided that the success of the revolution in the south depended on the involvement of the PAVN and a conventional campaign to unify the country. September 1969 saw the PAVN cross the 17th Parallel and annihilate the ARVN's advance defenses. As the PAVN advanced down the country, Bay Vien lost control of the capital to a VNQDD coup and was dragged through the streets by vengeful civilians, who tore his corpse limb-from-limb. Defeated on the front and chaotic in the capital, the Republic crumbled entirely. Viet Cong units rose up in coordinated offensives that were only barely fought off by Thai, Japanese and Malayan forces, for those same forces to be soundly defeated by People's Army of Viet Nam. Saigon fell to the communists in March.