MAAG G-2 Supports Defense of Ban Houei Sai (11 MAY 1962)

Photo By Lori Stewart | Richard O. Nelson upon his retirement with the rank of major on 31 January 1964. He would later become a brigadier general in the Mississippi State Guard.  

UNITED STATES

05.03.2024

Story by Lori Stewart 

U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence

by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian

MAAG G-2 SUPPORTS DEFENSE OF BAN HOUEI SAI
On 11 May 1962, Capt. Richard O. Nelson, a counterintelligence officer assigned to the G-2 Division in the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) in Laos, helped organize and encourage the Royal Lao Army (RLA) defense against an attack by the communist-backed Pathet Lao in Ban Houei Sai. His first time in combat, Nelson remained in the village for twenty-four days, often without food or sleep and commonly under enemy fire. He earned a Combat Infantryman Badge and Bronze Star for his actions during that period.

In 1954, Laos was declared an independent and neutral country. Five years later, a civil war broke out between the Royal Lao Government and the Pathet Lao, a communist-backed guerrilla force. By the end of 1960, after a series of coups and counter-coups, General Phoumi Nosavan, a career officer in the RLA, had taken control of Laos. The Pathet Lao, however, controlled large parts of the country, including the length of the Ho Chi Minh trail used by North Vietnam to supply its forces in South Vietnam. To end the civil war, Phoumi ordered several unsuccessful military operations against the communist forces. In April 1961, a ceasefire was instituted, and peace negotiations began. By January 1962, as the talks dragged on, clashes between the forces resumed in the northern provinces. The fight came to a head in May in Nam Tha, which had been besieged by communist forces since January.

A native Bostonian, Captain Nelson had arrived in Laos in September 1961 in the midst of the ceasefire. He had joined the Army Air Corps as an engineer in 1943 but did not deploy overseas. After World War II, he graduated from the counterintelligence special agent course and spent the next fifteen years as a special agent in the United States, Korea, Japan, and France. Assigned to Lt. Col. Joseph P. Garrotto’s G-2 Division in the MAAG, Nelson’s duties were numerous. He conducted intelligence briefs, compiled detailed studies on the military situation for the daily intelligence reports; maintained the War Room and Situation Map, and translated and reviewed RLA intelligence reports written in French. On his own initiative, he leveraged his French language and counterintelligence skills to develop effective contacts in other intelligence and government organizations operating in Laos.

The G-2 Division relied heavily on information provided by Special Forces “White Star” teams training the RLA. These teams’ interactions with local tribes allowed them to gather information, but their reports were often obsolete by the time they reached the G-2. Captain Nelson regularly visited the teams to expedite reporting. He became particularly concerned about the lack of reporting in May when, unbeknownst to the G-2, the Royalists were forced into a retreat after four battalions of the North Vietnamese Army, supported by Pathet Lao troops, attacked their headquarters in Nam Tha.

On 11 May, Captain Nelson and the MAAG G-3, Lt. Col. Carl W. Kappel, flew to Nam Tha to determine the cause of the breakdown in communications. Finding the area in shambles, they learned that the early morning attack five days earlier had caused the 5,000 Royalist soldiers to flee nearly eighty miles southwest to the village of Ban Houei Sai, where they crossed the Mekong River into Thailand. Arriving in Ban Houei Sai, Nelson and Kappel located twenty-four White Star team members assigned to the area. Colonel Kappel took command, and together they maneuvered the Royalists into defensive positions around the village airstrip. For eleven days, the Americans continually encouraged the Royalists to hold their positions, regrouping them time and again when they attempted to break, until the communist forces retreated from the area on 17 May.

After the battle at Nam Tha, the various factions in Laos were pressured into forming a coalition government and signing a formal neutrality declaration on 23 July 1962. The declaration was not upheld by all parties, and the United States would again find itself supporting the Laos government a year later.


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• Date Taken: 05.03.2024
• Date Posted: 05.03.2024 17:49
• Story ID: 470307
• Location: US