Operation Black Lion V
| Operation Black Lion V | |||||||||
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| Part of Laotian Civil War; Vietnam War | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Kingdom of LaosSupported by  United States Thailand
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 North Vietnam Pathet Lao
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| Units involved | |||||||||
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Mobile Group 33 Mobile Group 401 MR 4 Special Battalion |
9th Regiment Dac Cong sappers |
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Operation Black Lion V (21 November 1972–22 February 1973) was the final Royal Lao Government offensive of the Laotian Civil War. Launched as a followup to Operation Black Lion and Operation Black Lion III, it too was aimed at regaining control of the Bolovens Plateau, which overlooked the Ho Chi Minh trail. This last assault took the town of Paksong on the plateau on 6 December 1972 and held it until a ceasefire took effect at midday on 22 February 1973. A People's Army of Vietnam attack began at 12:05 the same day and overran Paksong by dark.
The crucial Ho Chi Minh Trail was central to the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) strategy for beating the Republic of Vietnam during the Second Indochina War. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam's victory depended on the Trail's supply line, located in the Kingdom of Laos. Ongoing air and ground campaigns sponsored by the United States seeking to sever the Trail had no lasting effect on Communist logistics efforts.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) instigated a number of guerrilla operations against the Trail. The enormous South Vietnamese attack of 18 February 1971 proved insufficient to sever the Trail. Despite these failures, the CIA continued its attempted offensives to disrupt the Trail's activities. Among the latter operations were three similarly named offensives: Operation Black Lion, Operation Black Lion III, and Operation Black Lion V.
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