Operation Thao La

Operation Thao La (21 November–16 December 1971) was a Royal Lao Government (RLG) dry season offensive during the Laotian Civil War, aimed at severing the Ho Chi Minh Trail and retrieving the Lao Bolaven Plateau from the grip of the People's Army of Vietnam. Its objectives were the use of recently captured Salavan as a jumpoff point for occupying Tha Theng and Ban Phong. Key to the plan was a prearranged daily allotment of supportive tactical air power.

In the event, the Royalists captured their two objectives. However, they lost both Salavan and Paksong to the North Vietnamese; they also failed to find the Communist transshipment point whose conquest would have interdicted the Trail.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail was central to the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) strategy for the conquest of South Vietnam during the Second Indochina War. When a series of nine CIA-sponsored incursions from Military Region 3 (MR 3) and Military Region 4 (MR 4) of the southern panhandle of the Kingdom of Laos during 1969 and 1970 failed to interdict the Trail, the massive Operation Lam Son 719 was staged on 8 February 1971 to cut it. In the wake of this failure, CIA backed Laotian guerrillas and Royal Lao Government military irregulars made further attempts at severing the logistical lines of communication.

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