Phou Khao Kham

Phou Khao Kham (Gold Mountain), (5 August – 25 September 1971) was a Royal Lao Government military offensive operation of the Laotian Civil War designed to clear Communist forces off Routes 13 and 7 north of the administrative capital of Vientiane. Its end objective was the capture of the forward fighter base at Muang Soui on the Plain of Jars. Although it succeeded in taking the air base, it failed to remove a concentration of Communist troops at the Sala Phou Khoun intersection of Routes 7 and 13.

The French loss of the First Indochina War led to the establishment of the independent Kingdom of Laos by the 1954 Geneva Agreements. While Laotian neutrality called for a ban on foreign military forces save for a French advisory mission. However, North Vietnamese troops had settled in northeastern Laos to support a Lao communist insurrection. The Laotian Civil War was the result.

Although the administrative capital of Vientiane had suffered through the Battle of Vientiane and several subsequent coups, there had been only one early military operation in Military Region 5—Operation Triangle in July 1964. However, beginning 5 August 1971, there would be another.

The new offensive, code named Phou Khao Khouai ("White Buffalo Mountain") began at Moung Kassy on Route 13 on 5 August 1971, on the sole road between Vientiane and Luang Prabang. Two Royalist battalions, Bataillon Commando 206 (BC 206), and Bataillon Infanterie 6 were detailed for the attack, along with a commando company from the Military Region 5 Commandos. Their objective was a highway sweep north on Route 13, leading to capture of the forward fighter base at Muang Soui on the branching Route 7.

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