PMCI
BOOK REVIEW
BATTLE FOR SKYLINE RIDGE:
THE CIA SECRET WAR IN LAOS
If you have an interest in operations where “the little guy triumphs
against the odds” then this compelling book should definitely be
on your reading list! In late 1971, the People’s Army of Vietnam
launched “Campaign Z” into northern Laos, escalating the war in
Laos with the aim of defeating the last Royal Lao Army troops. The
PAVN troops numbered 27,000 and brought with them 130mm
field guns and T-34 tanks, while the North Vietnamese air force
launched MiG-21s into Lao air space.
General Giap’s specific orders to this task force were to kill the
CIA army under command of the Hmong war lord Vang Pao and
occupy its field headquarters in the Long Tieng valley of northeast
Laos. They faced the rag-tag army of Vang Pao, fewer than 6,000
strong and mostly Thai irregulars. In 1970 the Thai army recruited
young Thai men to fight for the CIA in Laos, and by the time the
PAVN launched their first attack, 4,000 “Tahan Sua Pran” had
been recruited, armed, trained and rushed in position in Laos
to defend against the impending invasion. They reinforced Vang
Pao’s indigenous army of 1,800 Lao hill-tribe guerrillas.
Despite the odds being overwhelmingly in the PAVN’s favour,
the battle did not go to plan. It raged for more than 100 days, the
longest in the Vietnam War, and it all came down to Skyline Ridge.
As at Dien Bien Phu, whoever won Skyline, won Laos. Against all
odds, against all expectations, the PAVN lost, their 27,000-man
invasion force routed.
James Parker served in Laos and has been trying to tell this
story for years; finally he was able to piece together his own
knowledge with CIA files and North Vietnamese after-action
reports so that now the full story of the battle of Skyline Ridge
can be told. This book is somewhat different to most as it quotes
comprehensively from PAVN notes and after-action reports
published in Hanoi after the war. This draws you in with a view
into what the “other side” had to say about the events portrayed,
and sheds a fresh light on the battle.
James E. Parker was one of the first American soldiers into
Vietnam, and he was the last to leave in 1975. In between
he married, graduated UNC and joined the CIA. His first CIA
assignment was upcountry Laos where he led Hmong hill-tribe
guerrillas against two divisions of North Vietnamese soldiers.
After paramilitary work in Laos/Vietnam, Parker went on to
serve undercover in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, retiring
in 1992. His books included Last Man Out: A Personal Account of
the Vietnam War, and Covert Ops: The CIA’s Secret War in Laos.
James spent years researching the battle of Skyline Ridge and
working on this book; he sadly died while it was in production.
Hardback: 288 pages
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1612007058
ISBN-13: 978-1612007052