Memorandum #6
Date: 24 January 1996
To: Al Santoli, Dino Carluccio, Bill Bell
From: Jay Veith
re: The Debacle of Phou Pha Thi: Laos, 1977
Per your request, here is what I have found on the loss of the
U.S. Air Force TACAN/TSQ base, called Lima Site 85, on Phou Pha Thi
mountain in Houa Phan Province, Laos. As you know, in the early
hours of 11 March 1968, a North Vietnamese sapper unit scaled the
sheer northwest cliff of the mountain and overran the American
installation, killing most of the U.S. technicians working there.
Five American survivors were helicoptered off the next morning.
Accounting for the 11 Americans lost when Pha Thi fell has been a
nightmare. The U.S. government in the last two years has attempted
to solve the problem by interviewing the commander of the PAVN sapper
unit that attacked Site 85, LTC Truong Muc, (see CDR JTF-FA message
dated 250902Z Oct 94 to SECDEF entitled, "Interview of LTC Truong
Muc, Leader of Attack on Lima Site 85 - Case 2052.") and JTF-FA has
conducted two excavations at Site 85. The first excavation was 18-20
Mar 94, (see Amembassy Vientiane message 070200Z Apr 94, "Summary
Report of Joint U.S.-Lao Joint Field Activity 94-4L, 9 Mar-4 Apr
1994." This is actually a JTF-FA document, and is available from
them.) and it resulted in the infamous NBC TV production. The second
one involved having LTC Muc come to the location in December 1994 to
actually point out the positions of where his men buried the American
bodies. Yet, the JTF-FA has been unable to discover any American
remains on the mountain top, even given the rocky terrain and thin
soil.
Interrogation reports from the war indicated one American may have
been captured during the attack. Also, one of the most intriguing
pieces of information in recent years was an interview in August 1990
with Pathet Lao General Singkapo, former Pathet Lao M.R. 2 commander.
Although not considered among the top five Pathet Lao leaders,
Singkapo nonetheless was a senior Pathet Lao figure, and certainly
was in a position to possess detailed knowledge of the incident.
Singkapo related that three wounded Americans were removed from the
TACAN site after the battle. (See Dr. Timothy Castle's book, "At War
in the Shadow of Vietnam: U.S. Military aid to the Royal Lao
Government 1955-1975," p. 97.)
Given the notoriety of the case, and assuming that JTF-FA claims
of Lao cooperation as outstanding are indeed correct, one would
reasonably expect that if the Lao or Vietnamese governments had
recovered any American remains from Site 85, they would have returned
them to U.S. control. Yet, I found SIGINT evidence of Lao government
involvement in concealing evidence from Pha Thi that would answer
some of the questions regarding the men at Site 85.
An NSA intercept dated 092128Z Jun 77, which is a Follow-up One to
another message dated 071949Z Jun 77, is entitled, "LPLA to Recover
[NOTE: BLANK AREAS WERE REDACTED] 1
M = 209
1880339 R 062127Z JUL 77 FM TO
[STRUCK] SECRET
FOLLOW UP TWO TO 071949Z JUN 77
LAOS REMAINS OF AMERCIAN WAR DEAD
LAOTIAN OFFICIALS HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR AMERICAN WAR DEAD SOMEWHAT
EARLIER THAN ORIGINALLY THOUGHT, AS RECENTLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION REVEALS
THE SEARCH WAS ONGOING IN APRIL AND MAY RATHER THAN EARLY JUNE.
IN XIENG KHOANG PROVINCE ONE.
INDIVIDUAL TO SEARCH THE PROVINCE FOR GRAVES OF AMERICANS.
PURSUANT TO AN AGREEMENT REACHED BY THE LAO PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC
REPUBLIC (LPDR) THE
REMAINS OF SOME AMERICAN WAR DEAD HAD BEEN TAKEN TO OFFICE 208
SOMEWHERE IN HOUA
PHAN PROVINCE. AUTHORITIES
IN VIENG SAI (20224N 10412E VH1955) TO INVESTIGATE THE LOCATION OF THE
REMAINS. FINDING THE REMAINS OF ONE
AMERICAN AND HAVING MOVED THE BODY NEITHER THE NAME NOR
THE LOCATION
SEARCH HAD NOT UNCOVERED ANY ADDITIONAL REMAINS.
AMERICANS KILLED IN THE
AREA OF PHOU PHA THI, HOAU PHAH PROVINCE. (B)
LAOS AGREED TO ACCOUNT FOR AMERICAN SERVICEMEN MISSING IN THE INDOCHINA WAS AND HAD EXTABLISHED A "COMMITTEE" TO SEARCH FOR INFORMATION. (B) 071949Z JUN 77, 092128Z JUN 77.
[STRUCK] TOP SECRET
American Remains in Phou Pha Thi area." The message states "LPLA
Company 18 has probably (remember NSA Technical Instructions
preventing fact statements in messages) been assigned the task of
recovering the remains of American personnel killed in the Phou Pha
Thi area of Houa Phan Province in Northern Laos. (Blank) an
unspecified contingent would arrive to retrieve American remains and
wreckage ..." My copy is very faint, so I didn't fax it.
A Follow-up Two was issued in July. Please see my page labeled 1.
NSA continued to monitor Lao activity in recovering American remains.
What I have not found is the original message, dated 071949Z Jun 77.
(I'm not entirely convinced these messages are NSA work. They may be
either Third-Party intercepts, i.e. the Thai, or may be CIA
intercepts.)
I also searched for any Collateral. While I didn't find anything
directly related, I did find a CIA message that, because of the
closeness of the dates, I found very interesting. Please see pages
labeled 2 and 3. I didn't fax the entire message. There is an
[NOTE: BLANK AREAS WERE REDACTED BETWEEN {}. LETTERS WITHIN {} WERE
HANDWRITTEN IN MAGIC MARKER ON THE ORIGINAL PAGE]
{I} DATE 20 JUNE 1977
IN 319123
INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION CABLE PAGE 1 OF 4 PAGES
{I} {I}
DISSEMINATION AND EXTRACTION OF INFORMATION CONTROLLED BY ORIGINATOR
DISTRIBUTION TO: SDO
{I}
{I}
COUNTRY LAOS/SRV
DOI {B}
SUBJECT RECORDS MAINTAINED BY A SENIOR LAO GOVERNMENT
AND COMMUNIST PARTY OFFICIAL LISTING AMERICAN
MIA FROM THE WAR IN LAOS
ACQ {E}
{D}
SOURCE
{B}
{I}
IN 319123
{D}
{I} PAGE 2 OF 4 PAGES
{I}
1. {B}
LPDR MINISTER OF NATIONAL
DEFENSE K H A M A T A I SIPHANDON MAINTAINS IN {B}
THE MINISTRY A CENTRAL AND HIGHLY CLASSIFIED RECORD OF AMERICAN
PILOTS CAPTURED BY LAO AND VIETNAMESE COMMUNIST FORCES DURING
THE WAR IN LAOS. THIS RECORD ALSO PROVIDES {B}
DETAILS ON THE DISPATCH OF CAPTURED PILOTS TO PRISONER OF WAR
(POW) CAMPS AT SEVERAL LOCATIONS IN THE NORTHERN SECTOR OF THE
SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM (srv) INCLUDING THE SON TAY CAMP.
THIS RECORD HAD BEEN KEPT FROM THE {B}
OUTSET OF THE WAR, AND PREVIOUSLY HELD IN SAFEKEEPING AT
KHAMTAI'S FORMER MILITARY HEADQUARTERS IN SAM NEUA.
{B}
{B} 2. REMARKED THAT IT IS UNLIKELY THAT COMPLETE
{I}
additional report dealing with alleged Vietnamese seizure of Lao
POW/MIA records dated 181632Z Sept 87.
Finally, I discovered a letter apparently from NSA to DIA
responding to a request for NSA records on Phou Pha Thi. Please see
page labeled 4. Given the date, October 1994, and the mention of "3
[NOTE: BLANK AREAS WERE REDACTED] 4
*************************** ******************* INFO ******************
******************* SUBJECT ***************
RESPONSE TO RFI ON POW-MIA REQUIREMENT
R 170156Z NOV 90
FM TO
[STRUCK] SECRET
SUBJ: RESPONSE TO RFI ON POW-MIA REQUIREMENT REF: POW-MIA RFI, 152000Z OCT 90 1. A SEARCH OF OUR RECORDS PROVIDED 27 REPORTS CONCERNING LIMA SITE 85 AT PHOU PHA THI, LAOS. 2.
INITIAL ENEMY FORCES MOVEMENTS TOWARDS PHA THI AND THE SURROUNDING
AREA, THE ATTACK ON PHA THI AND OTHER LIMA SITES (107, 111, 185,
A95) THE CAPTURE OF THE PHA THI RADAR STATION AND THE OVERRUN OF
BASE OPERATIONS. 14 AND 16 MARCH
PHA THI WAS TAKEN BY THE ENEMY AT 1000 GULF
(1700Z) WITH FRIENDLY LOSSES AS 30 KIA AND 50 WIA. NO
INFORMATION THAT THREE AMERICANS WERE CAPTURED. LAOTIAN DISSIDENT
20 MARCH 1968 INFORMATION THAT 30 AMERICANS
(NFI) WERE KILLED AT PHA THI. THIS WAS NOT CORROBORATED BY ANY OTHER
SOURCE.
3. PLEASE ADVISE IF ANY FURTHER ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED.
DECL: OADR
++++
CONCUR:
NNNN
PAGE:1 SMP505
*************************
[STRUCK] * SECRET *
*************************
************
* OUTGOING *
************
Americans," I believe this was probably in response to Dr. Castle's
interview with Gen. Singkapo. The important point is that NSA
discovered 27 messages dealing with Site 85. I have only seen
several wartime reports on the rolls. Where are the rest? Mooney
possesses limited knowledge on the battle, but Minarcin remembers
several SIGINT wrap-ups on the fall of Site 85. My recommendation
would be to ask for the original NSA message, plus the unredacted
versions of Follow-up 1 and 2, the 27 reports mentioned in the
letter, and to look at the CIA report for the source information.
If these messages are true, then they deeply question
Lao/Vietnamese cooperation on the POW/MIA issue. LTC Muc's interview
could easily have been orchestrated, especially given the fact that
the Vietnamese already possessed the formally Top-Secret "Project
CHECO" report on the fall of Site 85 prior to the interview. If the
Lao recovered American remains from Site 85 in 1977, why would they
hide them?
Here's one potential scenario. By providing witnesses to the
attack, and allowing the JTF-FA access to the site, both the Lao and
the Vietnamese can claim cooperation, with all signs pointing to the
Americans being dead. Without the actual remains, the true outcome
stays a mystery. This way, if we can't find the bodies, well they
must have been destroyed in the aerial assault, or blown off the
cliff. Yet, if the Americans had gone to Site 85 and only found 8
bodies out of the 11 missing, hard questions might be raised
concerning cooperation and live prisoners. Who knows how many
remains the Lao recovered on the mountain. But I'm sure that the Lao
and Vietnamese aren't storing remains. Aren't you?