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Battle for Skyline Ridge: The CIA Secret War in Laos
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 NVA 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.
By the time the NVA 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 NVA invasion. They reinforced Vang Pao's indigenous army of 1,800 Lao hillstribe guerrillas.
Despite the odds being overwhelmingly in the NVA's favor, 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 WDC expectations, the NVA lost, their 27,000-man invasion force decimated.
James Parker served in Laos and has been trying to tell this story for years, finally he has been 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.
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.
By the time the NVA 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 NVA invasion. They reinforced Vang Pao's indigenous army of 1,800 Lao hillstribe guerrillas.
Despite the odds being overwhelmingly in the NVA's favor, 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 WDC expectations, the NVA lost, their 27,000-man invasion force decimated.
James Parker served in Laos and has been trying to tell this story for years, finally he has been 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.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published August 19, 2019
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77 people want to read
About the author
James E. Parker Jr.
10 books1 followerWhen the author was 15 years old he ran away from home, ending up in Havana, Cuba. His parents were not amused and not long after he returned he was enrolled in the Oak Ridge Military Academy for an attitude adjustment. There he learned discipline but he was still driven by a ramblin', rambunctious curiosity; summers he worked as a Myrtle Beach life guard. He went on to UNC/Chapel Hill, played lacrosse, flunked out, went with a couple of buddies down to Managua, Nicaragua but was chased out by what would become the Sandinistas. He flew to Florida, worked at a Miami hotel, returned to college for one more semester before dropping out to join the US Army.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 11, 2020
Very interesting. The degree of Thai irregular military involvement and effectiveness in Laos is described in detail and will be new information for many readers.
September 24, 2024
James Parker Jr. has written a straightforward and highly detailed account of the Battle of Skyline Ridge in which invading North Vietnamese soldiers fought a combined force of Laotian soldiers, White Hmong militia, Thai irregular soldiers, and US CIA advisers and air power.
While I'm typically enthusiastic in listening to military histories, I just found this particular volume dense and unengaging. The density of unit details and acronyms reminds me of Case Red, a book on the fall of France to Germany's invasion in WW2, which was written as if it was a textbook. I find the same issue here. However I found the narrative of the German army's advance more compelling than the NVA's advance through the Plain of Jars up to Long Tien and Skyline Ridge. Perhaps this is because I am more familiar with WW2 history. Perhaps its because I was severely uninformed about Laotian geography, which (same as Case Red) I had to look up a map to try and get a sense of the geography of the battle.
Any engaging narrative of the CIA case officers or Hmong leaders or Vietnamese commanders was buried under the mission rotation of the CIA or the constant barrage of dates, times, military material statistics, and movements across numerous small village and towns. Those town names might make up the majority of words in this book, thus if you don't know Laotian geography, you may get lost literally and figuratively.
It's quite disappointing because underneath the detail and after-action report style writing is a truly compelling military history in which the CIA helped Laotian and Thai forces repel an invading North Vietnamese Army to great effect using air superiority, terrain knowledge, and fighting spirit of the people defending their home. The outcome of the battle was a victory for the allied forces and a repelling of the invading communists, which was certainly a bloody nose that must have stung even more since the NVA and Vietcong were working miracles against US conventional and South Vietnam forces during the Vietnam War in that same time period.
A limited recommend for those who are particularly interested in CIA history, Vietnam War history, or those who have a particular interest in Laos and its history and geography.
While I'm typically enthusiastic in listening to military histories, I just found this particular volume dense and unengaging. The density of unit details and acronyms reminds me of Case Red, a book on the fall of France to Germany's invasion in WW2, which was written as if it was a textbook. I find the same issue here. However I found the narrative of the German army's advance more compelling than the NVA's advance through the Plain of Jars up to Long Tien and Skyline Ridge. Perhaps this is because I am more familiar with WW2 history. Perhaps its because I was severely uninformed about Laotian geography, which (same as Case Red) I had to look up a map to try and get a sense of the geography of the battle.
Any engaging narrative of the CIA case officers or Hmong leaders or Vietnamese commanders was buried under the mission rotation of the CIA or the constant barrage of dates, times, military material statistics, and movements across numerous small village and towns. Those town names might make up the majority of words in this book, thus if you don't know Laotian geography, you may get lost literally and figuratively.
It's quite disappointing because underneath the detail and after-action report style writing is a truly compelling military history in which the CIA helped Laotian and Thai forces repel an invading North Vietnamese Army to great effect using air superiority, terrain knowledge, and fighting spirit of the people defending their home. The outcome of the battle was a victory for the allied forces and a repelling of the invading communists, which was certainly a bloody nose that must have stung even more since the NVA and Vietcong were working miracles against US conventional and South Vietnam forces during the Vietnam War in that same time period.
A limited recommend for those who are particularly interested in CIA history, Vietnam War history, or those who have a particular interest in Laos and its history and geography.
December 6, 2021
I learned so much about what my mission in northern Thailand was about during the Vietnam War. We worked so hard at Udorn and NKP with very little information about what we were doing and feedback on the results. Thank you James Parker.
July 9, 2025
Great story about a unknown war.
The story was great. Lots of detail about a secret war that won then lost. It was hard to keep up with all the code names and the locations. The maps were not real clear and could have been expanded on and more detailed.
The story was great. Lots of detail about a secret war that won then lost. It was hard to keep up with all the code names and the locations. The maps were not real clear and could have been expanded on and more detailed.
July 7, 2022
Stop using Wikipedia as a source.
October 16, 2023
You couldn’t really call this a scholarly work of history but it was decent in that explained a piece of microhistory in Laos.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews