Patterned after prior Operation Raindance, it depended upon extensive air strikes blasting communist units and clearing them from the path of the Royalist offensive.
Powered by 150 daylight and 50 night sorties daily, with 50 to 80 day strikes directed by Raven Forward Air Controllers, Kou Kiet ran from 6 August to 30 September 1969.
After the Royal Lao Government troops achieved their objectives, General Vang Pao insisted on pushing forward while they had the initiative.
As a result, the Royalists regained control of the entire Plain of Jars while also capturing a huge stock of munitions from the communist forces.
Even though the Royalists were successful, by battle's end their forces were exhausted and the pool of potential recruits were limited, while the Vietnamese could easily replace their personnel losses.
When France withdrew most of its military in conformity with the treaty, the United States filled the vacuum with purportedly civilian paramilitary instructors.
Invading during the opium harvest season of 1953, it settled in northeastern Laos adjacent to the border of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
[2] As the Laotian Civil War flared, the Central Intelligence Agency established a secret guerrilla army in the Plain of Jars.
After the Vietnamese campaign ran its course, Vang Pao launched yet another inconclusive offensive that failed to clear the foe from the Plain of Jars, Operation Off Balance.
In late July 1969, as Off Balance was still being fought, Vang Pao plotted a diversionary attack against the PAVN's main supply road, Route 7.
[9] Suspicious of leaky security among the Royal Lao Army command, Vang Pao demanded CIA-supported guerrillas for his next offensive.
Newly arrived Ambassador G. McMurtrie Godley messaged his superiors in the U.S. State Department that the military situation on the Plain of Jars was so crucial that if fighter-bombers would not suffice for Kou Kiet, Arc Light strikes by B-52s should be considered as a followup.
Blue Battalion from Military Region 3 was coptered into Bouamlong, north of Route 7, to be joined by local Auto Defense Choc militia.
Road watch teams, plus implanted spy sensors, both reported that no trucks bearing supplies for the communists had made it down Route 7 onto the Plain of Jars since the attacks began.
On 4 September, a captured PAVN officer described his 400-man unit and six tanks as being trapped when they attempted withdrawal back along Route 7 to North Vietnam.
[9] By 5 September, the Hmong irregulars moved north onto the Plain of Jars, overrunning huge hoards of military materiel, including a fleet of PT-76 tanks.
[9] With the Plain of Jars largely under RLG control, a scratch force of seven Auto Defense Choc militia companies closed in on the PAVN troops stranded in Muang Soui.
A PAVN counterattack on an SGU fixed position at Phou Nok Kok showed that the Vietnamese were willing to take heavy casualties to attrite the dwindling guerrilla forces.
The Pathet Lao dispersed into the countryside, while the Neutralists refused combat and hastily retreated eastward to the border with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
Falling into the conquerors' hands by the end of October were 25 tanks, 113 vehicles with over 800,000 liters of fuel, more than 6,400 weapons, almost six million rounds of ammunition, and five days rations for the entire PAVN force.
[18] The loss jarred the PAVN into changing their previous tactics of stockpiling supplies close to their front line troops before an offensive.
In addition to the tremendous stores of military materiel captured by the RLG, 20,000 inhabitants of the Plain were removed, depriving the communists of porters to move their supplies.
As a result, U.S. Air Force pilots could not drop mines to seal off the Vietnamese incursions due to the presence of friendly troops.
[20] Even as Kou Kiet was grinding to its finish, General Võ Nguyên Giáp issued orders on 13 September for an upcoming PAVN dry season attack in Military Region 2, dubbed Campaign 139.
[23] The Pathet Lao communists held rural territory largely barren of population for replacements; their forces had dwindled to battalions of about 150 men.
The PAVN attacked Phou Nok Kok's 600 man garrison throughout December, suffering an estimated 400 killed in action and 1,000 wounded, mostly inflicted by close air support.
On 12 January 1970, after a six-week defense that cost the PAVN about 600 killed, and despite the initial use of RLAF AC-47 gunships for support, the Hmong guerrillas withdrew from the stronghold.