Also, the Programs Evaluation Office in the American embassy gained an aerial delivery section; this was the beginning of extensive air operations in Laos.
As the First Indochina War ended in French defeat, the 1954 Geneva Conference agreed on neutrality for the newly independent Kingdom of Laos.
It spent $1.4 million on such civic action projects as schools, administrative training, farming, and public health, and about four times that in military aid.
Prince Phetsarath Ratanavongsa blamed Americans for inflation of the Lao kip, as well as causing governmental fraud.
Worried that the non-communists who were favored by America were going to do poorly, Parsons began a crash rural aid program; he named it Booster Shot.
In contrast to the usual low-key approach that allowed credit for the aid to redound to host government, Booster Shot was high-profile.
Some of their aircraft were coming due for maintenance; two were scheduled for immediate care in Japan after returning from the planned week's exercise.
To disguise the fact they were U.S. Air Force members illicitly in country, the airmen donned civilian clothing.
Military ranks were dropped as a salutation; thus began a custom that lasted as long as the Air Force was secretly involved in Laos.
[12] While Ambassador Smith predicted the leftists would win only three or four seats,[13] communist propaganda took credit for the Booster Shot air drops.
It was claimed that heavy equipment and supplies dropped in northern Laos were actually aid from the Chinese communist neighbors.
"[16] In the event, there were miscues, such as parachuting leather shoes into trackless areas that spent months muddied by the rainy season.
[12][15][17] In reaction, entrenched right wing politicians formed the Comité pour la défense des intérêts nationaux to counter the communists.
[18] The efficacy of aerial resupply operations in Laos having been proven, a six-man support section was set up in the embassy's Programs Evaluation Office on 16 October 1958 to manage further airlifts.