Overrun and scattered while suffering serious casualties, the Groupement Mobile 30 irregular regiment of Silver Buckle had tied up at least six PAVN battalions, preventing them from opposing Lam Son 719.

"In short, the North Vietnamese campaign to overthrow the government at Saigon and establish a unified, Communist Vietnam ruled from Hanoi depended on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

[3] Operation Silver Buckle was the first Royal Lao Government test of organizing its CIA sponsored guerrilla battalions in MR3 into regiment-sized units called Groupements Mobile (GM).

[6] On 12 January 1971, helicopters escorted by A-1 Skyraiders set the 1,100 troops of Groupement Mobile 30 (GM 30) on a hilltop near the vital PAVN line of communication, Route 92.

Two battalions moved northeastward 20 kilometers toward a village on the edge of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, Muong Nong.

[9] In a rare show of inter-theater cooperation, MACV-SOG landed four of their long-range reconnaissance patrols from South Vietnam on the northern fringe of Tchepone as a diversion, also on 5 January.

Additionally, from 12 to 17 January, MACV-SOG staged diversions south of Tchepone by faked recon team insertions and resupply drops at 11 locations.

Two companies from GM 30 sallied into this communist concentration of 50,000 enemy troops, laying mines, calling in air support, and ambushing PAVN trucks.

On the night of 9 February, two PAVN infantry regiments backed by tanks, antiaircraft guns, and artillery overran the vastly outnumbered Royalists at Moung Nong.

There was still opportunity for a diversion from the Laotian side of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, such as the upcoming Operation Desert Rat.