Having drawn 11 of the 22 attacking Communist battalions back into their own rear area, the Royalists withdrew after suffering light casualties.

The armchair generals believed that Vang Pao's irregulars should hold a defensive line shielding Long Tieng, forcing the Communists to congregate into masses that could be struck by bombing.

[5] The touted Washington plan ignored the fact that Communist troops had long since learned not to mass where they could be struck by tactical air power.

Current communist tactics saw them dispersed around the Royalist positions and concentrating their fire on a strongpoint, converging for assaults at the last moment.

The southern pincer set off from Ban Pa Dong and Pha Khao as a diversion to the ongoing Campaign Z, moving north against little opposition.

They established an ad hoc fire base of heavy weapons on the mountaintop, and posted a security unit from GM 31 to guard it.

To begin Operation Moonmark, the CIA arranged for the U.S. Air Force to use one of its C-130 Hercules to drop a BLU-82 bomb to blast a helicopter landing zone (HLZ).

For the next week, Air America Twin Otters overflew the phony HLZ dropping bogus parachutes and broadcasting helicopter racket.

By 2 March, all the Royalist forces were withdrawing, having drawn 11 battalions of PAVN troops backward from the Long Tieng front.

[9] Despite the distractions of Operation Strength in their rear, the North Vietnamese still had portions of six combat-ready regiments from two divisions in offensive positions southwest of the Plain of Jars.

Both divisional headquarters had been moved forward; the Communists set up the Front 74B command post northeast of Long Tieng to manage them.

[8] At about this time, the PAVN finished constructing a new infiltration road, Route 54; they began to move infantry and artillery toward Sam Thong.

After dividing the Thai mercenary garrison with their initial assault, the Communists circled west under cover of darkness while firing a variety of heavy weapons at the Royalist position.

PAVN gunners set up a DK-82 recoilless rifle on the eastern end of Skyline Ridge and took Vang Pao's house and the 20 Alternate airstrip under fire.

[10] On 17 March, as BC 610A and the 141st PAVN Regiment exchanged heavy weapons fire, five Communist T-34 tanks and four armored personnel carriers burst onto the Sam Thong airstrip.

Dodging artillery fire being called in by a Raven Forward Air Controller overhead, the T-34's overwhelmed the Royalists' inadequate anti-tank defenses.

As BC 610A retreated, the Communists turned captured howitzers on Skyline Ridge despite being struck by four flights of tactical air.