The Programs Evaluation Office was a covert paramilitary mission to the Kingdom of Laos, established on 13 December 1955 by the United States Department of Defense.
Progress in upgrading the RLA was at a standstill; the French military mission had dwindled with their involvement in their Algerian War.
[5] The PEO's election advice to the Royal Lao Government politicians—to run a single slate of candidates to avoid splitting the votes—went unheeded.
[6] By May 1958, the U.S. Department of Defense was proposing a training mission by civilian technicians to the Royal Lao Army to retrain four of its branches—logistics, communications, ordnance, and combat engineers.
[3][7] In conjunction with the Central Intelligence Agency, PEO trained some regular Lao soldiers into Scout Ranger Teams; these would later evolve into two paratroop battalions.
He brought in a new larger PEO staff of 65 in December; most were veterans of the Third Infantry Division during World War II, as was Heintges.
Led by Arthur D. "Bull" Simons, the dozen eight-man teams were shared out three per training base at Luang Prabang, Pakse, Savannakhet, and Vientiane.
Even as the Operation Hotfoot teams began weapons training and the French military mission taught tactics, the RLA was losing a series of skirmishes in Xam Neua near the Vietnamese border.
That same month, under the codename Project Erawan, the Royal Thai Army began training 1,400 Lao recruits in guerrilla and counter-guerrilla warfare.
Filipino technicians from Eastern Construction Company (abbreviated as ECCOIL) arrived under contract to instruct the nascent Royal Lao Air Force, as well as the sailors of the Mekong River Flotilla.
[11] In November, PEO began contact with the Committee for the Defence of the National Interests, a political faction of younger Lao military officers.
Once again, the PEO carried out a civic action program meant to influence voters to support anticommunist candidates for office.
[13] Then on August 9, 1960, Phoumi’s government was removed in a lightning coup d'état by a group termed the Neutralists led by Captain Kong Le, a paratroop officer of the Royal Lao Army.
After the momentous meeting between CIA agent James William Lair and Vang Pao, the PEO was tasked with funding of the first 2,000 irregulars under Operation Momentum.
[16] In April 1961, the PEO was upgraded to a Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG), and its members were allowed to wear uniforms within Laos.
Essentially, the Hmong were becoming the Lao government's combatants, leading to unsuccessful PEO attempts to gain control over the guerrillas.