Project Copper

Air operations Project Copper was a coordinated military action undertaken by the Kingdom of Laos and the Khmer Republic from 1 January–May 1971.

Committed to battle in southern Laos on 1 January 1971, one battalion deserted the battlefield, a second one mutinied during training, and a third had to be repurposed after suffering 80 casualties.

Located in the southern panhandle of the territory of the Kingdom of Laos, the Ho Chi Minh Trail was the logistics backbone of the communist forces during the Second Indochina War, as it was the main supply route for Viet Cong and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) forces fighting in South Vietnam.

The Royal Lao Government (RLG) commander of MR 4 and the communist interlopers from the Trails shared a truce by gentleman's agreement.

As a counter to this supply effort, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sponsored guerrilla unit raids by hill tribesmen in MR 4; from 21–26 June 1969, they cut the Sihanouk Trail for three days during Operation Left Jab.

[9] In May, a RLG delegation led by Prince Boun Oum offered Lon Nol the opportunity to station Khmer troops in southern Laos and fight the communists there instead of in Cambodia.

Colonel Hatsaty Sinsay, the Royal Lao Army (RLA) commander of Military Region 4, had trained in Phnom Penh in 1960.

When Cambodian Lieutenant Colonel Lim Sisaath visited the Khong Island headquarters of Sinsay during Summer 1970, the two became friends.

The recruits were transported to Pakse Site 18 to be secretively trained by a couple of CIA case officers and six Khmer veteran sergeants of the South Vietnamese Army.

On 1 January 1971, the 470 Khmer soldiers of the first battalion were helilifted 38 kilometers southeast to occupy an abandoned outpost at Pakse Strip 43 (PS 43).

By the time the second trained battalion joined them a fortnight later, the Khmer had suffered their first two killed in action during some skirmishes and were having second thoughts about soldiering.

Lon Non forwarded three Khmer National Armed Forces (FANK) officers to take charge of Project Copper.