[1] During the Laotian Civil War, the Royal Lao Army in Military Region 4 of Laos chose a policy of minimal aggression toward the communist troops shielding the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the eastward reaches of the MR.[2] Laotian General Phasouk Somly Rasphakdi, who commanded MR 4, began investigating possibilities for a civic action program in Wapikhamthong Province as early as 1963.
The new ADC would be used to link up zones of Royal Lao Government influence and to safeguard the villages within them, similar to the Strategic Hamlet Program in Vietnam.
By mid-1964, the pilot project in MR 4 at Houei Kong was the only one prospering, due to its unitary command and security from the 400 remaining militia from Operation Pincushion.
At the same time, overall security in MR 4 was diminished when an 1,800 man regiment of regulars was transferred out to join Operation Triangle on the Plain of Jars in Military Region 2.
[2][4] The transformation of Mu Ban Samaki into the Wapi Project was based on explicitly linking the newly offered civic services to a militia effort to defend them.
[9] However, he did manage to evade joining the CIA's nascent road watch program, fearing the distraction from the Wapi Project.
[5] In March 1968, Pathet Lao troops moved in to commandeer the rice harvest in the old Project Wapi area.