Phongsali Province

The location of Meng La, China, where road construction began, is approximated by the airfield marker on the left edge of the map.

The first road constructed by the Chinese was begun by 10,000 laborers in 1962, following a deteriorated route from Meng La, China to Phongsali, Laos. The 80 kilometer dirt track was completed on 25 May 1963. It was dubbed the Laotian-Chinese Friendship Highway and given to the Pathet Lao. The new road washed out in that rainy season. A repair and washout cycle followed for the next two years. The only military activity connected with this road was some training of Patriotic Neutralists officers by the Chinese army in Phongsali later, in 1965. After completion of the Friendship Highway, the Chinese did not consult the Royal Lao Government (RLG) before beginning to survey other road alignments.^[3][4][6]

At the time, the CIA was running a covert paramilitary operation from Nam Yu, Laos, somewhat southwest of this original road and near Luang Namtha. CIA sponsored Royalist guerrillas had cut the Route 32 Pathet Lao supply line between Moung Sing and Luang Namtha. The CIA thought fighting between their guerrillas and the Pathet Lao along the border may have sparked this road construction. During the dry season of the first few months of 1966, Chinese crews began constructing three more roads within Yunnan Province, but pointed towards the Laotian border. Route 411 ran southwest from Meng Mang. Route 412 stretched toward the border village of Batene. Route 4023 split from 412 with a southeasterly heading. After a rainy season break, the road crews resumed construction in late 1966, extending the three roads to the border by early 1967. Chinese porters helped restore the broken Route 32 logistics link. By late 1967, People's Liberation Army forces began making one- and two-day incursions into Laos along the border. Route 12 was now defended by 17 antiaircraft guns.^[7]

The resident CIA case officer now sent road watch teams from Nam Yu into China to spy on the construction as the work continued into 1968. The Lao loss of the Battle of Nam Bac southeast of the construction in January seemed to spur the Chinese on in their endeavors. There were now six companies of the PLA stationed within Laos. However, on 16 June 1968, road work was halted because of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. It resumed in mid-August with the arrival of a convoy of 208 trucks. By the end of August, Route 412 had been extended to join the existing Route 31. In turn, this hooked to Route 4. By mid-October there were 1,000 combat troops guarding 2,000 construction workers on Route 4; they were equipped with ten bulldozers and a steamroller. Their expressed purpose was the upgrading of Route 4 into a six meter wide extension of their road network to Moung Sai. There it would meet both Route 45 and Route 46.^[8][9]

In January 1969, the new road segment was completed to Moung Sai. The remainder of the dry season was spent by the Chinese in building a road northeastward to Moung Sai to connect with the old Route 45. By April, the rains again halted construction. Later that year, dry weather brought on a resumption of road work. The new segment to Route 45 was restarted, though at a low level of activity. The Chinese emphasis became Route 46.^[8]

Meanwhile, Route 45 had been extended to Moung Khoua on the Nam Ou; a ferry dock was built to transfer traffic across the river to Route 19, which connected to Dien Ben Phu. A battery of antiaircraft guns was installed at Muang Khoua.^[10]

South toward Thailand

The terminus of Route 46 (since renumbered as Route 2) is shown in the top middle of this map.

The old French Route 46 alignment south down the Pak Beng Valley to Pakbeng on the Mekong River ended just a short distance from the border with the Kingdom of Thailand. Improvement of this road threatened the security of Thailand. As the Thai Deputy Prime Minister stated, with only some exaggeration, "Chinese and North Vietnamese Communists...only three hours by motor vehicle drive from the border." If the news that Route 46 had reached Moung Houn by early November 1969 was not sufficiently perturbing, the movement of antiaircraft guns that far south garnered attention. In December they fired upon the unarmed Douglas C-47 of General Ouane Rattikone proving that the Chinese would ward off intrusions. The Royal Lao Government began to worry also, and King Sisavang Vatthana urged Souvanna Phouma to take military action against the construction. In mid-December, U.S. Ambassador G. McMurtrie Godley cabled for approval to take military action in the next dry season. Approval was promptly refused. However, despite Washington's refusal, Royalist guerrillas were already spying on the construction. For added expertise, a few Nationalist Chinese were lured away from the opium trade in nearby Burma to augment the road watch teams.^[11]

As 1970 began, Communist forces began to drive the Royalist guerrillas from the Pak Beng Valley all the way south to the Mekong. A couple of checkpoint posts on the Thai-Lao border were seized.^[10] Ambassador Godley cabled Washington proposing that Operation Snake Eyes become a road watch team passively gathering military intelligence before the Royalists could mount an attack. As he awaited an answer, two Royal Lao Air Force (RLAF) T-28s struck the road in early January 1970. Two Thai mercenary pilots, instigated by their government, flew out of Vientiane and struck a Chinese convoy, destroying 15 trucks. At about this time, recruitment of Commando Raiders for operations against the Chinese construction began in Luang Prabang.^[12]

One week later, Operation Snake Eyes was authorized on the proviso that Souvanna Phouma, who was a Neutralist, come out as opposed to the Chinese road construction through the Kingdom. With only an inactive skeleton crew stationed along Route 46 for the wet season, the actual launch date for the operation was postponed to six months thence. However, three platoons of guerrillas from Nam Yu were infiltrated 50 kilometers south of Luang Namtha to spy on Route 46; they were dubbed Teams 37A, 37B, and 37C.^[13]

The six month setback proved to be unfortunate timing for operations against the Chinese Road. As the postponement ended, the Cambodian incursion by the U.S. raised such international furor that Operation Snake Eyes was again ordered on hold to avoid calling attention to the U.S. covert operations in Laos.^[13]

By April 1971, Route 46 had been asphalted to Moung Houn, making it an all-weather road. During the first four months of 1971, the North Vietnamese moved in 400 antiaircraft guns along Route 46, along with 30 fire direction radars. The 400 antiaircraft guns, along with 25,000 troops, made the Chinese Road foreign aid project one of the most heavily defended spots in Southeast Asia. Thai reaction to this extension was a clearing sweep along the border called Operation Phalat.^[10] In early August, U.S. President Richard M. Nixon closed down Nam Yu's cross-border incursions and placed an 11 kilometer no-fly zone around Route 46; this was a prelude for his later trip to China. The Chinese bulldozers were cutting the last segment of Route 46 that led into Pakbeng. The town now contained a Pathet Lao base camp. As apprehension mounted about penetration to the Thai border, on 11 September the American embassy requested a U.S. Air Force strike on the Pathet Lao base camp.^[14]

The prohibition of USAF flights over Route 46 did not prevent defensive fire on civilian airplanes by Chinese antiaircraft gunners. A Royal Air Lao DC-3 and an Air America C-123 were shot down during December 1971. In January 1972, an Air America pilot lost a leg to Chinese antiaircraft fire.^[14] Beginning in March 1972, Chinese troops began filtering down Route 46. By Autumn 1972, Route 46 had been extended to within 15 kilometers of Pak Beng. Much of it was dual lane paved road. Chinese forces in Laos now totaled 25,000, including a regiment of PLA infantry regulars. By now, nervous Thai authorities stationed some of their Project Unity troops along their border south of Pakbeng. This would lead into a series of clashes that became Operation Phalat and Operation Sourisak Montry. The Thais were not only intent of defending their border; they wished to combat Thai Communist insurgents.^[15]