I'm taking a vacation to Laos next month. It was sort of the default destination because I couldn't think of anything more compelling.
On Monday I met up with my friend Derek, a well-travelled friend who's spent the last few years guiding tours around Indochina -- Myanamar, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. We discussed interesting things to do in Laos that would be off the normal SE Asian backpacker tour circuit.
The most interesting idea by far was a short expedition to an infamous landmark of the Secret War in Laos during the late 1960's: Phou Pha Thi, a mile high karst mountain in Northeast Laos, or as it was known to the top secret military and CIA officers who worked there, Lima Site 85.
For six months it bristled with secret radar used to ground-direct bombing raids on Hanoi, less than two hundred miles away. (the Vietnamese border is less than forty miles away). As expected, the North Vietnamese quickly moved to destroy the base. No other expectations held, however -- the Hmong, Thai, and Americans stationed there were never expected to hold the base, but the evacuation/abandonment orders were not issued in time. PAVN commandos scaled the "unclimable" walls, and in concert with artillery strikes, killed many of the technicians working there. Some managed to escape. Something like eleven men were never found (including presidential candidate Howard Dean's brother *this is not an endorsement of Howard Dean*).
To this day recriminations echo... forgotten MIAs, finger-pointing, and coverups.
Stepping clear of all that, it's got a mysterious, dramatic, adventurous element to it. I've got to think it would be a thrill to figure our way up from Vientiane to the top of this karst mountain amongst what little wreckage remains and look a bearing to Vietnam. Not more than thirty-five years ago this was an extremely secret military operation, the scene of a fierce battle, and the object of severe distress at the highest levels of North Vietnam and the United States. It would be similar to my kids visiting the cave systems of Tora Bora in 2030.
So now, starting with a crude map drawn by hand in a Thai coffee-shop over Singha beer, and my copy of Timothy Castle's meticuosly researched, "One Day Too Long" I need to figure out the logistics of getting to this place.
UPDATE Nov 17, 2003
My friend Steve sent me an article clarifying that status of Howard Dean's brother. Turns out he was a tourist, arrested by the Pathet Lao in 1974, and at some point executed by them or the Vietnamese. For unspecified reasons he is officially regarded as a Prisoner-of-War.
Posted by Nils Blutig at November 12, 2003 10:58 PM | TrackBack