136. Memorandum From the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Lemnitzer) to President Kennedy0
CM–277–61
Washington, July 17,
1961.
SUBJECT
- Capabilities of the Lao Army
In response to your memorandum of July 10, 1961,1 the following additional information is provided on measures being taken to improve the capabilities of the Lao Army:
- (1)
- Officer and noncommissioned officer training is being pushed hard. Continuing pressure has resulted in some progress, although the over-all problem remains a very difficult one in the absence of a clear appreciation by the Laotians of the problems they face. A unit level, on-site training program was established a month ago. It includes officer and NCO instruction stressing leadership, aggressive patrolling, and general offensive and defensive tactics. An NCO school, presenting a six months’ course of instruction, is currently in session at Pakse. A military intelligence course, approved by General Phoumi, began early this month for sixty selected company grade officers. This course covers combat intelligence, counterintelligence, psychological warfare, and aerial and ground reconnaissance. We are further examining ways and means to cause the Laotians to expand and expedite their officer and NCO training programs, fully recognizing the importance of such training and the length of time it takes to achieve meaningful results.
- (2)
- With regard to the emergence requisition of certain critical items, Admiral Felt is personally acting on such requests, and has reiterated his assurance to me that actions taken by the Service Departments in response to his requests are invariably cooperative and expeditious. For example, six floating bridge raft sections and ferry conversion sets are being airlifted direct to Vientiane in response to just such an emergency request. To expedite delivery of the more common items, a thirty-day stock has been established in Thailand subject to the control of Chief MAAG, Laos.
- (3)
- The “poor to fair condition” of equipment in Laos relates directly to the training situation. The French made no effort to provide technical training in maintenance. The U.S. technical training effort to fill that void has not yet had time to make its impact felt. Initially, U.S. and Filipino technicians had to be used to perform maintenance instead of carrying out their training mission, which is their primary responsibility. A concerted effort is now being made to carry out a vigorous maintenance training program, and the condition of equipment is expected to improve. We have informed CINCPAC and Chief MAAG, Laos that we are prepared to augment the number of maintenance training personnel now in Laos to the extent they can be usefully utilized there.
L.L.
Lemnitzer
- Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Countries Series, Laos: General, 7/61. Secret.↩
- Document 133.↩