Directorate of National Coordination

The Directorate of National Coordination was formed by consolidation of all Laotian police forces into a single paramilitary regiment. Based on two special battalions raised by Siho Lamphouthacoul while Kong Le's coup ruled the Kingdom of Laos, they would later have the national and military police merged into the DNC in March 1961. The DNC gained a reputation for both corruption in police duties and military ability as commandos. The latter ability came into play when Siho used the DNC for his short-lived coup of 18 April 1964. Renamed the Frontier Police, the DNC would carry on a low-level struggle with the Royal Lao Army for control of the Vientiane vice trade until 3 February 1965. RLA efforts to defeat the 1965 Laotian coups would be extended to include the defeat of the Frontier Police, and Siho's subsequent exile. The police unit was then disbanded, with some policemen being co-opted into an airborne regiment.

History

Origin within a coup

The Directorate of National Coordination was the consolidated police force of the Kingdom of Laos. It began with the appointment of Siho Lamphouthacoul as Director of National Coordination by Phoumi Nosavan while the latter was Defense Minister of Laos.[1] Exact date of this appointment is uncertain, but it took place in late 1958 or 1959.[2] When Phoumi was deposed by Captain Kong Le's coup in August 1960, it seems not to have curtailed the growth of the Directorate of National Coordination. Two battalions of DNC police were raised and trained to paramilitary standards. They were designated as Bataillon Special 11 (Special Battalion 11) and Bataillon Special 33 (Special Battalion 33). The two new units were gathered into an understrength Groupement Mobile Special 1 (Special Mobile Group 1).[3] They were outfitted in uniforms distinctively different from the rest of the Royal Lao Armed Forces. In one source, the garb is described as black; in another, as dark blue. They also wore black berets, in emulation of the elite Thai Police Aerial Reinforcement Unit. They were the first unit in the Royal Lao Armed Forces to be armed with the American M-2 carbine, making them the best equipped in the Lao military. The new unit served principally as Siho's bodyguards. Among the populace, they had a reputation for corruption.[4][5] One source refers to them as "gangsters" involved in prostitution, gambling, extortion, sabotage, kidnapping, torture, and political repression.[6]

Phoumi's counter-coup

GMS 1 joined Phoumi's countercoup forces rallying in Savannakhet. On 22 November 1960, when General Phoumi ordered the assault on the capital of Vientiane, the police unit boarded landing craft to be transported up the Mekong River as part of the countercoup effort.[7] When Phoumi's forces finally attacked Vientiane, Siho and his men were there in the vanguard.[5] On the final day of the Battle of Vientiane, December 16, Siho's police captured the runway at Wattay Airfield.[8]

When Kong Le withdrew from Vientiane, one of the prisoners he took with him was the head of the National Police.[9] After Phoumi's coup succeeded, Siho consolidated the military police and national police into his other units to form the Directorate of National Coordination during March 1961. GMS 1 was soon paratrooper qualified. Siho's actions cost funding from the U.S. for police training; however, GMS 1 was considered the most effective unit in the Royal Lao Armed Forces.[3] GMS 1 was soon put to test, as in April 1961, they were moved north to prevent Kong Le's Forces Armee Neutraliste and the Pathet Lao communists from moving down from the Plain of Jars and recapturing Vientiane. On 25 April, they were emplaced on the south bank of the Nam Lik (Lik River), successfully blocking the only road, Route 13.[10][11]

Once the threat to Vientiane passed, the DNC and the Royal Lao Army settled into low-level skirmishing over the corrupt prerequisites of power. Siho and Kouprasith both wanted payoffs for allowing gambling, opium dealing, smuggling, and the importation of essential medicines.[12] In 1962, Bataillon Special 99 (Special Battalion 99) was raised as the third battalion of GMS 1, filling it out to regimental size.[3]

DNC used in a coup

In February 1964, GMS 1 was tested in battle. Transported to Savannakhet in Military Region 3, they successfully assaulted the Pathet Lao-occupied village of Nong Boualao, which had already repelled several assaults by the Royal Lao Army. GMS 1 then returned to Vientiane.[13]

By early April 1964, DNC consisted of 6,500 men and served as a civil police force, immigration service, national police, and military intelligence service.[14] When Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma decided to negotiate with his Communist brother Souphanouvong on the Plain of Jars on 17 April 1964, General Siho decided to seize the Kingdom of Laos. On 18 April, the DNC police seized the capitol's public infrastructure and took control of the kingdom.[15]

In the wake of the April 1964 coup, General Kouprasith emerged as Deputy Commander in Chief of the RLA. His ally General Ouane Rattikone was the Commander in Chief. However, Siho was not only outranked, but drew international criticism for his coup. In response, he renamed the DNC as Frontier Police, and laid low.[16][17]

In the meantime, Phoumi's powers were so diminished that he was allowed little input into the successful Operation Triangle in July 1964. However, Phoumi evaded the agreement that ended the April coup, which deprived him of troops to command. He still led a full-strength training battalion in the capital, as well as the cadre for a second, and had a couple of "economic battalions" of military veterans at his disposal in Thakhek and Pakxe. On 4 August 1964, Phoumi loosed his training battalion in a coup; the trainees erected roadblocks throughout Vientiane. They were promptly crushed by Kouprasith's troops as Siho's police sat out the fight.[16][17]

When General Kouprasith took over Laos in February 1965, he adroitly kept Siho from committing the Frontier Police to action.[5] Despite their non-participation in any of the January 1965 coup activities, a company of BS 33 guarding the Frontier Police headquarters at Muong Phene was overrun by RLA tanks and dispersed on 3 February 1965. A subsequent assault upon BS 11 and BS 99 at their camp 22 kilometers outside Vientiane went unresisted. With the exception of a single company from BS 11, those two battalions were arrested and disarmed. However, the following day, the final two companies of BS 33 made a futile raid upon Vientiane, only to be cornered and subdued. Meanwhile, Siho crossed the Mekong into exile.[18]

After Siho was forced into exile, the Frontier Police units were disbanded. Some of the policemen were kept in service and renamed the National Police Corps; it was assigned to control by the Ministry of the Interior. Other troops were re-purposed into a new Royal Lao Army unit, Groupement Mobile 21 Aeroporte (Airborne Mobile Group 21).[5]

Notes

  1. ↑ Steiglitz, p. 96.
  2. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, pp. 25, 105–106.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Conboy, Morrison, p. 105
  4. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, p. 113 note 1.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Conboy, p. 39.
  6. ↑ Kuzmarov, pp. 130–131.
  7. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, p. 37.
  8. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, p. 41.
  9. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, p. 46 note 39.
  10. ↑ Anthony, Sexton, p. 51.
  11. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, p. 54.
  12. ↑ Kuzmarov, p. 131.
  13. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, p. 106.
  14. ↑ Anthony, Sexton, p. 98 note 54.
  15. ↑ Castle, p. 64.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Conboy, Morrison, p. 123.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Anthony, Sexton, pp. 119–125.
  18. ↑ Conboy, Morrison, pp. 124–125.

References

Further reading