Phou Pha Thi
Phou Pha Thi is a 1,786 meter high mountain in the province of Houaphan in the People's Democratic Republic of Laos not far from the border with Vietnam . Coordinates: 20.468 ° N 103.7058 ° E. The local Hmong people consider the mountain sacred and the seat of spirits.
history
The mountain, which is about 160 kilometers south of Dien Bien Phu and 240 kilometers west of Hanoi (both places Vietnam), became known through the Vietnam War . During the war in 1966 the American Air Force installed a TACAN radio station and an AN / MSQ-77 radar station on top of the mountain for the guidance and control of B-52 bombing raids on North Vietnam. Since the Kingdom of Laos was officially neutral in the war, the existence of the radar facility was classified as top secret. It was called LS85 or Lima Site 85 .
On March 10, 1968, Phou Pha Thi was overrun by commando units of the North Vietnamese Army and units of the Pathet Lao . Most of the American occupation were killed in the Battle of Lima Site 85 . In order to destroy all traces of the existence of the facility, the Phou Pha Thi was bombed by the American Air Force for a week after the conquest by North Vietnam. The installation was completely destroyed. It was not until 1996 that the US government admitted that the LS85 had existed at all, and that the battle had been the greatest loss of life for the American Air Force in a day.
Web pages
- limasite85.us (English)
literature
- One Day Too Long: Top Secret Site 85 and the Bombing of North Vietnam. New York; Chichester, Sussex: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231103176 .
- Tragic Mountains: the Hmongs, the Americans, and the Secret War for Laos, 1942-1992. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253207568 .
- The Ravens: The Men Who Flew in America's Secret War in Laos Christopher Robbins Apostrophe Books ISBN 0517566125 .