Published: 2024-08-311

The bloody test of „Vietnamization” from the perspective of the military intelligence of the People’s Republic of Poland. Operation Lam Son 719 in the notes of the Military Attaché at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of Poland in Hanoi

Przemysław Benken
Echa Przeszłości
Section: ARTICLES
https://doi.org/10.31648/ep.10514

Abstract

The issue of the so-called "Vietnamization" of the Second Indochina War has not yet been addressed in a comprehensive Polish-language monograph that would equally discuss its military and political aspects. This issue concerns the important Operation Lam Son 719 in the first half of 1971, when the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) attacked with a corps-sized force the territory of Laos controlled by the People's Army of Vietnam. The purpose of the invasion was to destroy North Vietnamese bases near the Demilitarized Zone and to cut the Laotian section of the so-called Ho Chi Minh Trail. Operation Lam Son 719 was intended to be a test of the progress of "Vietnamization" and a measure of the ARVN's ability to assume the full burden of warfare as the U.S. troops continued to withdraw from the Indochinese Peninsula. This article is an introduction to a broader study of the issues of "Vietnamization" and the South Vietnamese invasion of Laos in 1971. It focuses on an analysis of information on Operation Lam Son 719, which was provided to the Second Directorate of the General Staff of the Polish Army by officers of the Military Attaché at the Embassy of the Polish People's Republic in Hanoi.

Keywords:

Second Indochina War, Operation Lam Son 719, Vietnamization

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Citation rules

Benken, P. (2024). The bloody test of „Vietnamization” from the perspective of the military intelligence of the People’s Republic of Poland. Operation Lam Son 719 in the notes of the Military Attaché at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of Poland in Hanoi. Echa Przeszłości, (XXV/1), 215–235. https://doi.org/10.31648/ep.10514

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