James William Lair
James William Lair | |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | Bill Lair |
Born | 4 July 1924 Hilton, Oklahoma, United States |
Died | 28 October 2014 (aged 90) |
Service/ | Central Intelligence Agency |
Rank | GS-16 |
Other work | Royal Thai Police
(Rank: Police Colonel) Special Warfare Advisor and founder of Police Aerial Reinforcement Unit |
James William Lair (often referred to as Bill Lair) (4 July 1924 – October 28, 2014) was an influential
Assigned to the
The
Just before Lair's retirement from the CIA, he was honored with a private audience with Thai
Early life and military service
Bill Lair was born in
As a fifth-generation Texan, Lair never lost his childhood accent. He was raised as an only child, although eventually he would come to have two younger sisters, and he grew up poor, quiet, and shy. His imagination sparked by his reading, he dreamt of becoming a pilot. He was a seventeen-year-old freshman at
Once discharged postwar, Lair earned a geology degree from Texas A&M in expectation of working in the petroleum industry. However, the Central Intelligence Agency recruited him just before graduation.[4]
CIA career
Assignment to Thailand
After training, Lair was forwarded to the
Assistance to the effort was supplied by
Earlier, in April 1953, Bill Lair was appointed a captain in the Royal Thai Police. He then selected 100 out of 2,000 previous trainees for advanced instruction in unconventional warfare in
Through his marriage, Lair acquired Thai citizenship and a commission in the Royal Thai Police, within which in 1954 he organized the elite Parachute Aerial Resupply Unit (PARU) from selected BPP recruits. Lair would use the PARU as a private army for missions inside Burma, Cambodia and Laos, where PARU members had ethnic and clan ties. And where, as an integral part of the plan, CIA and PARU members delved into gold, drugs (Opium), arms and artifact trafficking. All this was well known to the FBN (Federal Bureau of Narcotics), which by 1954 had investigated CAT (Civil Air Transport) after a large stock of opium Li Mi was arranging to sell to CAT pilot Dutch Brongersma came to the attention of US officials. [9] [10]
By 1955, the new unit was ready for duty as the
By 1957, PARU consisted of two light infantry companies, as well as a pathfinder company personally commanded by Lair. Although dubbed "police", the extensively cross-trained PARU agents were trained to special forces standards. In September 1957, the PARU narrowly escaped disbandment when General Phao was forced into exile by the head of the Royal Thai Army, General Sarit. In early 1958, they were renamed with the PARU designation. They began to shift their training base from Hua Hin to Phitsanulok, which was closer to their area of operations. In 1958, they became involved in the CIA's international operations. They rigged parachutes for dropping weapons to insurgents in Indonesia. They packed pallets of weaponry for shipment from Takhli to the anti-Chinese Communist resistance in Tibet.[12]
Early in 1960, PARU's Pathfinder Company took up three posts along the Thai-Lao border. Each of the three stations was across the
Move into Laos
Coup and counter-coup
As Kong Le consolidated his position in the northern capital of Vientiane, Phoumi's opposition to the coup began to coalesce around the southern panhandle town of Savannakhet. On 19 October 1960, Bill Lair flew in the first installment of Lao kip to pay the dissident troops that had joined the Lao general. It was the first payment of the CIA's million dollar investment in a counter-coup. A few days later, five PARU teams of five espionage agents per team joined Phoumi's troops, where they blended into headquarters units. By late-November, Lair had set up his headquarters in Savannakhet, complete with a radio network. The radio net allowed him contact with his teams when they joined the move northward to Vientiane to unseat Kong Le. The five teams' distribution throughout the column of march was crucial to the success of the 400 kilometer thrust north to Vientiane.[16]
Once Phoumi's counter-coup succeeded on 14 December 1960, Lair moved his headquarters to Vientiane. Fitzgerald promptly joined him there. Fitzgerald saw that the PARU's flawless performance in the counter-coup was based on reliable inside information, and decided that Lair and his special forces police should remain in Laos. This series of events marked the start of the
Lair foresaw a possible future need for the Hmong to retreat from battle through
Founding L'Armée Clandestine
Lair took Vang Pao's offer back to Vientiane with him. By coincidence,
To support the new effort, Lair brought in more PARU teams. By now, he had been promoted to
Lao neutrality established
In summer 1962, Lair arranged
Nong Khai being unsuitable as a headquarters, Lair moved his operation to the Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base. The CIA building there, called AB-1, became the nerve center of secret operations in Laos. It was hidden in plain sight, under the designation, 4802nd Joint Liaison Detachment. Co-located with it was the Thai covert operations for Laos, Headquarters 333, often referred to by its Thai nickname, "Kaw Taw".[26] With the move came a promotion. Lair was now Chief of Base, in charge of all paramilitary operations in northern Laos. He and Pat Landry, sitting at facing desks, monitored message and radio traffic from the 20 PARU teams and made their tactical and logistical decisions. At times, Lair flew into Laos for a day. Once a month, he visited his wife and child in Bangkok.[27]
In August 1963, Lair received an order to cut Route 7 between the Plain of Jars and the Vietnamese border. After Lair's training, PARU troopers, accompanying and directing 12 platoons of Hmong from their Special Guerrilla Units, infiltrated to a portion of Route 7 that ran along steep cliffs. The saboteurs planted double cratering charges in each of 120 demolition pits they dug, and exfiltrated. When the explosions blew in the middle of the night, two sections of clifftop road migrated downwards. Once again, Lair let Pop Buell claim credit.[28] The Route 7 communist supply line would remain cut until November.[29]
On 10 December 1963, King Sisavang Vatthana made a state visit to Long Tieng. This trip served as a seal of approval on the Hmong as Lao, and on their martial efforts. His official visit made it clear that the Hmong were accepted in Lao society, and assuaged Lair's worries that the hill tribesmen and lowland Lao might start fighting with one another.[30]
In 1964, Lair returned to the United States on home leave. While he was there, he attended a
Upon returning to Laos, Lair found that enemy activities were spreading outwards from their supply center at
Washington's attention shifts from Laos
In late-August 1964, in the wake of the
Lair was dismayed when he learned on 8 March 1965 that
On 20 May 1965,
Lair had reservations about increased use of US air power in Laos, fearing that the Hmong and other Lao forces would become too dependent upon it. However, in the wake of the
"Supermarket war"
See also
By mid-1966, Lair had worked successfully under three Chiefs of station, running his paramilitary operations with a relatively paltry annual budget of US$20 million. The money came directly from CIA headquarters, with offers of more funding available. Lair declined the extra money, and never requested a transfer from his assignment. For 15 years, he had encouraged and nurtured native martial talent, believing the covert operation was best done with the fewest Americans possible. As a result of his influence, there were fewer than 100 Americans working in northern Laos.[40]
This ended with
The swelling tide of American air power brought drastic changes to the war in Laos, and to Lair's life. Major Richard Secord reported for duty. He joined forces with Lair and Landry, and managed air operations in Laos. Lair now routinely scheduled targets for air strikes. A new covert unit, the Raven Forward Air Controllers, sprang into being to direct the increasing bombing raids. The increased CIA effort demanded greater staffing. A new enlarged headquarters building replaced AB-1 to accommodate the increase in newly assigned CIA staff. As the war escalated, there were turf conflicts within the US effort because it lacked a unified command structure.[42]
An example of the difficulties inherent in the enlarged war was the siting of
Departure from Laos
At odds with both his station chief and Ambassador Sullivan, tagged with the loss of Lima Site 85, and diminished by the expanding American operations of the Laotian war, Bill Lair departed Laos in August 1968. He declined a possible assignment to the
He attended the
Lair was still working in Bangkok when the Vietnam War ended. On 18 June 1975, Vang Pao visited Bangkok on his way into exile in
Bill Lair would pull off one more intelligence coup before his retirement.
Post CIA career
Bill Lair retired from the CIA as a
James William Lair continued to be prominent in Hmong-American affairs. On 4 July 2013, he was honored with an 89th birthday celebration by the Hmong-American community, including a reunion with the Hmong Laotian Civil War veterans with whom he had served.[53] Lair died on October 28, 2014.[54]
Honour
- Thailand :
- Member of the Order of the Crown of Thailand
- Border Service Medal
- King Rama IX Royal Cypher Medal
- 25th Buddhist Century Celebration Medal
Further reading
- Once Upon A Time in the CIA, a 2007 documentary covering Bill Lair's operations with the Hmong[55]
Notes
- ^ 11 December 2001 oral interview of Bill Lair, Vietnam Archive at Texas Technical University; pp. 1–3, 7–10, 16–17; Steve Maxner, interviewer. http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/star/images/oh/oh0200/OH0200-part1.pdf Archived 2013-07-25 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 30 September 2014.
- ^ 20 August 2010 oral interview of Bill Lair, Library of Congress Veterans History Project; Eileen Hurst, interviewer. http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.76724/transcript?ID=mv0001 Retrieved 28 September 2014.
- ^ a b Warner, p. 31.
- ^ Warner, pp. 31–32.
- ^ 11 December 2001 oral interview of Bill Lair, Vietnam Archive at Texas Technical University; p. 62; Steve Maxner, interviewer. http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/star/images/oh/oh0200/OH0200-part1.pdf Archived 2013-07-25 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 30 September 2014.
- ^ a b Conboy, Morrison, p. 57.
- ^ a b Conboy, Morrison, p. 58.
- ^ 11 December 2001 oral interview of Bill Lair, Vietnam Archive at Texas Technical University; pp. 66–70, 75–77, 83–85; Steve Maxner, interviewer. http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/star/images/oh/oh0200/OH0200-part1.pdf Archived 2013-07-25 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 30 September 2014.
- ^ Douglas Valentine: Pisces Moon, pg. 148-149
- ^ Jonathan Marshall, "Cooking the Books: The Federal Bureau of Narcotics, The China Lobby and Cold War Propaganda, 1950-1962," Asia-Pacific Journal, 14 September 2013.
- ^ Warner, p. 32.
- ^ Conboy, Morrison, pp. 58–59.
- ^ Conboy, Morrison, p. 59.
- ^ Warner, p. 21.
- ^ Warner, p. 33.
- ^ Warner 26-29.
- ^ a b Conboy, Morrison, p. 61.
- ^ Warner, pp. 33–34, 45, 117.
- ^ Ahern, pp. 36-37.
- ^ Warner, pp. 297–298.
- ^ Scott, p. 101.
- ^ Warner, p. 78.
- ^ Warner, pp. 51–54.
- ^ Warner, p. 83.
- ^ Warner, pp. 83–85.
- ^ Conboy, Morrison, p. 99.
- ^ Warner, pp. 86–87.
- ^ Warner, pp. 100–101.
- ^ Warner, p. 111.
- ^ Warner, pp. 117–118.
- ^ Warner, pp. 128–129.
- ^ Warner, pp. 131–137.
- ^ Warner, pp. 137, 141.
- ^ Warner, pp. 159–162.
- ^ Warner, pp. 163–164.
- ^ Warner, pp. 156–157.
- ^ Warner, p. 241.
- ^ Warner, p. 166.
- ^ Conboy, Morrison, p. 170.
- ^ a b Warner, pp. 180–184.
- ^ Warner, p. 187.
- ^ Warner, 192–194, 197–199, 203, 241.
- ^ Warner, p. 205.
- ^ Warner, pp. 208–210.
- ^ Warner, pp. 226–234.
- ^ Warner, pp. 246, 331–333.
- ^ Conboy, Morrison, pp. 199, 205.
- ^ Warner, pp. 331-333.
- ^ Warner, pp. 351–352.
- ^ Conboy, Morrison, p. 423.
- ^ Warner, pp. 333–357.
- ^ Warner, pp. 375–377.
- ^ News video from Suab Hmong News; Richard Wanglue Vang, interviewer. http://gotocinemass.com/Entertainment/YtVideo/Index?videoId=jUw1ZIajYWA&name=Suab%20Hmong%20News:%20Exclusive%20covered%20Hmong%20SGU%20basi%20for%20Col.%20Bill%20Lair Retrieved 30 September 2014.
- ^ "James W. Lair". Archived from the original on 2014-11-12. Retrieved 2014-11-12.
- ^ Internet Data Base, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454911/ Retrieved 30 September 2014.
References
- Ahern, Thomas L. Jr., Undercover Armies: CIA and Surrogate Warfare in Laos. Center for the Study of Intelligence, 2006, classified control no. C05303949.
- Conboy, Kenneth and James Morrison, Shadow War: The CIA's Secret War in Laos. Paladin Press, 1995, ISBN 0-87364-825-0.
- Scott, Peter Dale, American War Machine: Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection, and the Road to Afghanistan. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2010. ISBN 144220589X, 9781442205895.
- Warner, Roger. Back Fire: The CIA's Secret War in Laos and Its Link to the War in Vietnam. Simon & Schuster, 1995. ISBNs 0684802929, 9780684802923.