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Operation Tailwind was a covert incursion into southeastern Laos by a company-size element (Hatchet Force) of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACSOG or SOG) on 11 September 1970, during the Vietnam Conflict. The purpose of the operation was to create a diversion for a Royal Lao Army offensive and exert pressure on the defenses of the People's Army of North Vietnam (PAVN). The Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) was a highly classified, multi-service U.S. Special Operations Forces unit which conducted covert unconventional warfare operations prior to and during the Vietnam Conflict. ...
The Vietnam War was a war fought between 1957 and 1975 on the ground in South Vietnam and bordering areas of Cambodia and Laos (See Secret War) and in bombing runs (Rolling Thunder) over North Vietnam. ...
The Peoples Army of Vietnam (PAVN) is the term used by the Vietnamese for their army, which during the Vietnam War (1961 - 1975) was known as the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), or Army of North Vietnam. ...
The Operation
The CIA in Laos was desperate. Operation Gauntlet, a multi-battalion Royal Lao Army offensive that was to determine the fate of the Bolovens Plateau, was failing. A call went out to SOG's Saigon headquarters. Could the unit insert an element near Chavane and disrupt enemy defenses? Colonel Skip Sadler, SOG's commander, replied in the affirmative, even though none of his cross-border reconnaissance teams had ever operated so deep in Laos. Indeed, the target area was 20 miles beyond MACSOG's authorized area of operations.
The mission was launched by three platoons of Command and Control Central's (Kontum) Hatchet Company B and two Pathfinder Teams. The 16 Americans and 110 Montagnards, under the command of Captain Eugene McCarley were hele-lifted from a launch site at Dak To to a landing zone (LZ) in a valley 60 miles to the west, near Chavane. The distance to the target was so great that the men were lifted by three US Marine Corps CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters of HMH-463 "Heavy Haulers," and were escorted by 12 AH-1 Cobra gunships. HMH-465 CH-53E doing an external lift in Iraq The CH-53 Sea Stallion is the most common name for the Sikorsky S-65 family of heavy transport helicopter. ...
The Bell AH-1 Cobra, called the Huey Cobra, Cobra, Sea Cobra, Super Cobra, or Snake (depending on the model), is an attack helicopter, designed by Bell Helicopter Textron. ...
The Hatchet Force then proceeded to raise hell in the enemy's backyard, which was a SOG speciality. McCarley wasted no time in calling down airstrikes on enemy troop dispositions and equipment caches. The North Vietnamese responded by trying to concentrate their forces, but the US troops kept on the move, even at night.
On the morning of the third day the unit hit pay dirt when it overran an enemy bivouac and killed 54 North Vietnamese troops. Why the enemy had not run was a puzzling affair until the Americans discovered a bunker buried under 12 feet of earth. Inside they discovered maps and documents, lots of documents. They had overrun the enemy logistical headquarters that controlled all of Laotian Highway 165. Two footlockers were filled with the intelligence haul and the Hatchet Force now began to look for a way out. The North Vietnamese were closing in, but McCarley punched through to three separate landing zones and the entire force was extracted.
Casualties amounted to three Montagnards killed and 33 wounded while all 16 Americans were wounded. Many more men would have died had it not been for the heroic efforts of medic Sergeant Gary Rose, who was reccommended for the Medal of Honor for his actions.
Controversy On 7 June 1998 a totally different version of the above events was broadcast during the premire of the Cable News Network's NewsStand CNN & Time in a report entitled "Valley of Death." The segment alleged that Operation Tailwind had been devised simply to eliminate a group of Americans who had defected to the enemy and were holed up in a Laotian village. The broadcast went on to claim that a nerve gas Sarin (GB in US nomenclature) had been utilized during the operation. According to Valley of Death, the agent had been sprayed from aircraft twice - once to prep the village and once during the extraction. It also claimed that over 100 men, women, and children had been killed during the attack on the village. CNN or Cable News Network is a cable television network that was founded in 1980 by Ted Turner & Reese Schonfeld [1]. It is a division of the Turner Broadcasting System, owned by Time Warner. ...
Sarin or GB (O-Isopropyl methylphosphonofluoridate) is an extremely toxic substance. ...
The broadcast (and the ensuing 15 June Time Magazine article) seemed to have reliable credentials. Admiral Thomas Moorer (chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time of Tailwind, stated that nerve agents had been used, and not just during that operation. Former SOG Lieutenant Randy Van Buskirk (one of the three platoon leaders) and three sergeants lent testimony to support the allegations. (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ...
Van Buskirk stated that the Hatchet Force was exposed on an LZ when the agent was deployed to drive the enemy back. He also stated that he saw men convulsing when the wind blew the agent back upon the LZ. If a nerve agent had been utilized, the men would not have been convulsing, they would have been dying. The most telling testimony against these allegations, however, was the one that was not there. The North Vietnamese had chemical warfare units stationed in southern Laos at the time, yet they made no comment on what would have been a propaganda coup of gigantic proportions.
The reports caused the Pentagon to launch an independent investigation, which concluded the claims made in the program were false. Van Buskirk, it seemed, had forgotten the episode for 24 years and had only recently recalled his repressed memory. He was also suffering from psychological problems. Admiral Moorer was 86 years old at the time of the story and living under assisted care retirement. It was discovered that the statements of the other participants in the broadcast had been selectively edited to fit the story. A regular pentagon A pentagram enclosed in a pentagon In geometry, a pentagon is any five-sided polygon. ...
Fallout CNN and Time Magazine then undertook an internal investigation which concluded (within three weeks) that the journalism was flawed, and that the story would be publicly retracted and apologies made. Two key CNN producers of the report, April Oliver and Jack Smith, were fired outright. Senior producer Pam Hill resigned. Reporter Peter Arnett was reprimanded. Some sources allege that The Pentagon pressured CNN to fire Arnett; whether under pressure or not, he soon left for HDNet and then NBC. Peter Arnett (born November 13, 1934 in Riverton, New Zealand) is a New Zealand-American journalist. ...
HDNet is a high-definition television channel broadcasting in the United States. ...
NBC, (Formerly an acronym for the National Broadcasting Company until 2004), is an American television and radio network based in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ...
The producers, Oliver and Smith, were chastized, but unrepentant. They put together a 77-page document supporting their side of the story, with the testimony from military personnel that apparently confirmed the use of the nerve gas. Active and retired military personnel consulted by the media, including CNN's own military analyst Perry Smith, noted that a particularly strong formulation of CS gas (a tear gas) was indeed used during Tailwind, but that it should not be confused with sarin, which is categorized as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations [1]. CS or 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile (chemical formula: C10H5ClN2) is a substance that is used as a riot control agent and is usually claimed to be non-lethal by the forces who use it. ...
In early July, 1998, CNN News Group Chairman, President and CEO Tom Johnson issued a statement describing the findings of the internal investigation. He pledged acceptance of the findings and reiterated that the allegations in "Valley of Death" and ancillary reports "cannot be supported." He said there was insufficient evidence that sarin or any other deadly gas was used, nor could CNN confirm that American deserters were targeted or even at the camp in Laos. Tom Johnson can refer to different people: Tom Johnson, minimalist composer. ...
After their dismissal from CNN, Oliver and Smith ardently maintained the truth of their work. Both brought lawsuits against their former employer. Oliver was the first to settle out of court for a reputed $3.5 million [2]. Smith fought longer but also eventually settled for an unknown amount [3]. By June of 2000, none of the executives responsible for firing the two, including Johnson, remained with CNN. As of 2006, Ms. Oliver is an attorney at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP [4] and Mr. Smith teaches political science at Loyola University [5]. Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP is the oldest continuously running law firm in the United States. ...
Several historic and current educational institutions are named in honor of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. ...
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