Operation Honorable Dragon

Operation Honorable Dragon
Part of Laotian Civil War; Vietnam War
Date 31 August – 25 September 1970 Location Pakse Site 26 Result Royalists take PS 26 in attempt to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail
Belligerents
Laos Supported by  United States	North Vietnam Supported by:  Soviet Union  China
Units involved
Ad hoc Special Guerrilla Unit Mobile 2 Mobile 3 Brown Battalion Bataillon Guerrier 224 Military Region 4 battalion	Group 559
Strength
Battalion-size	~50,000
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown

Operation Honorable Dragon (also known as Operation Gauntlet) was an offensive of the Second Indochina War. The Central Intelligence Agency, which equipped and trained the needed troops, aimed at disruption of the North Vietnamese communist supply line, the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Launched by six battalions of Royal Lao Army military irregulars on 31 August 1970, the operation achieved only limited success. Although the planned objective was captured on 25 September, the offensive was plagued by desertions and combat refusals, including a battalion that ran from "ghosts". After the conquest of Pakse Site 26, troops of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) harassed the Lao occupiers through mid-December 1970.