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Operation Raindance was a military operation of the Laotian Civil War, staged from 17 March to 7 April 1969. It was launched by the U.S. Air Force as support for Hmong guerrillas raised by the Central Intelligence Agency. As the guerrillas were being pressured by enemy troops pushing to within ten kilometers of their main bases, the aerial campaign was planned to cause a pullback by the pressing communists. As the first well-targeted aerial campaign in Laos, Operation Raindance's 65 strikes per day gained such great results that it was extended indefinitely. Even after its "ending" on 7 April, the interdiction continued; eventually, it would be dubbed Operation Stranglehold. In all, it was the most successful Lao air strike operation to date. Among enemy losses to air were two tanks, two BTR-40 armored cars, 32 other vehicles, 28 antiaircraft guns, 28 bunkers, and six gun positions. Bombing caused over 1,500 secondary explosions of munitions, and destroyed over 2,000 storage caches. In one spectacular case, a cavern full of munitions exploded and burned for 16 hours. The Hmong who followed in the path blasted by the bombers captured and destroyed 300 tons of medical supplies. They ruined a 1,000 bed medical facility they found hidden underground, along with operating rooms and X-ray machines. The three light battalions of guerrillas withdrew in the face of the imminent arrival of four heavily armed PAVN battalions. However, the advantages gained in Raindance would shortly be nullified by the communists' first-ever rainy season offensive. ==Overview== After World War II, France fought the First Indochina War to retain French Indochina. As part of its loss of that war at Dien Ben Phu, it freed the Kingdom of Laos. Laotian neutrality was established in the 1954 Geneva Agreements. When France withdrew most of its military in conformity with the treaty, the United States filled the vacuum with purportedly civilian paramilitary instructors.〔Castle, pp. 7–12, 15–18.〕 A North Vietnamese-backed communist insurrection began as early as 1949. Invading during the opium harvest season of 1953, it settled in northeastern Laos adjacent to the border of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.〔Library of Congress Country Studies, Chapter I. The Coming of Independence: The Pathet Lao () Retrieved 19 December 2014.〕 As the Laotian Civil War flared, the Central Intelligence Agency established a secret guerrilla army in the Plain of Jars. Interposed between the communist settlement around Xam Neua and the Royal Lao Government in Vientiane, the Hmong military irregulars fought to hold on to their traditional territory, and to preserve Laos.〔Warner, pp. 44–47〕 After the failure and defeat of Operation Pigfat, the communists had overrun the Plain of Jars to within ten kilometers of the guerrillas' main base at Long Chieng.〔Warner, p. 264.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Operation Raindance」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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