Wapi Project

The Wapi Project was a civic action program originated by the Royal Lao Government; it was performed in Military Region 3 of Laos from mid-1965 through 1967. Notable for being among the first integrated programs to offer integrated services to the Lao Theung populace of southern Laos, it became a victim of its own success. Its lean efficiency led to its being crowded out of funding by more expensive programs.

Background
Beginning in 1950, the United States gradually slid into supporting a proxy war in the Kingdom of Laos. In time, it took over support of the Royal Lao Government and the Royal Lao Armed Forces. The latter was centered in five separate military regions, with few lines of communication to link them. As a result, the generals in command of military regions tended to act autonomously from one another or central command.

During the Laotian Civil War, the Royal Lao Army in Military Region 4 of Laos chose a policy of minimal aggression toward the communist troops shielding the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the eastward reaches of the MR. Instead, General Phasouk Somly Rasphakdi, who commanded MR 4, began investigating possibilities for a civic action program in Wapikhamthong Province as early as 1963. The development zone envisioned by the general would stretch from the Mekong River eastward through the lowlands to Salavane. Its populace was largely Lao Theung hostile to the Royal Lao Government. It was a fertile rice growing area.

Project
It took two years to involve Americans from the U.S. Embassy in the concept that was dubbed the Wapi Project. Proposed was an Auto Defense Choc (ADC) program training militia that would secure new assistance programs in schooling, public health, and agriculture. Both the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) cooperated in the effort. This made it among the first integrated civic aid projects in Indochina, and it ran at a relatively low cost. The ADC training camp opened at a site dubbed PS 18 in November 1965; it would train militia for a year. One of the three CIA case agents assigned to the ADC effort had experience dealing with Lao Theung from a previous assignment with Operation Pincushion. By the end of 1966, with American interest fading, Phasouk also turned back toward military action. However, he did manage to evade joining the CIA's nascent road watch program, fearing the distraction from the Wapi Project.

By 1967, both the CIA and USAID had withdrawn support. Ironically, the Wapi Project's efficiency doomed it in the battle for budgeting, as more elaborate efforts with larger budgets choked it out of existence.

Aftermath
In March 1968, Pathet Lao troops moved in to commandeer the rice harvest in the old Project Wapi area. The Lao communists propagandized against the remaining effects of the Project.