ffffiirrss..iinndddd iiii 77//1111//1111 44::4422::0055 PPMM The Secret Army Chiang Kai-shek and the Drug Warlords of the Golden Triangle ffffiirrss..iinndddd ii 77//1111//1111 44::4422::0044 PPMM ffffiirrss..iinndddd iiii 77//1111//1111 44::4422::0055 PPMM The Secret Army Chiang Kai-shek and the Drug Warlords of the Golden Triangle Richard M. Gibson with Wenhua Chen John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte. Ltd. ffffiirrss..iinndddd iiiiii 77//1111//1111 44::4422::0055 PPMM Copyright © 2011 by John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Published in 2011 by John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte. Ltd. 1 Fusionopolis Walk, #07– 01 Solaris, South Tower Singapore 138628 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as expressly permitted by law, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate photocopy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center. Requests for permission should be addressed to the Publisher, John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte. Ltd., 1 Fusionopolis Walk, #07– 01 Solaris, South Tower Singapore 138628, Tel: 65-6643-8000, Fax: 65-6643-8008, e-mail: [email protected]. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the authors nor the publisher are liable for any actions prompted or caused by the information presented in this book. Any views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the organizations they work for. Other Wiley Editorial Offi ces John Wiley & Sons, 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA John Wiley & Sons, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, P019 8SQ, United Kingdom John Wiley & Sons (Canada) Ltd., 5353 Dundas Street West, Suite 400, Toronto, Ontario, M9B 6HB, Canada John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd, 42 McDougall Street, Milton, Queensland 4064, Australia Wiley-VCH, Boschstrasse 12, D-69469 Weinheim, Germany Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data ISBN 978–0–470–83018–5 (paperback) ISBN 978–0–470–83020–8 (ePDF) ISBN 978–0–470–83019–2 (Mobi) ISBN 978–0–470–83021–5 (ePub) Typeset in 10.5/13.5 ITC Galliard by MPS Limited, a Macmillan Company Printed in Singapore by Markono Print Media Pte Ltd ffffiirrss..iinndddd iivv 77//1111//1111 44::4422::0055 PPMM Table of Contents Introduction: Two Young Chinese Soldiers vii Glossary of Key Players xiii List of Abbreviations xvii Chapter 1: Retreat from Yunnan 1 Chapter 2: Sorting Things Out in Tachilek 15 Chapter 3: Lieutenant General Li Mi 29 Chapter 4: Li Mi and His American Friends 45 Chapter 5: Li Mi’s Yunnan Anticommunist National Salvation Army 57 Chapter 6: Attacking Yunnan 69 Chapter 7: Washington Opts Out 87 Chapter 8: Li Mi’s Army Settles into Burma 97 Chapter 9: Washington Cuts Its Losses 113 Chapter 10: Southern Strategy and Karen Allies 121 Chapter 11: The Road to the United Nations 131 Chapter 12: The United Nations vs. KMT Duplicity 139 Chapter 13: First Evacuation from Burma 153 Chapter 14: Liu Yuan-lin’s Yunnan Anticommunist Volunteer Army 165 v ffttoocc..iinndddd vv 77//66//1111 88::0000::5577 PPMM Table of Contents Chapter 15: A Resurgent KMT 181 Chapter 16: Operation Mekong: Sino-Burmese Forces Rout the KMT 191 Chapter 17: Air Battle Over Burma and American Weapons 205 Chapter 18: The Second KMT Evacuation 213 Chapter 19: Removing KMT Remnants from Laos 225 Chapter 20: Nationalist Chinese Armies in Thailand 235 Chapter 21: Thailand’s Troublesome Guests 251 Chapter 22: Intelligence Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense 265 Chapter 23: Resettlement in Thailand 281 Chapter 24: Soldiering on for Thailand 293 Chapter 25: Postscript 305 Bibliography 309 Index 329 vi ffttoocc..iinndddd vvii 77//66//1111 88::0000::5577 PPMM Introduction Two Young Chinese Soldiers T he origins of this book date from January 1990, when I was the American Consul General in Chiang Mai, Thailand. A colleague and I were travelling a recently graded, little used road along Thailand’s northern border with Burma. The road runs immediately adjacent to the border until a few kilometers west of Doi1 Mae Salong and then continues eastward as the border curves to the north. The cool air carried sound easily and we could hear distant explosions of mortar rounds from Burma. The ongoing battle was between two drug traffi cking armies contesting control of that portion of the border and its smuggling routes. The United Wa State Army (UWSA), then loosely allied with the Burmese armed forces, or Tatmadaw, was at war with the Shan United Army (SUA) of Sino-Shan drug kingpin Chiang Ch’i-fu, better known by his Shan nom de guerre Khun Sa. We had driven to the border to gather information and report on that fi ght. We reached the mountaintop village of Ban Mae Salong,2 origi- nally established by remnants of Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang (KMT) army that retreated into Burma and Thailand following the communist victory on the Chinese Mainland. On a wooded slope near the mountain’s peak, we stopped for lunch at the Sakura Hotel, a ramshackle collec- tion of bungalows and a restaurant owned by Lei Yu-tien. After Tuan Hsiwen’s death in 1980, Lei Yu-tien assumed leadership of the remnants of his KMT Fifth Army.3 Our lunch fi nished, we returned to our vehicle and continued along a winding road through wooded countryside en route to Chiang Rai city. Descending the mountain, we passed a security post manned by khaki-uniformed, armed members of Lei Yu-tien’s private militia. Despite diplomatic license plates and a prominent whip radio antenna, our large Toyota Land Cruiser prompted only passing interest from the young men on duty. Armed with shotguns, Lei Yu-tien’s militiamen could be seen patrolling the village and environs much as Thailand’s national vii ffllaasstt..iinndddd vviiii 77//77//1111 1100::1133::2233 AAMM Introduction police do in other rural communities. Ban Mae Salong, however, was not a usual Thai community. Although offi cially administered by Thailand’s Ministry of Interior (MOI), there were no Thai offi cials to be seen. Descending through well-tended orchards interspersed among the forest and underbrush, we passed a group of soldiers in olive green battle dress and old-fashioned canvas sneakers. The young men were armed with American-manufactured M-1 carbines from the Korean War-era and carried ammunition bandoleers slung over their shoulders. Our immediate thought was that they might be from one of the drug traffi cking armies fi ghting just across the nearby border, as the Wa and Khun Sa’s men wore similar Chinese-style uniforms and neither were strangers to Thailand. I had previously encountered armed units of both groups using convenient roads inside Thailand to avoid the Burma Army and rival drug gangs when moving between locations within Burma. The UWSA and the SUA purchased most of their supplies from local merchants and Thai civilian hospitals frequently treated sick and wounded. Thai authorities tolerated such activities as long as the visitors did not cause trouble inside Thailand. Near the base of Doi Mae Salong, we stopped at a Thai police checkpoint and reported our sighting of armed troops along the road. The police appeared unconcerned, saying we had seen “Chinese soldiers” from Ban Mae Salong that often patrolled the area. Reassured, we drove back up the road to get a closer look at the soldiers. The patrol had dispersed, but my colleague and I stopped and spoke with two young men resting in an orchard along the road. Both were 19 years of age and appeared physically fi t. They identifi ed themselves as “Chinese soldiers” and pointed to the cherry blossom, or sakura,4 emblem on their uniform caps. Although their fi rst language was Chinese, the young men had attended Thai schools and spoke clear, standard Bangkok Thai. Both were born of former Nationalist Chinese soldiers and, respectively, Akha and Shan hilltribe mothers.5 The soldiers explained, that they, like other young Sino-Thai men in the surrounding area, had been conscripted into Mae Salong’s local militia. They received lodging, two meals daily, and a modest salary equivalent to about 25 dollars monthly. After two years of active duty, the soldiers would continue as reservists for an unspecifi ed number of years. Their carbines appeared clean and in good working order, ammu- nition pouches were full, and their rifl es were loaded. When I observed that nearby UWSA and SUA forces were armed with more modern rifl es, viii ffllaasstt..iinndddd vviiiiii 77//77//1111 1100::1133::2233 AAMM