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Enter the Dragon: Chinese Invasion
of Tibet continues....
The first CIA agent dealing with the Tibetan project was John Reagan. The CIA began to train some Khampas, starting from the first group of six that crossed over to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) from the Siliguri area on foot, where they were received by the CIA operative Edward McAllister, who was based in Karachi. They were then taken hidden to Dhaka (Dacca) and flown to Saipan, a Pacific Ocean island for training. This was where the CIA agent to be most closely involved with the Tibetan project, Roger McCarthy, was based. He began training the Khampas. It was decided that CIA trainees would be inducted back to Tibet by parachute, as the most practical method of insertion for the small teams. He organized the parachute jump training for the first group in Taiwan. Later, the CIA opened a training base in the USA for the Tibetans, at camp Hale, 9,200 feet high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, near the USA; highest town, Leadville. It was given the nickname ‘Camp Dhumra’ by the Tibetans.
In 1957 and 1958, the Chushi Gangdruk fought battles against the PLA in east-central Tibet, many successfully. By early 1958 the Chinese had committed eight PLA divisions totaling some 150,000 men in eastern Tibet alone. By summer 1958 the resistance war was at its peak, especially in Amdo. From the summer of 1958 onwards the Chushi Gangdruk were gradually losing the war.
The CIA-supported Tibetan resistance did manage to insert some small groups, but overall the entire operation was not conspicuously successful.
Their biggest operation, the dropping of trained Khampas and arms for a large resistance contingent at Pembar in the general area of Nagchuka in central Tibet, became a disastrous failure. Some 35,000 resistance persons, including their families and animals, had assembled there. The PLA surrounded the area and aerial bombing plus artillery fire resulted in the death of thousands of the Tibetans, including their women and children.
To be continued...