Ouane Rattikone

Who is Ouane Rattikone?

Ouane Rattikone, a Laotian general, was the commander-in-chief of the Royal Lao Armed Forces, the official military of the Royal Lao Government, during the 1960s.

An ally of the United States during the Vietnam War, Ouane developed a close relationship with William H. Sullivan, the US ambassador, and Ted Shackley, the CIA station chief in Vientiane. Despite intense conflict amongst the FAR regional commanders, Ouane was pivotal in providing local military support against the North Vietnamese Army and the Pathet Lao in the northern regions of Laos.

Ouane was also heavily involved in the trafficking of opium throughout Southeast Asia. Despite widespread conspiracy theories of CIA complicity in drug trafficking, an investigation by the US Senate found no evidence of CIA involvement. In his memoirs, Shackley unapologetically stated that the CIA essentially turned a blind eye to the drug trafficking because their resources were already being sapped by the war in Vietnam.