William Henry Beale Jr. was a US military and paramilitary aviator. In the Second World War, he was in the USAAF and flew bombing missions in the northern Pacific theater. In the Permesta rebellion in
On April 28, 1958, Beale bombed and sank the Indonesian Navy corvette KRI Hang Tuah, killing 18 crew and wounding another 28. This photo shows Hang Tuah in her original guise as the RAN Bathurst-class corvette HMAS Ipswich.
The Laotian Civil War was waged between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government from 23 May 1959 to 2 December 1975. The Kingdom of Laos was a covert theater during the Vietnam War with
William H. Beale
…missions in the northern Pacific theater. In the Permesta rebellion in Indonesia in 1958 he flew bombing missions for the CIA. His career ended on a CIA covert mission in Laos in 1962 when he was killed in a plane crash. Beale was a USAAF officer in the Second World War who flew Consolidated B-24 Liberators from the Aleutian…
Pathet Lao's Laotian People's Liberation Army (LPLA) Anti-aircraft artillery crew, 1967.
Pathet Lao's LPLA guerrillas assemble at Sam Neua, April 1953.
The Geneva Conference of 1954
The Ho Chi Minh trail was used by both the North Vietnamese military and Laotian people from the very beginning. Captured North Vietnamese photo, c.1959.