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As Communist forces in Vietnam began to spread throughout Southeast Asia and into their neighboring country of Laos, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began recruiting Hmong men to support their war efforts against the communist Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese.
It featured a cynical CIA officer who arranged for the airline to fly opium to the administrative capital of Vientiane for a corrupt Asian general–loosely modeled on Vang Pao, a military leader of the mountain-region-based Hmong ethnic group.
Supporting the "Secret War" William M. Leary. The largest paramilitary operations ever undertaken by the CIA took place in the small Southeast Asian Kingdom of Laos. For more than 13 years, the Agency directed native forces that fought major North Vietnamese units to a standstill.
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 both sides receiving heavy external support in a proxy war between the global Cold War superpowers.
From 1961 to 1975, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency actively recruited Hmong men and boys to fight a secret war in Laos in direct violation of the Geneva Accords. Hmong soldiers under General Vang Pao blocked supplies headed for South Vietnam and served as the primary anti-communist force in Laos during the Vietnam War.
Thousands of ethnic Hmong women, men and children live in scattered groups in the Lao jungles, hiding from the authorities, particularly the military. The armed forces regularly attack their temporary encampments, killing and injuring them, perpetuating their life on the run.
16 maj 2022 · A new initiative is aimed at raising awareness about a dark and often forgotten chapter of U.S. history: the secret bombing of Laos during the Vietnam War. Nearly half a century later, most...
