What was the name of the CIA headquarters in Laos called?
Long Tieng (also spelled Long Chieng, Long Cheng, or Long Chen) is a Laotian military base in Xaisomboun Province. During the Laotian Civil War, it served as a town and airbase operated by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States.
What did the CIA do during the Vietnam War?
The CIA provided suggestions for political platforms, supported candidates, used agency resources to refute electoral fraud charges, manipulated the certification of election results by the South Vietnamese National Assembly, and instituted the Phoenix Program.
What role did Laos play in the Vietnam War?
The Kingdom of Laos was a covert theater for other belligerents during the Vietnam War. The fighting in Laos involved the North Vietnamese Army, U.S. troops and Thai forces and South Vietnamese army forces directly and through irregular proxies in a struggle for control over the Laotian Panhandle.
Who did Laos support in the Vietnam War?
During the 1960s, the Pathet Lao, supported by the North Vietnamese, fought for control against the Laotian royal government and the ethnic Hmong, both of whom were backed by the US.
Why did the U.S. bomb Laos in the Vietnam War?
The bombings were part of the U.S. Secret War in Laos to support the Royal Lao Government against the Pathet Lao and to interdict traffic along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The bombings destroyed many villages and displaced hundreds of thousands of Lao civilians during the nine-year period.
What is an SGU veteran?
Presented by the Special Guerrilla Units Veterans and Families of USA, Inc. We, the members of this non-profit organization, are military veterans who provided arm-services to the United States of America during the Cold War era in Southeast Asia. We served and fought on behalf of the United States inside Laos.
Why was Laos bombed in the Vietnam War?
What is the Hmong secret war?
In 1961, four years before the Vietnam War, the CIA funded a Secret War in Laos. The Hmong became CIA’s surrogate army, fighting and preventing Communism from consuming the country of Laos.
What was the CIA’s covert operations in Laos?
The CIA’s Covert Operations in Laos during the Vietnam War. Jack Jolis served as a case officer in the CIA, operating the Rascal program out of Lima Site-20 Alternate, or Long Tieng, for much of 1970. These are his recollections, in an interview with British writer, Peter Alan Lloyd
Did the CIA fight in the Vietnam War?
In the 1960s, while US Army troops spilled out of C-130s into Vietnam, the CIA fought a secret war in Laos. It was the height of the Cold War, and the CIA sent my father and a group of officers to arm and train the Hmong, a Laotian highland tribe, to fight the Communist Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese.
How many American soldiers died in Laos?
Between December and April, six Air America crew members died in Laos. 52 The war also went badly in southern Laos, where the CIA recruited, trained, advised, and paid indigenous personnel who were organized into Special Guerrilla Units.
What did the CIA do about the drug trade in Laos?
As former DCI William Colby acknowledged, the Agency did little about it during the 1960s, but later took action against the traders as drugs became a problem among American troops in Vietnam. The CIA’s main focus in Laos remained on fighting the war, not on policing the drug trade.