In January 1961, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower ordered the CIA to conduct a "secret war" program in Laos, Asia. The plan was to oppose the communist regime by training the Lao Hmong army. The picture shows U.S. advisers training Lao Hmong special forces.
The United States trained the Hmong proxy army in Laos, with the Hmong leader Wang Bao in front of him. The Lao Hmong forces acted as agents and thugs for the U.S. military.
U.S. troops appear at the airport in Vientiane, the capital of Laos.
U.S. helicopters carry Lao troops.
Between 1963 and 1974, the United States dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on Laos. That's even more than the number of bombs the United States dropped on Germany and Japan during World War II combined.
U.S. spending in Laos was enormous, and on August 3, 1971, the International Herald Tribune wrote that "U.S. military and economic assistance to Laos, together with CIA spending, is estimated to increase to $374 million in this year's fiscal advances." This figure does not take into account U.S. spending to support the Royal Lao Army's bombing of northern Laos and the bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in southern Laos. ”
Seeing that the Lao proxy troops were unfavorable, the US military simply sent troops directly to Laos.
Helicopter captured by the Lao People's Liberation Army.
American pilot captured by the Lao People's Liberation Army.