AUSA: Out of the many stories found in the book, is there one you would like to highlight? Col. Joseph Celeski, U.S. Army, Ret., who served 23 of his 30 years of service in the Special Forces, has used these documents and extensive interviews with veterans to finally tell the story in The Green Berets in the Land of a Million Elephants. Air Commandos Southeast Asia Laos Secret War Royal Lao Government Jungle Jim COIN Airpower Project Water Pump Butterfly Concept Project 404 Ho Chi Minh Trail Project Lucky Tiger 56th Special Operations Wing (SOW) 606th Air Commando Squadron (ACS) Land of the Million Elephants. I decided to focus on the gaps in our history which have not been covered more widely in the military history literature. It was run almost solely by about 11 Special Forces teams. Colonel Celeski answered a few questions to give some insight into his new addition to the AUSA Book Program: AUSA: When did you decide to write this book? "You've just got a different name.". Directed by Lisa Blackstone. In the 1960s, as the Vietnam War impacted all of southeast Asia, the CIA recruited, armed, and trained thousands of Hmong men and boys to create military units assigned to block the Ho Chi Minh Trail – the North’s supply line to their insurgent Viet Cong allies in the South – and to otherwise assist U.S. forces. The Hmong, with a long history of independence and scrappiness, fought with the Royal Lao government in the Laotian civil war from 1959 to 1975, against the Communist Pathet Lao. They used to come over to the house on Sunday mornings and drink scotch. The Laos government is still targeting the Hmong people because of the war in the 1960s when they fought with the United States CIA against the communists. The more I read, the less I understood why this was my father's proudest achievement. Chay’s. I did what we often do when we lose someone. This was my father's first mission in the Central Intelligence Agency. The war in Laos – known as the “Land of a Million Elephants” – had to be a secret one because the Geneva Agreements that guided the French departure from Indochina banned the use of foreign troops into the country. April 27, 2020 by Barry J. Klazura No Comments. Like many older Hmong refugees in Fresno, Su Thao fought in the CIA’s secret war in Laos. The tale of a young Green Beret medic, Vietnam combat veteran with the top secret Studies and Observations Group (SOG) who was recruited by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).Schofield worked 5½ years providing medical support for the Hmong and other Hill Tribes who fought the CIA’s secret war in Northern Laos, and was among the last Americans to leave SE Asia in … The Ravens. We looked through hundreds of pictures, many of my father in Long Tieng, the CIA's secret base for the shadow war in Laos. There is a danger in digging up things about the ones we've lost, because they can't defend themselves. After nine years of war, seven billion dollars, three and a half million tons of bombs, a half-million dead, and 750,000 homeless, the US had failed to achieve any of the objectives it had aimed for. America's Secret War in Laos Uncovered. The Secret War in Laos can only find closure if the story of the conflict is in the public domain. Laos, 1983. In the 1960s, while US Army troops spilled out of C-130s into Vietnam, the CIA fought a secret war in Laos. An intensive bombing campaign, coupled with artillery battles on land, has left the landscape in some areas of Laos filled with craters. Intelligence officers at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok said there are about 40,000 North Vietnamese troops in Laos assisting a force of about 29,000 Pathet Lao guerrillas, the Laotian equivalent of the Vietcong in South Vietnam. My father fought the CIA’s secret war in Laos. On that chaotic morning, the Secret War … 0. COL Clyde R. Russell; COL Donald R. Blackburn; COL John K. “Jack” Singlaub; COL Stephen E. Cavanaugh; COL John F. “Skip” Sadler Then I asked Xing what I had come there to ask. Celeski: The most significant difference between the two wars is that the State Department, through their ambassadors to Laos, commanded and controlled U.S. military forces instead of the war being run by a theater-level military command. Crown, 1987 - Laos - 420 pages. It was the height of the Cold War, and the CIA sent my father and a … 0 . 5 Reviews. About SOG; SOG Chiefs. After he passed, I read every book I could find on the CIA's secret war in Laos. It is called the Secret War among the CIA Special Activities Center and Hmong veterans of the conflict. Then one day, we came to the photo of a Hmong boy in a military uniform. Or perhaps I simply wanted them to be. American troops fire on insurgents in the Philippine jungle during the Philippine-American War, circa 1899. Gerhard Joren/LightRocket/Getty Images When: 10 a.m. Saturday. Their strategic mission was to prevent the country from toppling over to the communist side (or at least keep it neutral) while U.S. conventional forces fought next door in South Vietnam. There was the secret war … It is associated with the Cambodian Civil War and the Vietnam War, with both sides receiving heavy external support in a proxy war between the global Cold War superpowers. The US fought a secret war in Laos from 1960 to 1973! But I'm not certain admonishment always has the effect we want it to. Also known as the “Secret War,” these veterans fought alongside U.S. troops against the North Vietnamese in Laos. As half a dozen grandchildren ran around, we sat on the couches in his living room, and Xing told us how he was abducted by Hmong soldiers on his way to school one day. Over 20,000 people have been killed or injured by UXO in Laos since the bombing ceased. In 1960, the CIA approached Vang Pao, a major general in the Royal Lao Army and a member of AUSA: What were the most important lessons learned by the Green Berets? AUSA: How did the war in Laos differ from the war in Vietnam? We buckled our seatbelts, and kicked up dust on the gravel lane. The Secret War in Laos The United States fought a secret war in Laos in support of the Royal Laotian Government from 1962 through 1973 against the communist Pathet Lao. © BBC. We served at bases in Thailand, and Laos, where some of us died. Where: Marathon County Courthouse, 500 Forest St., Wausau. The CIA recruited the Hmong people, an ethnic tribe living in the hills of South East Asia, to fight against the North Vietnamese forces and the Pathet Lao (the Lao communist forces). If we refuse to identify with actors in history, we will never learn its lessons. "No-one is righteous," Xing Yang told us before we left. The wounds of war are not only felt in Laos. I was part of the ‘Secret War’ in Southeast Asia. Xiong is 64 years old, and he fought under Vang Pao from 1970 to 1975. But many of the books disparaged the CIA's actions in Laos, even calibrating for the perceived existential threat of Communism at the time. Yang worked for the Central Intelligence Agency during America’s covert war in Laos, flying surveillance missions over Viet Cong supply lines. Xing Yang was a former child soldier in the secret army. Example: most believed Hmong defended the Ho Chi Minh trail. Peter Lang-Stanton set out to make a radio documentary about the truth of his father's role in one of the largest clandestine missions in US history, but he didn't realise the emotional minefield of investigating a loved one's past, still shrouded in secrecy. Many people are unaware or do not believe that the Hmong genocide is still happening today because of “lack of evidence” proving the Hmong genocide. The light turned green and we pulled out onto the main road. For eight years, far beyond the battlefields of Vietnam and the glare of media distortions, American Green Berets fought a deadly secret war in Laos and Cambodia under the aegis of the top secret Military Assistance Command Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group, or SOG. "That the boy had to be as tall as an M-1 rifle to become a soldier. Read about our approach to external linking. The Army’s 2028 vision proposes 1 million soldiers, half in the Regular Army and half in the National Guard and Reserve. Their strategic mission was to prevent the country from toppling over to the communist side (or at least keep it neutral) while U.S. conventional forces fought next door in … My call to speak to officers who were in Laos with my father was posted to "the SKYNET", an email forum for ex-CIA in Laos. But now this generation was in their 80s and some were already gone. Some historians described it as a scar on the agency and on the US. In the 1960s, while US Army troops spilled out of C-130s into Vietnam, the CIA fought a secret war in Laos. A journalist looks for the truth of his father’s role in one of the largest clandestine missions in US history. Captain JF… FAGs were U.S. Vieng Xai War Caves, Laos It was in the Vieng Xai caves, near Sam Neua and the border with Vietnam, that a secret war was fought. (Family Photo) People often ask: "Did you suspect anything?" Minnesota Remembers Vietnam: America's Secret War explores the untold, turbulent history. The U.S. dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on the impoverished country during its “secret war” between 1964 and 1973 — about a ton of ordnance for each Laotian man, woman and child. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Like many older Hmong refugees in Fresno, Su Thao fought in the CIA’s secret war in Laos. At the end of the documentary, the listener is left grasping at half-truths and flickers of honesty. © 2021 Association of the United States Army, AUSA Now – 2020 Annual Meeting & Exposition. Throughout production of the radio documentary, there was a muscular social pressure to admonish my father, Tom Norton, and the CIA. Read about our approach to external linking. "I do wonder what will happen to all of this when I'm gone," Tom said. The AUSA Book Program offers quality books about Army heritage, military theory and policy, and security in the modern world. Most Americans first began to hear about Laos in 1961, at a time when that country's neighbor to the east, Vietnam, was equally unknown. I think he was both effective and an impressive leader for his two years serving in the Land of a Million Elephants, starting in August of 1960. This program permits AUSA members to purchase these titles at a discounted rate. Their strategic mission was to prevent the country from toppling over to the communist side (or at least keep it neutral) while U.S. conventional forces fought next door in … Joshua Kurlantzick, A Great Place to Have a War: America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA (Simon & Schuster, 2017) If you work at it, you can make a case that Americans fought on the right side in Vietnam. Laos, “U.S. You're still the same people," Tom said. In the shadows of the Vietnam War, the CIA conducted a secret war in Laos that relied on Hmong soldiers to prevent the threat of communism from spreading deeper into Southeast Asia. Many of the disparaging critiques of the CIA in Laos were simpler for me to explain away - some decisions were profoundly out of the control of my father or Tom Norton. On that chaotic morning, the Secret War … As we drove through our town, a suburban huddle of strip malls and telephone poles, he told me he had worked undercover for the CIA for almost 40 years. The US fought a secret war in Laos from 1960 to 1973! Laotian officials give the same figures. But now materials are finally being declassified. This is the story of Thai civilians who volunteered to fight in Laos as Forward Air Guides (FAGs) in support of Thai, Lao and U.S. forces in the Laotian Civil War (1953-75), a key battleground of the Second Indochina War. September 9, … He was taken to a military base, given a gun, and trained to clean, load, and shoot it. Veterans of ‘Secret War’ in Laos seek U.S. military burial rights As Hmong veterans have aged, they’ve begun to focus on issues common to all veterans, including burial with military honors. Or maybe I assumed it was an isolated incident, occurring elsewhere - wherever my father was not. U.S. aid had been flowing into Laos since 1954, the year French forces fell at Dien Bien Phu. When you're growing up, everything your parents do is unbearably normal, until you're old enough to realise it's not. There are thousands like me. Before the war, between 300,000 and 400,000 Hmong lived in Laos. Before he died, he turned to me sitting beside his hospital bed and said: "I'm prouder of what we did in Laos than just about anything, other than you boys.". There was open battling between the American‐aided Royal Lao Army and the Pathet Lao, aided by North Vietnamese troops, in the areas surrounding Laos's main cities. By Robert Kaylor. 4 views. “Laos would prove so successful — for presidents and for the C.I.A., that is — that it would become a template for a new type of large, secret war for decades to come,” he writes. No, my brothers and I never suspected anything. And, it was quite a messy and complicated affair. Share. Heirs of the ‘Secret War’ in Laos. One of its goals is to foster an understanding of the emerging security environment. But this is precisely what it was like to be a spy's son. NAKHON PHANOM, Thailand (UPI)- The U.S. Air Force is waging a secret and unconventional phase of the air war in Southeast Asia from this base across the Mekong River from Laos. I almost booked a ticket to Laos in search of answers, but after a series of phone calls, my coproducer, Nick Farago, and I found the person we needed to speak to in California's Central Valley. "Oh," my father said. Tens of thousands died, both in the fight and in the escape. "Peter, it's time to tell you about the family business," my dad said as he tapped his fingers on the wheel waiting for a red light. My father had a deadpan sense of humour, but if this was another dad joke, I thought, it seemed very elaborate and not very funny. More often, it seems to satisfy our own thirst for righteousness, rather than bring about change. Vang Pao, Hmong Leader And General Who Led Secret War In Laos, Has Died : The Two-Way He was known to some of his countryman as the George Washington of the Hmong. Brown juggled the U.S. response to the Kong Le coup in late 1960, Kennedy’s transition of the U.S. forces in Laos under a MAAG [Military Assistance Advisory Group] in April 1961, the expansion of Green Beret teams into the country, and the running of the clandestine and covert unconventional warfare programs. Tom wrote back and invited me down to South Carolina for a visit. America's Secret War in Laos was recounted Saturday at the McConnell Foundation where speakers from the Lao and Mien communities in Shasta County told stories of how they fought … From 1964 to 1972, far beyond the battlefields of Vietnam and the glare of media distortions, American Green Berets and their indigenous troops fought a deadly secret war in Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam under the aegis of the top secret Military Assistance Command Vietnam — Studies and Observations Group, or simply SOG. His service was honored Tuesday in a ceremony at the Hero’s Cafe in Lynnwood. Roger Arnold January 19, 2007 Song Tua Ya carries his AK-47 and young son while maintaining village security. Meanwhile Laos … The reason the campaign in Laos had to waged in secret was the terms of the Geneva Accords signed between the United States and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) on July 23, 1962, that guaranteed the neutrality of the Kingdom of Laos, a … From 1964 to 1972, far beyond the battlefields of Vietnam and the glare of media distortions, American Green Berets and their indigenous troops fought a deadly secret war in Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam under the aegis of the top secret Military Assistance Command Vietnam — Studies and Observations Group, or simply SOG. By Arnold R. Isaacs. "Secret War" Veterans Granted National Cemetery Burials. Say Chao Thao, who served in the CIA’s secret war in Laos, died in 2017 at age 70. The Ravens also flew armed reconnaissance, seeking out North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao forces along the Ho Chi Minh trail to attack. It was the height of the Cold War, and the CIA sent my father and a … I asked Tom Norton at his home in South Carolina. The trans women's leader no-one messes with, Click here to listen to the documentary, The CIA's Secret War in Laos. By Mai Der Vang. The summer before university, my dad and I went for a drive in the old Volvo - just the two of us, something we never did. Vang fought … But many in the CIA knew the resistance was destined to fail; the Hmong were horse flies trying to take down a water buffalo. A major reason is that while the Vietnam War was administered by the U.S. State Department, fought by the U.S. Armed Forces and widely covered by the media, the war in Laos was run and fought … An estimated 30,000 people, more than 10 percent of the Hmong population in Laos, were killed in the war and about 100,000 Hmong became refugees inside Laos… Walter Cronkite didn’t talk about it on the six-o’clock news, because according to the government it never happened. Rindfleisch Published on May 13, 2021 Discovery Times Television Documentary on The Ravens: Covert War in Laos. Click on the link to see the article. He was a strong supporter of the use of U.S. Army Special Forces to achieve his diplomatic objectives. After the Vietnam War ended, the CIA abruptly pulled out of Laos, leaving thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of Hmong to flee. A new book by Joshua Kurlantzick examines how the U.S. involvement in Laos in the 1960s and 1970s transformed the CIA from an intelligence-gathering organization into a war-fighting one. He was 15 years old when he joined that force, which was aligned with the CIA in … #Ravens #Laos … It's hard to determine whether the CIA were empowering the Hmong, or hiring them. Accompany your advised unit into the field and fight with them in combat – that’s key and essential to have credibility as an advisor. The secret war in Laos began with a few occasional hill tribe employees but by the late 1970's had turned into a multi-U.S.-intelligence agency supported 30,000+ member 'Secret Army' of irregulars who : secured villages, fought invaders, defended against civil war enemies, protected secret U.S. installations that 'officially' didn't exist, rescued downed American pilots from places they didn't 'officially' fly over, etc. You have to simultaneously advise and train the senior leadership, the political leadership, and the military institutions which support the security force – schools, logistics, medical system, air support, manufacturing of local arms and weapons, intelligence systems and so forth. They admonished the way the CIA disappeared, resulting in a Hmong exodus to Thailand. I gave Xing the opportunity to admonish the CIA and the US - a man with as much right as anyone to be upset - but he decidedly did not take it. The photo of the child soldier completely changed the path of the documentary. By Bob Woodruff and Karson Yiu. He saw his first firefight when he was 12 years old. We spent the better part of a week talking, drinking scotch, digging through mountains of old papers, tapes, slides, and video footage. My favorite pastime is reading, researching, and writing about U.S. Army Green Berets – Special Forces – and the exploits of the wider SOF community. The Secret Is Out: U.S. Base Isnt Secret Any More. Click here to listen to the documentary, The CIA's Secret War in Laos. As a result, covert American operations combined elements of the military, the State Department and the CIA, all under the control of the U.S. ambassador. The Laos–Hmong memorial commemorates the veterans of the "Secret War" in Laos who fought against invading Soviet Union-backed North Vietnam Army forces of the People's Army of Vietnam and communist Pathet Lao guerrillas. Wheat, The Hmong & Americans Secret War in . At first, the Hmongs were used only to gather intelligence on the North Vietnamese movements in Laos but by the mid-1960s, under the leadership of Major General Vang Pao, the Hmong soldiers were rescuing any downed U.S. Air Force pilots and/or injured soldiers, flying combat missions, and fighting the ground war. Phetsamay Sichanthavong is a smiley, friendly, and warm 30-year-old Lao woman whose life may seem pretty normal at first. For decades, little was publicly known about the war. How the U.S. Secret War in Laos Is Still Happening Today. The Laotian Civil War was fought from 1961-1975, in the midst of the Vietnam War. Celeski: Ambassador Winthrop G. Brown. I set out to learn what my father did in Laos, but the answers I found were unsatisfying, still shrouded in secrecy. The Ravens: Covert War in Laos - The CIA's Secret War during Vietnam and the Men Who Fought It. One said my father had a great laugh and owed him $18. Other Links. Schofield worked 5½ years providing medical support for the Hmong and other Hill Tribes who fought the CIA’s secret war in Northern Laos, and was among the last Americans to leave SE Asia in May 1975. It was a surreal time and place that would be impossible to even imagine today. The Ravens: The Men who Flew in America's Secret War in Laos. "Yes. They are frozen in amber and each time we conjure them, we distort them. The war in Laos was the biggest clandestine operation ever run by the CIA. When the Americans withdrew from Laos in 1973, hundreds of thousands of refugees fled the country, and many of them ultimately resettled in the United States. He also said he would take a cheque. ... Gen. Vang Pao and his Hmong guerrillas fought alongside the Americans. When he didn't smirk and the silence became dense, it occurred to me that he was serious. Retrospectively, both sides seem to think they were working for the benefit of the other. Celeski: There are a few worth mentioning, and I do not want to take away anything from all of the Army veterans who served and fought in Laos in many engagements between the Pathet Lao and the North Vietnamese Army. My father died a few years after our talk in the station wagon. I remember these men from childhood. The Laotian Civil War (1959–1975) was a civil war in Laos which was waged between the Communist Pathet Lao (including many North Vietnamese of Lao ancestry) and the Royal Lao Government from 23 May 1959 to 2 December 1975. Men with codenames like Mule and Igor emailed me. Hmong and Lao Soldiers Fought in Secret During the Vietnam War By TPT Originals July 29, 2019 Aiming to stop what the US government feared might be a domino effect of Southeast Asia countries falling into the hands of the communists, the CIA recruited, trained and supported Hmong soldiers and medical personnel in a “quiet war” that unfolded in Laos. ... Gen. Vang Pao and his Hmong guerrillas fought alongside the Americans. What: A memorial statue will honor the Hmong-Lao veterans who fought during the Secret War in Laos. When all is said and done, the only admonishment I have for my father is that he never discussed his life with me. “The United States acknowledges that the Hmong people fought for them,” says Secret War in Laos . This review originally appeared at WarOnTheRocks.com. The natural caves were the perfect place to carve out bunkers, sleeping quarters and offices to shelter the Pathet Lao Communist movement during the Laotian Civil War. This link to another publication has some very interesting and poignant details of the war we fought. What did the United States promise if the Hmong fought for them? Celeski: Probably in late 2013, and certainly by January of 2014 after my goal of working at least 10 years after retirement in September 2004 before finding a new hobby. Though many Hmong and ethnic people fought in the Secret War, many veterans may not know the geographic layout of Laos and distribution of the Military resources of men and fighting. It was also an interagency run war – State Department, Department of Defense, the intelligence community, USIS, USAID, and so on. As I set out to work on a radio documentary about the CIA's involvement in Laos, I emailed a few of my dad's agency buddies. Harvesting Pa . Just type in 'Secret War in Laos', in any search engine, and you will get thousands of results. To order a copy of The Green Berets in the Land of a Million Elephants, visit www.ausa.org/books. But this single photo shattered all of that. Much of the activities of the United States in this war were clandestine and covert to circumvent the very many restrictions of the Geneva Agreements and protocols of the 1950s to prevent any introduction of foreign military forces into the country. 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