Research Catalog

Back fire : the CIA's secret war in Laos and its link to the war in Vietnam

Title: Back fire : the CIA's secret war in Laos and its link to the war in Vietnam / Roger Warner.
Author: Warner, Roger
Publication: New York : Simon & Schuster, ©1995.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	DS559.73.L28 W37 1995	Off-site

Details

Description

416 pages : illustrations, maps; 25 cm

Summary

The history of America's war in Vietnam has been incomplete. The origins of that conflict -- the most controversial and painful chapter in American history since the Civil War -- were in Laos, a remote, landlocked, mountainous country where the CIA waged a secret war against communism. Drawing on unprecedented access to previously closed files and on extensive interviews, Back Fire fills in the last missing piece in the puzzle of America's tragic involvement in Southeast Asia. Taking us to the heart of the war in Laos -- from CIA headquarters in Washington to the Hmong tribesmen's huts, where ideals were discussed and promises made and then broken -- Roger Warner tells the previously untold story of the secret war through the experiences of the key players. Beyond his narrative of key players and events, Warner shows how the secret war in Laos was connected to the larger war in Vietnam, and how Vietnam was central to the shifting alliances of Cold War geopolitical rivals.

Subject

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 378-396) and index.

Contents

The coup -- The quiet Texan -- The meeting -- Momentum begins -- Shooting at the moon -- Vang Pao's mistake -- The withdrawal -- Udorn and Long Tieng -- Hard rice -- The bureaucracy -- Nation-building -- The wedding -- The trail -- The seesaw war -- The ambassador -- Vietnam -- The high-water mark -- From a country store to a supermarket -- The Taj Mahal -- Commando club -- Branfman and Lawrence -- Ted didn't know shit about tactical warfare -- Sayaboury time -- The opium trade -- My favor -- No commitment -- The invasion -- Cat and mouse -- Peace was at hand -- The second withdrawal -- The fall -- Land of the 847 elephants -- The American aftermath.

ISBN

9780671690748
0671690744
9780684802923
0684802929

LCCN

95005758

OCLC

ocm32052021
32052021
SCSB-14471886

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library