Download or read book Thailand s Secret War written by E. Bruce Reynolds and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-01-06 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an absorbing account of secret operations and political intrigue in wartime Thailand. During World War II Free Thai organisations co-operated with Allied intelligence agencies in an effort to rescue their nation from the consequences of its 1941 alliance with Japan. They largely succeeded despite internal differences and the conflicting interests and policies of their would-be-allies, China, Great Britain and the United States. London's determination to punish Thailand placed the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) at a serious disadvantage in its rivalry with the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The US State Department, in contrast, strongly supported OSS operations in Thailand, viewing them as a vehicle for promoting American political and economic influence in mainland Southeast Asia. Declassification of the records of the OSS and the SOE permits full revelation of this complex story of heroic action and political intrigue.
Download or read book Covert Ops written by James E. Parker and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1997-11-15 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the same time the Vietnam War was being broadcast into the living rooms of Americans across the country the CIA was conducting a large-scale secret war in northeastern Laos that few heard about. Agency case officer Jim Parker's five years of combat and immersion in Southeast Asian culture had a lasting influence on him and his family. His dramatic, provocative reminiscence of those years is the first account by a participant to portray America's involvement in Laos.
Download or read book A Great Place to Have a War written by Joshua Kurlantzick and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-01-24 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The untold story of how America’s secret war in Laos in the 1960s transformed the CIA from a loose collection of spies into a military operation and a key player in American foreign policy. January, 1961: Laos, a tiny nation few Americans have heard of, is at risk of falling to communism and triggering a domino effect throughout Southeast Asia. This is what President Eisenhower believed when he approved the CIA’s Operation Momentum, creating an army of ethnic Hmong to fight communist forces there. Largely hidden from the American public—and most of Congress—Momentum became the largest CIA paramilitary operation in the history of the United States. The brutal war lasted more than a decade, left the ground littered with thousands of unexploded bombs, and changed the nature of the CIA forever. With “revelatory reporting” and “lucid prose” (The Economist), Kurlantzick provides the definitive account of the Laos war, focusing on the four key people who led the operation: the CIA operative whose idea it was, the Hmong general who led the proxy army in the field, the paramilitary specialist who trained the Hmong forces, and the State Department careerist who took control over the war as it grew. Using recently declassified records and extensive interviews, Kurlantzick shows for the first time how the CIA’s clandestine adventures in one small, Southeast Asian country became the template for how the United States has conducted war ever since—all the way to today’s war on terrorism.
Download or read book Battle for Skyline Ridge written by James E. Parker and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An incredibly powerful account of a little-known chapter in the Vietnam War saga” written by a CIA veteran who fought in the Secret War (Booklist, starred review). In the 1960s and ’70s, the Laotian Civil War became a covert theater for the conflict in Vietnam, with the US paramilitary backing the Royal Lao government in what came to be known among the CIA as the Secret War. In late 1971, the North Vietnamese Army launched Campaign Z, invading northern Laos on a mission to defeat the Royal Lao Army. General Giap had specifically ordered the NVA troops to kill the CIA army and occupy its field headquarters in the Long Tieng valley. The NVA faced the small rag-tag army of Vang Pao, mostly Thai irregulars recruited to fight for the CIA. But thousands more were quickly recruited, trained, and rushed into position in Laos to defend against the impending NVA invasion. Despite overwhelming odds in the NVA’s favor, the battle raged for more than one hundred days—the longest battle in the Vietnam War. In the end, it all came down to Skyline Ridge. Whoever won Skyline, won Laos. Historian James E. Parker Jr. served as a CIA paramilitary officer in Laos. In this authoritative and personal account, Parker draws from his own firsthand experience as well as extensive research into CIA files and North Vietnamese after-action reports in order to tell the full story of the battle of Skyline Ridge.
Download or read book Cold War Monks written by Eugene Ford and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- One: The Buddhist World and the United States at the Onset of the Cold War, 1941-1954 -- Two: Washington Formulates a Buddhist Policy, 1954-1957 -- Three: Thailand and the International Buddhist Arena, 1956-1962 -- Four: Reforming the Monks: The Cold War and Clerical Education in Thailand and Laos, 1954-1961 -- Five: Thailand and the International Response to the 1963 Buddhist Crisis in South Vietnam -- Six: Enforcing the Code: South Vietnam's "Struggle Movement" and the Limits of Thai Buddhist Conservatism -- Seven: Thailand's Buddhist Hierarchy Confronts Its Challengers, 1967-1975 -- Eight: The Rage of Thai Buddhism, 1975-1980 -- Conclusion: From Byoto to Kittivudho -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Z
Download or read book Covert Warrior written by Warner Smith and published by Presidio Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Relates experiences in Vietnam as part of a CIA-created covert combat unit
Download or read book Special Air Warfare and the Secret War in Laos written by Air University Press and published by . This book was released on 2019-07-02 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of special air warfare and the Air Commandos who served for the ambassadors in Laos from 1964 to 1975 is captured through extensive research and veteran interviews. The author has meticulously put together a comprehensive overview of the involvement of USAF Air Commandos who served in Laos as trainers, advisors, and clandestine combat forces to prevent the communist takeover of the Royal Lao Government. This book includes pictures of those operations, unveils what had been a US government secret war, and adds a substantial contribution to understanding the wider war in Southeast Asia.
Download or read book Quiet Spy Secret War written by M. H. Burton and published by . This book was released on 2019-08-26 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He was the CIA's most effective agent in Southeast Asia, yet few knew his name or what he did. One high ranking diplomat wrote a scholarly account of the Secret War in Laos but didn't mention him. Didn't mention the guy who was literally running the Secret War during the years that this Embassy-bound "authority" was stationed in Vientiane. He was the number one expert on the political and military situation in both Thailand and Laos. Spoke the languages fluently. Understood the people and empathized with them. Knew all the all the movers and shakers and, just as importantly, knew the people at the bottom of those rigidly hierarchical societies. Knew the peasants and the press-ganged draftees who did the dirty work of war and suffered its losses. Knew everyone from top to bottom. Even knew HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand. Spent 18 years in Thailand and Laos, married the sister of one of Thailand's most prominent statesmen. Held the rank of Colonel in the Royal Thai Police.Yet he was a quiet self-effacing man. Never out front. Working behind the scenes. No taste for either fame or fortune. Staying in the background until action was needed then striking decisively fast and effectively. Not what you would expect in a spy. Not handsome or dashing. Speaking slowly and carefully. Always to the point without so much as a single un-needed word. So reticent that many dismissed him as a low-level "field man". He didn't mind that. Such arrogance amused him. He knew what he was, and he knew he was in charge. He saved his brilliance for when it was needed and usually delivered it in writing rather than verbally.So, what exactly did James William "Bill" Lair do? He trained spies, guerilla warriors, and anti-guerilla warriors; directed a paramilitary army of 30,000 in battle; busted drug lords; ran an intelligence gathering net that spanned Thailand, Laos and parts of China; fed and rescued war refugees. That's just for starters. The poor fatherless boy who grew up in the rough vicious oil boomtowns of the Texas Panhandle during 1920s-30s, went off to the bloody beaches of Normandy, got a GI Bill degree from a Cow College, and carried his Texas backcountry twang to Southeast Asia may have sounded like a hick to his polished associates, but they often found that there was more to plain old countrified Bill than met their eye. Some came to call him "The Lawrence of Laos". Not that bad a description except that he was much more successful at what he did than T. E. Lawrence... and he never wrote any books about his exploits...So I have.
Download or read book Hmong in America Journey from a Secret War written by Tim Pfaff and published by Chippewa Valley Museum. This book was released on 1995 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In 1961, U.S. President Kennedy sent CIA operatives into northern Laos to recruit a secret army to fight communist forces in Laos and Vietnam. For fifteen years, Hmong highlanders attacked the Ho Chi Minh Trail, guarded U.S. radar installations, and acted as the frontline defense of Laos. In 1975 the Americans withdrew. Thousands of Hmong families fled to Thailand. After months or years in refugee camps, most resettled in the United States. There they faced the imposing challenge of starting a new life in a highly industrialized, technology-driven society with radically different cultural values and practices."--Back cover.
Download or read book My Secret War written by Richard S. Drury and published by St Martins Press. This book was released on 1989-02-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first-hand account of pilot Richard Drury captures the eerie beauty of Asia and the ugliness of war as aerial missions of raw courage were carried out in a war that officially did not exist. A classic true-life account of combat-action and adventure in the air over Laos.
Download or read book The Making of Hmong America written by Kou Yang and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-10-05 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study documents Hmong’s involvement in the Secret War in Laos, their refugee exodus from Laos to the refugee camps in Thailand, and the challenges to find third countries to take Hmong refugees. At the time, Hmong and other highlander refugees from Laos were considered unsuitable to be resettled into the United States. He provides detailed research on the adaptation of Hmong Americans to their new lives in the United States, facing discrimination and prejudice, and the advancement of Hmong Americans over the past 40 years. He presents the Hmong American community as an uprooted refugee community that grew from a small population in 1975 to more than 300,000 by the year 2015; spreading to all 50 states while becoming a diverse and complex American ethnic community. To get better insight into their diversity, complexity, and adaptation to different localities, Kou Yang uses the Hmong communities in Montana, Fresno and Denver as case studies. The progress of Hmong Americans over the past 4 decades is highlighted with a list of many achievements in education, high-tech, academia, political participation, the military and other fields. Readers of this book will gain a deeper understanding of the challenges, complex and diverse experience of the Hmong American community. They will also obtain insight into the overall experience of the Hmong, an ethnic people of Diaspora, found in Asia, the Americas, Africa, Australia, and Europe. They are like bristle-cone pines on the rock that have been exposed to all types of weather, climate and conditions, but they won't die.
Download or read book Secret Army Secret War written by Sedgwick Downey Tourison and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Former Army intelligence officer and Defense Intelligence Agency analyst "Wick" Tourison unravels the tragically flawed and costly operation that according to many analysts helped trigger, the Vietnam War. Some b & w photos. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
Download or read book Back Fire written by Roger Warner and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1960 to 1973, the United States and the communist powers waged a hidden war in Laos, which led ultimately to the catastrophe of the Vietnam War. Warner's groundbreaking book offers the first full account of this secret war, based on his access to previously closed files and to interviews with intelligence players, military officers and government officials who have not spoken out before.
Download or read book Fly Until You Die written by Chia Youyee Vang and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-05 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Vietnam War, the US Air Force secretly trained pilots from Laos, skirting Lao neutrality in order to bolster the Royal Lao Air Force and their own war efforts. Beginning in 1964, this covert project, "Water Pump," operated out of Udorn Airbase in Thailand with the support of the CIA. This Secret War required recruits from Vietnam-border region willing to take great risks--a demand that was met by the marginalized Hmong ethnic minority. Soon, dozens of Hmong men were training at Water Pump and providing air support to the US-sponsored clandestine army in Laos. Short and problematic training that resulted in varied skill levels, ground fire, dangerous topography, bad weather conditions, and poor aircraft quality, however, led to a nearly 50 percent casualty rate, and those pilots who survived mostly sought refuge in the United States after the war. Drawing from numerous oral history interviews, Fly Until You Die brings their stories to light for the first time--in the words of those who lived it.
Download or read book The Ideal Man written by Joshua Kurlantzick and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2011-10-13 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the West's greatest spy in Asia tried to stop the new American way of war—and the steep price he paid for failing Jim Thompson landed in Thailand at the end of World War II, a former American society dilettante who became an Asian legend as a spy and silk magnate with access to Thai worlds outsiders never saw. As the Cold War reached Thailand, America had a choice: Should it, as Thompson believed, help other nations build democracies from their traditional cultures or, as his ex-OSS friend Willis Bird argued, remake the world through deception and self-serving alliances? In a story rich with insights and intrigue, this book explores a key Cold War episode that is still playing out today. Highlights a pivotal moment in Cold War history that set a course for American foreign policy that is still being followed today Explores the dynamics that put Thailand at the center of the Cold War and the fighting in neighboring Laos that escalated from sideshow to the largest covert operation America had ever engaged in Draws on personal recollections and includes atmospheric details that bring the people, events—and the Thailand of the time—to life Written by a journalist with extensive experience in Asian affairs who has spent years investigating every aspect of this story, including Thompson's tragic disappearance
Download or read book The Secret Vietnam War written by Jeffrey D. Glasser and published by McFarland. This book was released on 1995 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. Air Force operated from seven primary bases in Thailand and nearly 300,000 servicemen were stationed in the country. Through extensive research, including previously classified government documents, and interviews with airmen who flew the missions, a detailed history of Air Force operations in Thailand emerges. The primary focus is on the units, their missions and the aircraft involved. The plight of POWs who flew from the Thai bases is also thoroughly examined, with a discussion of the current status of the POW/MIA issue.
Download or read book Siam and World War I written by Stefan Hell and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In English.
