Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE SECRET WAR IN LAOS
Before his assassination in 1963, President John F Kennedy gave the order to recruit a force of 11,000
Hmong under the command of Vang Pao. They were trained by several hundred US and Thai Special
Forces advisers and supplied by Air America, all under the supervision of the CIA. The secret war had
begun.
In 1964 the US began its air war over Laos. According to official figures, the US dropped
2,093,100 tonnes of bombs in 580,944 sorties. The total cost was US$7.2 billion, or US$2 million a
day for nine years. No one knows how many people died, but one-third of the population of 2.1 milli-
on became internal refugees.
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