The Secret War

Hmong War Heroism to Join History Texts For nearly 15 years, more than 40,000 Hmong and Iu Mien mountain guerrillas — some as young as 12 — fought the CIA's secret war against the Pathet Lao Communists and the North Vietnamese army. Though vastly outgunned and outnumbered, the Hmong and Mien tribesmen fought the Communists to a standstill in northern Laos until 1973, blocked the Ho Chi Minh Trail — the Communists' main supply route into South Vietnam — and rescued more than 100 downed U.S. pilots.

CIA Air Operations in Laos, 1955-1974: Supporting the "Secret War"
Laotian independence suited the policy of the United States, so long as the government remained non-Communist. Laos represented one of the dominos in Southeast Asia that concerned President Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Although the country had little intrinsic value, its geographical position placed it in the center of the Cold War in Southeast Asia. If Laos fell to the Communists, Thailand might be next, according to the domino theory. And the collapse of Thailand would lead to Communist domination of Southeast Asia--and perhaps beyond.

CIA's Secret War is Revealed as Laos Jails European Journalists
"When the United States pulled out of the war in Vietnam and left South-east Asia [in 1975], we left the Hmong, Mien, Khamu, and Lao soldiers who fought in the CIA-sponsored Secret Army of Laos to fend for themselves."

Laos: The "Secret War"
As a result of the war, a peak number of 378,800 internally displaced persons were being cared for by the RLG in October 1973.

Laos: Three Perspectives On a Secret War
While the United States committed half a million men to Vietnam in an effort to defeat the enemy with overwhelming firepower and superior numbers, in Laos the CIA-sponsored guerrillas, with significant American air support directed by Raven FACs, fought and often defeated Pathet Lao forces and regular units of the North Vietnamese Army.