Great Place to Have a War

Description:

1960. President Eisenhower was focused on Laos, a tiny Southeast Asian nation. Washington feared the country would fall to communism, triggering a domino effect in the rest of Southeast Asia. In January 1961, Eisenhower approved the CIA's Operation Momentum, a plan to create a proxy army of ethnic Hmong to fight communist forces in Laos. Kurlantzick shows how the brutal war lasted nearly two decades, killed one-tenth of Laos's total population, and changed the nature of the CIA forever.

subjects: United States,  Vietnam War, 1961-1975,  United States. Central Intelligence Agency,  Campaigns,  Secret service,  History,  New York Times reviewed,  HISTORY / Asia / Southeast Asia,  HISTORY / Military / Vietnam War,  POLITICAL SCIENCE / Intelligence & Espionage,  United states, central intelligence agency,  Vietnam war, 1961-1975, campaigns

Places: United States,  Laos

Times: 20th century