A Great Place to Have a War: America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA by Kurlantzick Joshua

Author:Kurlantzick, Joshua [Kurlantzick, Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2017-01-24T05:00:00+00:00

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The bombing of the Plain had temporarily demoralized the North Vietnamese, cut their supply lines, and helped force them to retreat. But more than any other air attacks during the war, it also had come at a great price. The civilian toll on the Plain of Jars was the highest of the war, with all but 9,000 of the 150,000 people who had lived there either killed, wounded, or forced to flee the area.

The Nixon administration had supported massive bombing of the Plain out of worry that the war’s cover would soon be blown, but Operation About Face would actually speed up leaks about the war to the American public. The size of the offensive on the Plain was so large in terms of combatants, deaths, and territory fought over that the Hmong, the agency, and the embassy in Vientiane just could not keep some details about the fighting from getting out to the press and to Congress. And the intense bombing of the Plain of Jars, which left the region virtually uninhabitable, turned the Laotian civilians who managed to stay alive into refugees. Many headed for the capital. With so many people pouring into Vientiane, it was almost inevitable that American reporters, who spent most of their time in Laos in the city, would finally come face-to- face with Laotians caught in the war.

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