page_title: Long Tieng
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Long Tieng / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Long Tieng, Laos, in December 12, 1973
context_page_description: Long Tieng is a Laotian military base located in Xaisomboun Province. During the Laotian Civil War, it served as a town and airbase operated by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States. During this time, it was also referred to as Lima Site 98 or Lima Site 20A.
  At the height of its significance in the late 1960s, the "secret city" of Long Tieng maintained a population of 40,000 inhabitants, making it the second largest city in Laos at the time, although it never appeared on maps throughout this period.
context_section_description: Long Tieng was often described as "The Most Secret Place on Earth".  It was located in a valley at 3,100 feet elevation, high enough to have chilly nights and cold fogs.  It was surrounded by mountains and on the northwest side of the runway were karst outcrops several hundred feet high.  In the shadow of the Karst outcrops was "Sky" the CIA headquarters in Long Tieng.  Jerry Daniels, a CIA officer codenamed "Hog," is said to have named Sky after his home state of Montana, known as "Big Sky Country." Long Tieng was protected on three sides by limestone mountains.
  "What a place is Long Tieng," said USAID officer Jim Schill. "Tribal soldiers dressed in military garb standing next to traditionally dressed Hmong, with Thai mercenaries milling about.  And the Americans here are mostly CIA operatives with goofy code names like Hog, Mr. Clean, and Junkyard.  The town itself is not much.  There's one paved road running through it and tin shacks on either side with eating shops, food stalls, and living quarters."
  During the Secret War, Long Tieng became the largest Hmong settlement in the world. In the words of one author, Long Tieng "became a desultory metropolis, an unpaved, sewerless city of 30,000 where Hmong ran noodle stands, cobbled shoes, tailored clothes, repaired radios, ran military-jeep taxi services, and interpreted for American pilots and relief workers."
caption: Long Tieng in 1973
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