Title: A 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
Time periods: 20th century