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BACK FIRE: The CIA's Secret War in Laos and It's Link to the War in Vietnam

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It is disappointing to learn that Roger Warner's excellent work is now out of print. He and the publisher Simon & Schuster did a national service in producing "Back Fire: The CIA's Secret War in Laos and Its Link to the War in Vietnam." One can only hope that a softcover edition will be forthcoming.

Good history doesn't spring readily into public consciousness, no matter how well researched or written. The Vietnam War and related events still carry too much baggage for the American public to embrace easily ... perhaps in another generation this will change.

When attitudes do change (and they surely will), Warner's efforts to unravel and explain the events that transpired across Vietnam's western border in the 1960s and 1970s will provide a springboard to understanding and future research.

I found that "Back Fire" answered many questions about my own involvement in the war during those troubled times. One instance in particular that Warner recounts was the secret operation of a radar facility on a mountain in northern Laos, from which fighter bombers were vectored to targets in North Vietnam. The installation was destroyed in a desperate fight after outnumbered and unsupported defenders were overwhelmed by North Vietnamese regular troops. Later, not many miles away, a similar radar system was reestablished on a peak in the northern part of South Vietnam near the A Shau Valley. It too came under attack by enemy regulars and its defenders withdrew after a 23-day siege. (See Keith Nolan's "Ripcord: Screaming Eagles Under Siege, Vietnam 1970.")

There are many key individuals that make up this intriguing tale. One of the most interesting is the charismatic Vang Pao, a Humong (or Meo) tribesman who rose from obscurity to lead the only effective Laotian army to fight the communists. Tragically for the Humong, when the U.S. sent combat troops to South Vietnam the CIA lost control of the air war in Laos. Subsequent mismanagement of air assets began the downward spiral of defeat for the tribesmen.

In the end, "Back Fire" is about more than just secrecy. It is about the cruel side of war and about war's illusions. It chronicles the sacrifices of small countries and naive, primitive groups to the hubris of more powerful neighbors and larger countries.

If you can get a copy of "Back Fire," do so. It will be an acquisition the military historian and history buff will not regret.

While the Vietnam war was played out on your television screens a related war in neighboring Laos took place outside the line of vision of most Americans. It was a different kind of war. In Vietnam hundreds of thousands of American soldiers tried to hold ground and kill the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops. In Laos, a few American civilians working mostly for the CIA helped the Hmong hill people fight a guerilla war against the North Vietnamese. The ragtag forces of the Hmong kept three top-notch North Vietnamese divisions tied down in Laos for more than a decade.

This unconventional war attracted unconventional people. Chief among them was Vang Pao, the charismatic Hmong general, who ranks with Massoud in Afghanistan as a genius in conducting a war on the cheap against a larger and better-armed force. The Americans helping the Hmong were a colorful lot. First and foremost was Bill Lair, the quiet, competent agent who organized the Hmong forces. Then, "Pop" Buell a middle aged Indiana farmer who came to Laos as an agricultural advisor making $75 per month and became a key figure in the war. Jerry "Hog" Daniels, a swashbucking Montana smokejumper who was Vang Pao's trusted CIA case officer, is reputedly the model for Mel Gibson's "Air America" character. Many other characters of rare quality dot the pages of this book. Laos in the 1960s and 1970s was a war that appealed to those who didn't fit into the conventional military mold.

"Backfire" is the definitive account of the secret war in Laos which ended with the withdrawal of the US -- and some would say the abandonment of the Hmong --in 1975 and the flight of tens of thousands of them to Thailand, and subsequently to the United States. This is one of the essential books on the Indochinese conflict. "Backfire" has also been published under the title "Shooting at the Moon."

Smallchief

NOTE: This book is still in print under the title "Shooting at the Moon". That edition also features additional photos and info from the author.

Warner's history of the Laotian conflict from 1960-1975 is an amazing story of a secret war run by secret agents working for a secret agency.

Hidden behind the Vietnam War, the author reveals facts about the "secret war" that was even more critical than Vietnam at top levels of government. This book will change your understanding of modern Southeast Asian history and the magnitude of the challenges the United States faced.

What makes this book engaging, and at times absolutely riveting, is that Warner gained full access to the hidden CIA operative, Mr. William Lair, who laid the foundation for this secret American paramilitary campaign.

December 7th, 1941 is the day Lair's life changed forever. He was a 17 year old student at Texas A&M University when America was attacked. He convinced his mother to allow her only son to join the army so he could defend the ideals he grew up with in America's heartland.

He landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy with the 3rd Armored Division and fought his way to the Elbe River. There, he came face to face with Stalin's troops. He and many of his partners in arms realized that the next war, with a more fearsome enemy, had already begun. Communism was about to become a rising tide that would cover nearly half the planet.

After the war, Lair returned to Texas A&M and completed his degree. A new government agency formed less than three years earlier was on campus interviewing. Lair and his friends had never heard of it. It was called the CIA. He signed up.

In March, 1951, the CIA sent Lair to Bangkok on a seemingly impossible mission reminiscent of the opening scene of Apocalypse Now.

Lair's first and only mission was to fight communist insurgency in Thailand and in surrounding countries. He would travel, alone, to a third world nation with few English speaking people. Once there, he must organize a cadre of local fighters by any means necessary and train them in guerilla warfare. The budget was slim. Some surplus WWII weapons were available.

Lair took the job and Warner takes us on his incredible adventure.

Warner paints a fair picture of the background, situations and players in the Laotian conflict. His

individual portraits ring true but the characters worthy of respect in the book are few and far between.

The "secret war" was filled with bungling bureaucrats, deceptive diplomats, corrupt businessmen, Asian warlords, greedy opportunists and loose cannons. Warner's history of the Laos conflict accurately reads like a train that's out of control. Some mistakes seem obvious but it's hard to see exactly which things could have been done differently to shift the outcomes.

Lair, a quiet, soft spoken man, rises to his challenge to become an American Lawrence of Arabia. He raises a 30,000 man secret army of Laotian and Thai fighters that actually stops the communist war machine. Until decisions at high levels of government in the Soviet Union, Vietnam, China and the United States changed the course of history and the outcome.

Despite the fact that this war ended 30 years ago, Lair's methodology for fighting foreign conflicts holds great potential for America, even in 2005.

This book is a front row seat to an epic conflict that was all but invisible to the American public. Lair is a hidden American hero whose actions will earn your respect.

Buy it, read it, live it. Evenhanded for a change account of a good war -- noble cause, ably fought -- by a very fine writer