A Great Place to Have a War: America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.36 (896 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1451667884 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 336 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-09-26 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
He is the winner of the Luce Scholarship and was selected as a finalist for the Osborn Elliot prize, both for journalism in Asia. He is the author of multiple books on Asia, including A Great Place to Have a War: America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA. He has been a correspondent in Southeast Asia for The Economist, a columnist for Time, the foreign editor of the New Republic, a sen
This is what President Eisenhower believed when he approved the CIA’s Operation Momentum, creating an army of ethnic Hmong to fight communist forces there. Largely hidden from the American public—and most of Congress—Momentum became the largest CIA paramilitary operation in the history of the United States. The brutal war lasted more than a decade, left the ground littered with thousands of unexploded bombs, and changed the nature of the CIA forever.With “revelatory reporting” and “lucid prose” (The Economist), Kurlantzick provides the definitive account of the Laos war, focusing on the four key people who led the operation: the CIA operative whose idea it was, the Hmong general who led the proxy army in the field, the paramilitary specialist who trained the Hmong forces, and the State Department careerist who took contro
It’s a harrowing story, and Kurlantzick tells it well. Of all the CIA's strange adventures during the Cold War, the secret war in Laos may have been the most bizarre. “Engrossing. Using an effective combination of firsthand reporting and a thorough reading of the best primary and secondary sources, Kurlantzick tells an instructive tale that continues to have relevance in the 21st century." (Publishers Weekly)“In this important book, Kurlantzick writes in excruciating detail how the decisions by Eisenhower and Kennedy would turn the CIA from a spy organization to one whose primary role was covert warfare, involving the agency in ever-more controversial actions across the world.” (Asia Sentinel)“Kurlantzick tells a story often filled with equal parts uncommon bravery and myopic planning. ” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)“Excellent. Joshua Kurlantzick has crafted a true drama with an improbable and colorful cast. From mor
This book is garbage Errors in fact and in conjecture are found in almost every paragraph of this myopic look at the CIA’s paramilitary in Laos.- The opening scene of CIA’s Bill Lair and Hmong warlord Vang Pao meeting to discuss terms of US cooperation with the Hmong to counter communism in Laos, addressed one of the key post-war questions of what was promis. "Good rea" according to jinx. Having been a pilot who participated in this war.,, I found the author to be on target with his description of the phase of the air war that I flew in. I flew as a FAC along the Holy Chi Minh trail.Jinx. Laos then and now James T. McDowell Great book, CIA lessons learned from Iran under Dulles, and how the Agency had free hand in its operations in Laos, with the implications today?