Vang Pao person
also: Van Pauw, Feng Pao, Van Pao, Ving Pao, VP of Laos, Pop Brule, Vane Powell, the Hmong chief, the Hmong general, the Hmong leader, the general, Bing Pao, Bing Powell, Fang Pao, Pao, the Hmong commander, Ving Kao
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Related entities (most co-mentioned)
Hmong peopleorganization · 47CIAintelligence service · 24Laoscountry · 16Vietnamcountry · 13Plain of Jarsplace · 13United Statescountry · 13Air Americaorganization · 13Thailandcountry · 11Secret War in Laosoperation · 10Long Tiengplace · 8Hmongfamily · 7U.S. Air Forceorganization · 6USAIDorganization · 5North Vietnameseorganization · 5Ted Shackleyperson · 5Cambodiacountry · 4Phoumi Nosavanperson · 4Lima Sitesplace · 4Anthony Poshepnyperson · 4Operation About Faceoperation · 4Harry Aderholtperson · 3Souvanna Phoumaperson · 3Richard Helmsperson · 3Communist Party of Chinaorganization · 3
Claims (21)
George H.W. Bush recruited
Vang Pao host_asserted
“Because George H.W. Bush was heavily involved in getting heroin and marijuana to our troops to fund black ops. He was nicknamed Poppy. And he worked with Vang Pao, who was anti-communist, needing money to get things moving forward in Vietna…”
▶ The Colonel’s Corner Twilight of the Shadow Government Part 5 @ 1:39:35
USAID funded
Vang Pao documented
“63 to 65, the buildup period, USAID was instrumental in increasing the support for Vane Powell. There was food dropped into villages to feed them. There were modern hospitals that were set up to take care of them. They even built schools fo…”
▶ The Colonel’s corner President’s secret wars Chap 14 @ 56:41
Vang Pao headed
Lone Tin book_quoted
“Vang Pao imported a Cadillac and a road was built up the ridge to connect the airbase with another village. Vang Pao had his headquarters at a place called Lone Tin, together with a propaganda outlet that was basically like Radio Asia. With…”
▶ The Colonels corner president, secret wars chapter 14 continued @ 11:03
Vang Pao supplied_arms_to
Phu Pha Thai book_quoted
“was called Project 404. It became a Lima site designated as 85. Pony Express lifted 150 tons of equipment to the site for the radar installation and a dozen Americans were required to run the equipment. Fang Pao's Hmong were asked to defend…”
▶ The Colonels corner president, secret wars chapter 14 continued @ 32:24
Vang Pao carried_out_attack
Operation About Face book_quoted
“now agreed to provide some support because they had been given more misinformation, the CIA lying. Several of the largest towns on the plain was targeting and were now being destroyed by bombing. The offensive onto the high plateau was to b…”
▶ The Colonels corner president, secret wars chapter 14 continued @ 1:01:36
Vang Pao relinquished
Plain of Jars documented
“This, again, is plausible deniability. An attack with three B-52 bombers, a typical quote-unquote cell strike, was carried out on the night of February 17th through the 18th. More followed, yet a few days later, the Ving Pao relinquished hi…”
▶ The Colonels corner president, secret wars chapter 14 continued @ 1:10:11
Vang Pao reduced_headquarters
Long Thien documented
“was improvised. The Long Thien, for the first time in the Hmong War, the base had to be prepared for defense. Vang Pao reduced his headquarters by sending administrative elements elsewhere. Air America was at the center of the action. From …”
▶ The Colonels corner president, secret wars chapter 14 continued @ 1:16:57
Jim Atkins trained
Vang Pao documented
“where he became an advisor to Vang Pao and his clandestine army, where he had acquired a reputation playing a key role in the offensive at the Plain of Jars. By 1970, Atkins had had enough. He transferred to the Western Hemisphere and learn…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 48 (50) @ 32:00
Vang Pao made_appeal_to
CIA documented
“Vang Pao was one of the biggest losers in the negotiated settlement, which ended American's air support of his secret army, which isn't secret anymore. The sea spire was to go into effect on February 22nd, a time when Vang Pao was facing re…”
▶ The Colonels corner president, secret wars chapter 14 continued @ 1:22:41
CIA installed
Vang Pao host_asserted
“keeping the Laotian government weak and it would enable their secret army to flourish. In recognition of Hmong autonomy, Vang Pao received repeated RLAF promotions and was treated as a commander because he was basically under the control of…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 30 (31) @ 49:13
Vang Pao became_farmer_in
Montana documented
“The 55,000 Hmong have resettled in the United States. Vang Pao himself has become a farmer in Montana. There were pockets of Hmong in places as diverse as Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and Fresno. Direct losses of the war in Laos was still not…”
▶ The Colonels corner president, secret wars chapter 14 continued @ 1:24:08
Vang Pao member_of
Hmong documented
“All of these activities had made the Pei Ocean Lao much more powerful because they were seen to the local tribal people as the one trying to protect their homeland from the invaders called the CIA. 14 years of warfare accomplished nothing. …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 31 (32) @ 57:54
Anthony Poshepny trained
Vang Pao documented
“And they basically had destroyed a Paiotlao supply road by dynamiting it and bringing down the side of a mountain. The clandestine group was significantly stronger now, thanks to his training. And Vang Pao and Tony Po worked out a program t…”
▶ The Colonel’s corner President’s secret wars Chap 14 @ 55:41
Jared Burke visited
Vang Pao book_quoted
“Burke sat by the window as board members talked in Cambodia, and he took notes when they spoke to Sovana Foma in Laos. They visited Long Tien and Vang Pao's Hmong Army. Enormously impressed that a war directed by so few CIA field hands seem…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 33 (35) @ 29:31
Stuart Methven recruited
Vang Pao documented
“involving counter-terrorism teams, pacification teams, and political action. But Methvin had earned the greatest acclaims for recruiting Vang Pao for the secret war in Laos. He had been controller of the Vietnamese officer and politico Tran…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 38 (40) @ 50:52
Vang Pao headed
Secret War in Laos host_asserted
“which became the main centers of the secret army. Long Tien served as Vang Pao's headquarters, a major mountain commercial center with Hmong population of about 40,000 people, which is huge as far as villages go. The CIA created a base ther…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 30 (31) @ 46:17
Vang Pao carried_out_attack
Secret War in Laos host_asserted
“and Tu Bi Leng Fong became a minister of the Royal Laotian government. Vang Pao struck his greatest blow to date in 1963 in a raid that destroyed the Pao Ocean Lao supply road, dynamiting a kilometer and sending sections tumbling down the m…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 30 (31) @ 49:42
CIA supplied_arms_to
Vang Pao host_asserted
“nor could the CIA do anything to prevent the Mung's drug operation. Right. You're supplying them with money, food, and weapons. I'm going to go ahead and say there's something you could do. A prohibition against smuggling on Air America pla…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 31 (32) @ 42:58
CIA funded
Vang Pao host_asserted
“nor could the CIA do anything to prevent the Mung's drug operation. Right. You're supplying them with money, food, and weapons. I'm going to go ahead and say there's something you could do. A prohibition against smuggling on Air America pla…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 31 (32) @ 42:58
Harry Aderholt trained
Vang Pao host_asserted
“with a tiny landing strip that was carved in the side of a mountain. Working with Vang Pao, Aderholt surveyed North Laos for a network of similar small airstrips called Lima sites, Lima, Lima sites, and stayed for two years to oversee their…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 30 (31) @ 44:19
Edgar Buell recruited
Vang Pao host_asserted
“Because they had no idea where the people were, Bruel left his embassy desk to parachute into the mountains. You know, because that's what USAID does. He spent two months walking around in the forest, personally meeting all of the Hmong vil…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner Safe for Democracy Part 30 (31) @ 45:21
Mentions (97)
▶ 17:42
and with the opium warlock, warlord, Vang Pao. In 66, Secord had already flown more than 200 secret combat missions, mostly into Cambodia, and won four air medals. When he appealed to General Aderholt for his chance to join the secret war i…
▶ 23:13
Via Air America, which of course is the CIA's airline. A quote from William Corson, quote, they had made their living for generations growing opium. They foolishly took our word that they should fight for us. We merged them with the Vang Pa…
▶ 40:48
The Laos had been lost. Shackley called upon Wilson's Capitol Hill connections to cut through the immigration red tape to resettle Van Pauw, the general who was the drug lord, and his many wives inside the United States. The CIA allowed Wil…
▶ 41:26
A declassified State Department cable confirms that Ervin and Riley met Fumi in Ubon, Thailand. The thrust of their discussion was that the U.S. was prepared to support, at least secretly, a march on the capital and recapture the government…
▶ 44:54
and did nothing. For the next 18 months, Laos would have two governments, each recognized and supplied by a major power. For a second time, as a year earlier, the CIA had turned into a coalition of drug traffickers to oust a clean civilian …
▶ 47:15
The Joint Chiefs, who first, on October 3rd, officially authorized Air America flights to Fumi. Note that, as mentioned above, Air America had already been supplying Fumi since mid-September. The first Air America flights reached Vang Pao o…
▶ 11:03
Vang Pao imported a Cadillac and a road was built up the ridge to connect the airbase with another village. Vang Pao had his headquarters at a place called Lone Tin, together with a propaganda outlet that was basically like Radio Asia. With…
▶ 22:14
This is at the height of everything being managed out of Washington, and you weren't allowed to do anything to actually accomplish a mission. You were only allowed to do what they told you to do. There were strikes that they nicknamed Steel…
▶ 32:24
was called Project 404. It became a Lima site designated as 85. Pony Express lifted 150 tons of equipment to the site for the radar installation and a dozen Americans were required to run the equipment. Fang Pao's Hmong were asked to defend…
▶ 36:58
more specifically constant support from AC-47 gunships from the 14th Special Operations Wing. The unit's operation officer, Colonel William Ginn, G-I-N-N Jr., met with Vang Pao to explain the air support system and promised that no more Lim…
▶ 37:28
to keep them safe. North Vietnamese attacks failed in May, but again in June, Lima Site 108 was overran, necessitating another air rescue. Vang Pao did not lose many more positions and even managed to recapture a couple. Even Bill Sullivan'…
▶ 59:15
Because that was the whole purpose. They want us drugged and stupid. All right. So North Vietnamese dry season offensive of 1969 climaxed with the loss in late June of the Hmong LS-108, the largest airfield in northern Laos, which the royal…
▶ 1:01:36
now agreed to provide some support because they had been given more misinformation, the CIA lying. Several of the largest towns on the plain was targeting and were now being destroyed by bombing. The offensive onto the high plateau was to b…
▶ 1:02:06
to coordinate plans for the attack, which drew the code name About Faith. In August, the secret army moved north and Air America helicopters lifted the Hmong special guerrilla forces to key points. Vang Pao was chosen because of the Laotian…
▶ 1:02:38
In 1968, as a gift, Vang Pao gave President Johnson a flintlock musket that the Hmong had for, I mean, it was an antique. On two occasions, the Americans rewarded Vang with secret visits to the U.S. On one of those trips, Vang was referred …
▶ 1:03:09
During the other trip, Vang was taken to see Colonial Williamsburg in Disneyland with six wives installed. The Hmong chief had a lot of shopping to do. Disneyland, the CIA, reciprocated Vang's gifts and gave them a replica of a Zorro costum…
▶ 1:03:38
called Operation About Fate. The secret army spilled onto the plain of jars from the mountains and about 15,000 men, according to Lau's sources, the CIA was backing him with a command team of three officers. About 30 more Americans were in …
▶ 1:04:31
There was estimates of a total number of CIA officers at this point engaged in this to be about 50, but it could have been as high as 70. There were also military attaches that were involved, and the Hmong Army, with its American support, w…
▶ 1:05:01
Hmong bases along the way. At a critical juncture of the campaign, the Vang Pao dressed up in his Zorro suit to visit the Plain of Jars. But the success was deceptive. Operation About Face proved to be the high-water mark of the Hmong in th…
▶ 1:05:56
lost it. Vang Pao himself, with 1,500 troops backed by artillery, was forced out of the area. This loss was an important indicator to reflect the sagging morale of the Hmong in general. The government claimed 6,000 North Vietnamese troops h…
▶ 1:10:11
This, again, is plausible deniability. An attack with three B-52 bombers, a typical quote-unquote cell strike, was carried out on the night of February 17th through the 18th. More followed, yet a few days later, the Ving Pao relinquished hi…
▶ 1:16:26
The North Vietnamese seemed to be everywhere all at once and capable of doing anything to include the plane of jars. There was panic everywhere. An evacuation was hastily ordered. Some 110,000 Hmong sought refuge, carrying out whatever they…
▶ 1:16:57
was improvised. The Long Thien, for the first time in the Hmong War, the base had to be prepared for defense. Vang Pao reduced his headquarters by sending administrative elements elsewhere. Air America was at the center of the action. From …
▶ 1:18:18
in this territory as opposed to attacking. The Vietnamese dynamited the houses used by Americans, burned down the hospitals and the USAID warehouses, and then they left. After a few weeks, the Hmong reoccupied the place. That summer, Operat…
▶ 1:21:14
No, they're just going to fund it with your tax dollars. All of the above board, overtly, all of the money could not make up for the Hmong's decreasing support. This DIA further contributed to Bing Pao's political difficulties by sanctionin…
▶ 1:22:41
Vang Pao was one of the biggest losers in the negotiated settlement, which ended American's air support of his secret army, which isn't secret anymore. The sea spire was to go into effect on February 22nd, a time when Vang Pao was facing re…
▶ 1:23:12
It said, quote, as we discussed previously, U.S. Air Force support would cease at noon, 22 February. I confirmed this today by talking with Cricket, the airborne command plane in this area. U.S. Air Force was under instructions to clear Lao…
▶ 1:24:08
The 55,000 Hmong have resettled in the United States. Vang Pao himself has become a farmer in Montana. There were pockets of Hmong in places as diverse as Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and Fresno. Direct losses of the war in Laos was still not…
▶ 43:54
formed an important auxiliary force for the French to use when they needed to, and they were actually involved in the French failure at Den Ben Phu. One veteran of the Den Ben Phu debacle was a young officer by the name of Vang Pao, who had…
▶ 44:25
when they were on the plane of jars trying to get the Japanese out of there. He joined the fighting forces in 1947 and became an officer in the Royal Laotian Army when that was formed in 1950. Vang stayed in the army after the Geneva Agreem…
▶ 44:53
was mainly a politician. Vang was actually a military commander. Choosing sides was of some importance to the Hmong in the new Laotian War. Feeling too old for another war, the Lai Phong restricted himself to acting as sort of an elder stat…
▶ 45:19
When some of the Hmong sided with the Paiothin Lao clan leader, Vang Pao made their alliance with the CIA, not directly supporting Fumi, but basically waging a parallel war. From the fall of 1960, Vang Pao forces began to receive a portion …
▶ 46:16
Eight White Star Green Beret teams reportedly accompanied the Vang Pao forces. At this point, Kang Li's neutralist forces retreated from the capital and made straight for the Hmong Plain of Jars area to engage. Vang Pao lost his own village…
▶ 47:41
Buell started airdrops of rice into the mountains and using blind drops at first because the whereabouts of them were unknown. Buell left his embassy desk job to parachute into the mountains himself, walking through the forest and personall…
▶ 48:52
mountains, and they were working with Vang Pao. They referred to him, his nickname as Heine Adderfold. He surveyed the northern Laos network of airstrips, which came to be called Lima sites, then stayed in Laos two years to oversee their co…
▶ 49:18
Highlands, the U.S. supplied network serviced by Air America, had the immediate effect of increasing Vang Pao's forces, secretly drawing unit leaders from the nucleus of the Hmong battalions, a practice that enraged the Royal Army officers …
▶ 50:09
which the CIA had been training since the days of the Lee-Mi operation in Burma, which we went over when we talked about Vietnam. Oh, and oh, by the way, that had to do with Chiang Kai-shek as well. With his retreat from the Plain of Jars, …
▶ 50:40
which is what they referred to him as, set out on a 58-day march across the circumference of the Plain of Jars to bring the Hmong villagers together. In December 1961, the Hmong opened two new bases farther west, which became main centers o…
▶ 54:11
like T-O-N-Y-P-O, because his name's Anthony Poe something. Okay, he went everywhere with a mouth guard like he was still on a boxing team. He flew in from the CIA Thailand base in 1963 and was assigned as a senior advisor to Vang Pao, or a…
▶ 55:41
And they basically had destroyed a Paiotlao supply road by dynamiting it and bringing down the side of a mountain. The clandestine group was significantly stronger now, thanks to his training. And Vang Pao and Tony Po worked out a program t…
▶ 56:11
type arrangements. Some 10,000 Hmong were formed into special guerrilla units, and they would later be supplied with 75 and even 105 millimeter mountain guns, the latter usually lifted from mountaintop to mountaintop by Air America helicopt…
▶ 56:41
63 to 65, the buildup period, USAID was instrumental in increasing the support for Vane Powell. There was food dropped into villages to feed them. There were modern hospitals that were set up to take care of them. They even built schools fo…
▶ 57:07
Gradually, Vang Pao acquired the image of a man who had been leading his tribe through a modern era. For the CIA, the Hmong became a model of nation building, you know, in the middle of a war. The political action approach to foster these c…
▶ 58:27
precisely by moving to reduce the autonomy accorded to them in the Central Highlands. The CIA relative success with Vang Pao was the result of the royal Laotian government being too weak to assort its authority over the tribesmen. From the …
▶ 1:00:48
Des Fitzgerald, and went to Congress with a request to fund over 100 secret army units. Vang Pao actually had only a couple dozen at the time, but Langley, McGeehee, and other plans officers performed a paper reorganization of the clandesti…
▶ 1:03:30
Ambassador Sullivan could command the CIA station and would be responsible for implementing the second of the two basic decisions made in Washington. The first had come in the wake of the Geneva Agreement when William Colby had convinced Av…
▶ 27:39
with a handler. Suvanna, the guy that they're overthrowing, also had a CIA handler. His name was Campbell James. So they're going to try to control both sides of this, like they do in all of these things. Not merely playing both sides, the …
▶ 39:08
Vang Pao, a veteran of that debacle, led a French commando unit on the expedition. When Taobi Lai Phong functioned as a tribal politician, Vang remained the military commander. When Stuart Methvin met him in 1959, Vang held the allegiance o…
▶ 39:38
Feeling too old for another war, Toby left the main leadership role to Feng Pao. While some Hmong sided with the Pei Ocean Lao clan leader, Fei Dang, becoming a member of the Pei Ocean Lao Central Committee, Toby and Feng Pao made their all…
▶ 40:09
Before Kennedy took office, there were approximately 2,500 Hmong in the secret army being trained by the CIA. Within months, the number had quadrupled. Vang drew his cadre from half a dozen ethnic Hmong battalions. Kung Lee's forces soon at…
▶ 44:19
with a tiny landing strip that was carved in the side of a mountain. Working with Vang Pao, Aderholt surveyed North Laos for a network of similar small airstrips called Lima sites, Lima, Lima sites, and stayed for two years to oversee their…
▶ 45:21
Because they had no idea where the people were, Bruel left his embassy desk to parachute into the mountains. You know, because that's what USAID does. He spent two months walking around in the forest, personally meeting all of the Hmong vil…
▶ 46:17
which became the main centers of the secret army. Long Tien served as Vang Pao's headquarters, a major mountain commercial center with Hmong population of about 40,000 people, which is huge as far as villages go. The CIA created a base ther…
▶ 49:13
keeping the Laotian government weak and it would enable their secret army to flourish. In recognition of Hmong autonomy, Vang Pao received repeated RLAF promotions and was treated as a commander because he was basically under the control of…
▶ 49:42
and Tu Bi Leng Fong became a minister of the Royal Laotian government. Vang Pao struck his greatest blow to date in 1963 in a raid that destroyed the Pao Ocean Lao supply road, dynamiting a kilometer and sending sections tumbling down the m…
▶ 50:07
Cable traffic suggests that Ving Pao moved without CIA approval and ahead of any Pei Ocean Lao attacks. There is a lot of contradictory information about how that whole thing happened as well. It was not the first time the CIA troops were a…
▶ 50:34
The clandestine force grew to 30,000 troops. Vang Pao and the CIA worked out a program to increase striking power. A third of the Hmong formed special guerrilla units, partisan battalions supported by bazookas and heavy mortars. These becam…
▶ 53:05
Tony came from the big CIA Thailand base and had been a senior advisor to Vang Pao. Pao transferred up from the Cambodian border where he had been working with the anti-government rebels. He had also been at Camp Perry, class of 53, and a v…
▶ 4:29
Congress funding stay-behind units. Vang Pao actually had only a couple of dozen at the time. But at Langley, McGeehy and other DO officers performed a paper reorganization, greatly enhancing the stated capability to justify the increase in…
▶ 9:04
spun an increasingly complex web. The command center had been located in Thailand, just across the border at Udorn. You know, the base we talked about yesterday that I spent quite a bit of time at. There, Bill Layer and his deputy, Pat Land…
▶ 13:08
Shackley hurled the secret army into major confrontations with the Peocean Lao and the North Vietnamese. On his watch, Bain Powell's Hmong began to sustain serious losses. Lawrence Devlin came to Laos at the end of 1968 when Shackley moved …
▶ 13:38
Vang Pao's losses continued to accelerate during Tovar's tenure. Tovar arrived in 1970 when the combat had intensified and the Hmong forces were falling. He introduced Thai troops in artillery and infantry roles, all the while denying that …
▶ 19:09
and all-weather landing systems. That was the exception. Sky had a sophisticated communication center, as well as the Hmong propaganda outlet Radio of the Union of Lao Races. That's basically Radio Free Europe for Laos. The CIA base at Sky …
▶ 22:02
the CIA and USAID got together to buy Vang Pao's two old C-47s, the beginning of the Hmong leader's private air force that I guess we just paid for. Air America did a magnificent job, said William Colby, but it was not a combat air force, h…
▶ 23:00
a further Laotian incarnation as leader of this formation. The fighter-bombers were supplemented by a wide range of U.S. Air Force gunships, the first of which was an AC-47, later AC-130s and AC-119s. Vane Powell's tactical combinations rem…
▶ 23:28
The air power did succeed for quite a while, and once the Hmong got their own air unit, its pilots' familiarity with the terrain made air more effective. But Hmong objectives sometimes diverged with the American ones. A staff officer at 13 …
▶ 23:54
They demanded Vang Pao's immediate appearance so that he could be chewed out. Told the Air Force had no control over Vang's airplanes, the general demanded that gasoline and munition be cut off, which the Air Force had no authority to do ei…
▶ 24:24
Pop Brule at the White House. The Hmong New Year in 1966 was attended by the King of Laos and his diplomatic corps. In 1968, as a gift, Vang Pao gave LBJ an ornate flintlock musket of Hmong antiquity. On two occasions, the Americans rewarde…
▶ 24:56
They referred to him as the VP of Laos. He toured the Green Beret Training Center at Fort Bragg. The agency sent Stuart Methvin as his escort officer. During another trip, Vang went to Colonial Williamsburg and Disneyland. Isn't that nice? …
▶ 25:27
supposedly secret, and he's touring the United States. He had six wives. The Hmong chief had a lot of shopping to do while he was here. At Disneyland, the CIA reciprocated Vang's gift with a replica of a Zorro costume. Vang Pao actually wor…
▶ 26:30
It was also referred to as Lima Site 85. Pony Express, an Air Force helicopter lift activity, moved 150 tons of equipment to the site for radar installation and a dozen Americans necessary to operate the equipment. Vang Pao's Hmong were to …
▶ 29:30
Vang Pao's secret army attained its peak strength during that period. It numbered 40,000 soldiers, mostly local defense forces, but about 15,000 regrouped into special guerrilla units. Yet the North Vietnamese matched their strength. Soon, …
▶ 30:25
In at least one case, according to Shackley, CIA even planted radio beacons on a Leothan Lao unit and monitored its movements. A cycle of operations developed. During the dry season, the North Vietnamese attacked the Hmong in the mountains …
▶ 30:55
By this time, the CIA had an actual barracks and team house at Long Tien. Vince Shields became the chief of base. Pat Landry succeeded Bill Lehrer. And the sources reported that the CIA now backdropped Vang Pao and his guerrilla teams every…
▶ 34:21
Larry Devlin squired him around the country. He realized the war had grown. Hmong units now had to be larger to move safely. The North Vietnamese had begun using tanks and artillery. Vang Pao was literally running out of men. The wrecked C-…
▶ 34:50
Vang Pao impressed Helms with his command presence, but the Hmong leader had been reduced to recruiting child soldiers. Kids as young as 13 were being trained by the CIA to fight. Thai mercenaries now kept up the number of troops in the Hmo…
▶ 50:12
Richard Helms and the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman were all present. Richard Nixon approved the strikes if the Peocean Lows advanced. Within 24 hours, the condition had been met. An attack of three B-52 bombers took place on the night of …
▶ 57:54
All of these activities had made the Pei Ocean Lao much more powerful because they were seen to the local tribal people as the one trying to protect their homeland from the invaders called the CIA. 14 years of warfare accomplished nothing. …
▶ 58:22
The ceasefire would go into effect on noon, February 22nd, 1973, when Vinh faced a renewed North Vietnamese offensive. Several outposts were under attack as the ceasefire neared. The Hmong general made a last appeal to the CIA. In a reply, …
▶ 58:50
On 22 February, I confirmed this today by talking to, with Cricket, the air command post. In this area, U.S. Air Force is under instructions to clear Laos airspace, unquote. Disgusted, Vang Pao kicked the dirt and showed the message to a ne…
▶ 59:19
Long Lien Tien's outpost fell two and a half hours later. The last CIA advisors left aboard an Air America flight. Hugh Tovar soon left Laos also. Vang Pao, on his own, walked a road that could lead only to exile. Beginning in 73, the new L…
▶ 1:04:13
The entire thing is bullshit. It's been bullshit for decades. Illini, did you want to say something? Hey, Colonel. Yeah, interesting stuff. I was going back through Alfred McCoy's book, which does cover Vang Pao and the fact that the U.S. A…
▶ 1:04:43
That, you know, it was that Vang Pao was almost certainly going to use, you know, that airport that they were funding for drug trafficking. Yeah. But the CIA pushed it through anyways. It's interesting what like Alfred McCoy was not trying …
▶ 29:31
Burke sat by the window as board members talked in Cambodia, and he took notes when they spoke to Sovana Foma in Laos. They visited Long Tien and Vang Pao's Hmong Army. Enormously impressed that a war directed by so few CIA field hands seem…
▶ 50:23
Handled relations with the FNLA in Mobato. Matt's been a covert project man par excellence. A member of the first class to graduate from Camp Perry was a Langley legend. His exploits in Southeast Asia ranged from training DM spooks in 1950s…
▶ 32:00
where he became an advisor to Vang Pao and his clandestine army, where he had acquired a reputation playing a key role in the offensive at the Plain of Jars. By 1970, Atkins had had enough. He transferred to the Western Hemisphere and learn…
▶ 13:02
Another brutal truth is the CIA ran a massive drug trafficking conspiracy in Southeast Asia. Indeed, the CIA in 1967 rewarded Vang Pao, leader of the CIA-backed Hmong army, with his own airline so that he could ferry opium from the CIA base…
▶ 17:20
By 1964, the CIA had under its Air America cover, one of the largest air forces in the world. It also had under the leadership of Ving Pao, the second largest guerrilla army in Southeast Asia. Both were very expensive and none of it was aut…
▶ 21:40
property and profits. They were going to use Air America along with the Vang Pao aircraft that we had basically sold to him, which he turned into his own company. It said they would supply the opium to the Pepsi-Cola lab in the capital of L…
▶ 29:55
William Colby, all of that stuff. We've talked about that. We know all of that. So we're going to skip through there. But this is an interesting paragraph. The people on the ground in Laos differed in their statements concerning the officia…
▶ 31:44
to the farmer. When a farmer raised a crop of opium, what he got for that year's worth of work was not very much, but that's what his crop was. So if we were delivering food to him, we took his opium back. As the war in Laos began to take a…
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Barnes later discovered that the mission leader, Michael Baldwin, was in fact Jerry Daniels, a former CIA and Special Forces operative who had worked under Clines and served as Vang Pao's case officer. I am shocked that guy's not dead. Lite…
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Mysteriously, the records from 60 to 66 were gone. They had accidentally been burned or something. So they could never get records on Bush. Bush was working under Richard Hams and with Ted Shackley all during that time framework. Another ti…
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which I find has echoes of what I read in the news every day. I understand that in the eyes of many, Sheehan's claims have been dismissed, but for me, I still consider the accusations an open question. They're not even a question. Quote, in…
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Once that was accomplished, Shackley and Saigon Station Chief ran the Phoenix program and financed it with drug money from Vang Pao. And actually, it's the CIA's drug money, not Vang Pao. I understand how they like to make him the villain, …
▶ 1:39:35
Because George H.W. Bush was heavily involved in getting heroin and marijuana to our troops to fund black ops. He was nicknamed Poppy. And he worked with Vang Pao, who was anti-communist, needing money to get things moving forward in Vietna…
▶ 1:41:01
That's how bad it was. But they did it to have black ops funding. And USAID was involved. Ron Rickenback, working with the pilot, Neil Hansen, with Vang Pao, to set up aircraft for the opium transport and the U.S. oversight. They were doing…