"Sometimes the most astonishing chapters of history are hidden in plain sight. January 1961: Laos, a tiny nation few Americans have heard of, is at risk of falling to communism and triggering a domino effect throughout Southeast Asia. This is what President Eisenhower believed when he approved the CIA's Operation Momentum, creating an army of ethnic Hmong to fight communist forces in Laos on America's behalf. Largely hidden from the American public--and most of Congress--Momentum became the largest CIA paramilitary operation in the history of the United States, a war that lasted through two decades, left the ground littered with thousands of unexploded bombs, and changed American foreign policy forever. In [this book, journalist] Joshua 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 control over the war as it grew. Using recently declassified records and extensive interviews, Kurlantzick shows for the first time how the CIA's clandestine adventures in one small, Southeast Asian country became the template for how the United States has conducted war ever since--all the way to today's war on terrorism."--Jacket.

Baci -- The CIA's First war -- Vang Pao, Bill Lair, Tony Poe, and Bill Sullivan -- Laos Before the CIA, and the CIA Before Laos -- The CIA Meets Laos -- Operation Momentum Begins -- Kennedy Expands Momentum -- The Not-So-secret Secret: Keeping a Growing Operation Hidden -- Enter the Bombers -- The Wider War -- Massacre -- Going for Broke -- The Victory and the Loss -- The Secret War Becomes Public -- Defeat and Retreat -- Skyline Ridge -- Final Days -- Laos and the CIA: The Legacy -- Aftermath -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index.