Arthur Johnson Memorial Library

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Back fire :

by Warner, Roger.
Published by : Simon & Schuster, (New York :) Physical details: 414 p. ill., maps ; 25 cm. ISBN:0684802929; 0684802929. Year: 1995
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Item type Current location Call number Status Date due Barcode
900 - 999 959.70434 War (Browse shelf) Available 72855




The coup --
The quiet Texan --
The meeting --
Momentum begins --
Shooting at the moon --
Vang Pao's mistake --
The withdrawal --
Udorn and Long Tieng --
Hard rice --
The bureaucracy --
Nation-building --
The wedding --
The trail --
The seesaw war --
The ambassador --
Vietnam --
The high-water mark --
From a country store to a supermarket --
The Taj Mahal --
Commando club --
Branfman and Lawrence --
Ted didn't know shit about tactical warfare --
Sayaboury time --
The opium trade --
My favor --
No commitment --
The invasion --
Cat and mouse --
Peace was at hand --
The second withdrawal --
The fall --
Land of the 847 elephants --
The American aftermath.

The history of America's war in Vietnam has been incomplete. The origins of that conflict -- the most controversial and painful chapter in American history since the Civil War -- were in Laos, a remote, landlocked, mountainous country where the CIA waged a secret war against communism. Drawing on unprecedented access to previously closed files and on extensive interviews, Back Fire fills in the last missing piece in the puzzle of America's tragic involvement in Southeast Asia. Taking us to the heart of the war in Laos -- from CIA headquarters in Washington to the Hmong tribesmen's huts, where ideals were discussed and promises made and then broken -- Roger Warner tells the previously untold story of the secret war through the experiences of the key players. Beyond his narrative of key players and events, Warner shows how the secret war in Laos was connected to the larger war in Vietnam, and how Vietnam was central to the shifting alliances of Cold War geopolitical rivals.

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