The CIA's Forgotten War in Laos

2025 Audience Survey

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Primary Sources

Dwight D. Eisenhower, The White House Years: Mandate for Change 1953-1956, (1963)

Dwight D. Eisenhower, The White House Years: Waging Peace 1956-1961, (1965)

Lyndon Banes Johnson, The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency 1963-1969, (1971)

Richard Nixon, The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, (1978)

Henry Kissinger, White House Years, (1979)

Charles Yost, History And Memory, (1980)

William Sullivan, Obbligato: Notes on a Foreign Service Career, (1984)

Secondary Sources

Joshua Kurlantzick, A Great Place to Have a War: America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA, (2017)

Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam, (1988)

Max Hastings, Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975, (2018)

Ben Kiernan, The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the khmer Rouge, 1975-9, (1996)

Max Boot, The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam, (2018)

Grant Evans, A Short History of Laos: The Land in Between, (2002)

Hamilton Fish Armstrong, “U.N. On Trial,” Foreign Affairs, (April 1961)

Donald Zagoria, “The Sino-Soviet Conflict and the West,” Foreign Affairs, (October 1962)

“Laotian Civil War,” Wikipedia, (retrieved August 20, 2025)

Footnotes

[1] Kurlantzick, p. 55-7

[2] Evans, p. 39

[3] ibid, p. 82-4

[4] Kurlantzick, p. 57-9, Evans, p. 88-92

[5] Eisenhower, Mandate, p. 166-9

[6] Kurlantzick, p. 57-9, Hastings, p. 43

[7] Evans, p. 104, Kurlantzick, p. 31-3, 39-40

[8] Kurlantzick, p. 3-4, 10-2, 39-40

[9] Eisenhower, Mandate, p. 368, Kurlantzick, p. 31-3

[10] Wikipedia, Kurlantzick, p. 31-3, 70, Evans, p. 112

[11] Kurlantzick, p. 62-4, Evans, p. 106-9

[12] Kurlantzick, p. 62-4, Evans, p. 106-9, Wikipedia

[13] Evans, p. 109-12, Wikipedia

[14] Kurlantzick, Wikipedia, Evans, p. 109-12

[15] Evans, p. 112-5

[16] Kurlantzick, p. 62-4, Evans, p. 112-5

[17] Boot, p. 332-4

[18] Hastings, p. 119-20, Boot, p. 332-4, Evans, p. 112-5

[19] Boot, p. 332-4, Hastings, p. 119-20

[20] Hastings, p. 119-20, Zagoria

[21] Eisenhower, Waging, p. 431-2

[22] Evans, p. 116-9, Kurlantzick, p. 70-3

[23] Eisenhower, Waging, p. 607-10, Evans, p. 116-9

[24] ibid

[25] ibid

[26] Kurlanzick, p. 70-3, Eisenhower, Waging, p. 607-10, Evans, p. 116-22

[27] Kurlantzick, p. 73-7

[28] Eisenhower, Waging, p. 610-2

[29] Hastings, p. 127-8, Kurlantzick, p. 3-4, 83-6, Johnson, p. 50-2

[30] Kurlantzick, p. 83-6, Nixon, p. 256-8

[31] Evans, p. 120-4, Kurlantzick, p. 83-6

[32] Evans, p. 124-7

[33] Kurlantzick, p. 26-30, 78-82

[34] Kurlantzick, p. 65-8, Wikipedia

[35] Kurlantzick, p. 1-3, 5-7, 33-9

[36] ibid, p. 78-82, 39-40

[37] ibid, p. 1-7

[38] ibid, p. 13-5

[39] Kurlantzick, p. 87-8, Sullivan, p. 209-10, Johnson, p. 59-60

[40] Kurlantzick, p. 89-97

[41] ibid, 115-9, 131-3

[42] ibid, p. 115-9, 126-9

[43] ibid, 123-6

[44] Evans, p. 124-7, 147-9, Sullivan, p. 196-7

[45] Kurlantzick, p. 40-5, Sullivan, p. 211-3

[46] Kurlantzick, p. 119-22, 141-2

[47] Johnson, p. 135-6

[48] Sullivan, p. 216-9, Evans, p. 124-7

[49] Kurlantzick, p. 107-10, 40-5

[50] Kurlantzick, p. 112-5

[51] Johnson, p. 367-9

[52] Evans, p. 147-9, Kurlantzick, p. 131-7, 147-50

[53] Kissinger, p. 236, Kurlantzick, p. 147, Sullivan, p. 211-3

[54] Nixon, p. 256-8, 270, 347

[55] Kurlantzick, p. 154-5, 160

[56] Kissinger, p. 451-3, Kurlantzick, p. 173-5

[57] Sheehan, p. 745-6, Nixon, p. 445

[58] Evans, p. 149-50, Sheehan, p. 745-6, Nixon, p. 448-9

[59] Sheehan, p. 745-6, Kiernan, p. 82-6

[60] Nixon, p. 497-9, Kissinger, p. 990-1,000

[61] Kurlantzick, p. 162-8, Evans, p. 147-9

[62] Kurlantzick, p. 162-8

[63] Kurlantzick, p. 160-2, Evans, p. 149-50

[64] Kutlantzick, p. 169-72, Kissinger, p. 451-3

[65] Kurlantzick, p. 189-95, 211-20

[66] Kurlantzick, p. 176, Kissinger, p. 453-7

[67] Kurlantzick, p. 181-3

[68] Kurlantzick, p. 208-10, Kissinger, p. 970

[69] Kissinger, p. 979, 1354, Kurlantzick, p. 220-4, Nixon, p. 691-2

[70] Evans, p. 165-9

[71] ibid, p. 171-4, 165-9

[72] ibid, p. 165-71

[73] ibid, p. 169-74

[74] ibid, p. 174-5

[75] Kurlantzick, p. 12-3, Wikipedia

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