The Secret War (1962-1975) was the Laos front of the Second Indochina War.
After the Geneva Conference established Laotian neutrality, North Vietnam continued to operate in southeastern Laos along the hidden Ho Chi Minh trail, which was barely inside Laotian territory. Deep inside an inpenetrable jungle, the Ho Chi Minh trail was designed for North Vietnamese troops to infiltrate South Vietnam and to aid the Viet Cong. To disrupt these operations without direct military involvement, the United States Central Intelligence Agency trained a force of some thirty thousand Laotians, mostly local Hmong tribesmen. This Secret Army, supported by Air America and the Royal Lao Air Force, fought the North Vietnamese, Viet Cong, and their Pathet Lao allies to a standstill.
Although the existence of the war was reported in the US, details were often unavailable due to official government denials. The Secret War was the largest US covert operation prior to the Afghan-Soviet War, with areas held by the Pathet Lao subjected to some of the heaviest bombing since World War II.
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