America's Secret War

Minnesota Remembers Vietnam

Overview

While the United States was publicly engaged in the Vietnam War, a secret conflict was raging just next door in the country of Laos. Under the command of the CIA, a full-blown military operation engulfed Laos, with a select few of the U.S. Armed Forces participating. At Long Tieng, a secret airbase in the heart of Laos, the CIA trained an army of allied guerrilla fighters including a large number of the Hmong people, to assist in destroying enemy supply lines.