During a closed-door meeting of Washington policy makers on 31 March
1971, a senior CIA officer informed National Security Advisor Henry
Kissinger that the agency was controlling up to 8 divisions of
indigenous troops in Laos. "When the CIA reaches the point of having the
largest army in Southeast Asia," retorted Kissinger, "we better review
the program!"
The Erawan War, Volume 2 details how the CIA operation in Laos reached
that point, becoming its largest paramilitary operation of the Cold War.
With photos and maps, it covers the wide range of CIA-supported units in
Laos, from guerrilla regiments that went toe-to-toe with the North
Vietnamese army in pitched campaigns, to top-secret commandos that
crossed borders to wage clandestine sabotage attacks.