From training camps in the Colorado Rockies to clandestine operations in the Himalayas, this book introduces readers to one of the CIA's most remote covert campaigns of the Cold War. This is the story of how the US government - primarily through the CIA and often in cooperation with India - came to harness, nurture, and encourage Tibetan defiance in one of the most extreme covert campaigns of the Cold War. In particular, it details an important chapter in the CIA's paramilitary history. In Tibet, new kinds of equipment - aircraft and parachutes, for example - were combat-tested under the most extreme conditions imaginable. New communications techniques were tried and perfected. In many cases, these lessons learned would be applied to other Cold War battlefields like Vietnam, Laos, and elsewhere. Tibet, therefore, became a vital proving ground for CIA case officers and their spycraft. AUTHOR: Kenneth Conboy was South East Asian policy analyst and deputy director of the Asian Studies Centre in Washington D.C., 1986-1992. Since then he has held roles in risk management companies in Indonesia, and he currently serves as Risk Management Advisory Country Manager in Indonesia. He has written a number of books about war in Asia, as well as several articles. 45 b/w photos, 18 colour photos, 3 colour profiles, 3 maps

Bind: paperback

Pages: 82

Dimensions: 210 x 300 mm

Publication Date: 18-11-2022

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.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 88

Dimensions: 210 x 297 mm

Publication Date: 01-02-2022

During a National Security Council meeting in March 1971, Henry Kissinger commented to those around the table, "When the CIA reaches the point of having the largest army in Southeast Asia, we better review the program!" He was referring to the secret war brewing in Laos, where the Central Intelligence Agency was training, funding, and leading tens of thousands of indigenous guerrillas within the kingdom and, occasionally, across its borders. The Erawan War mini-series strips away the veil surrounding this conflict, recounting in detail the CIA's largest paramilitary operation of the Cold War, as well as the Royalist armed forces that battled for decades against communist opponents. It includes hundreds of outstanding photos featuring case officers, military hardware, and battle scenes. These volumes are a must for anyone interested in the Vietnam War, military history, special forces units, and CIA paramilitary operations.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 64

Dimensions: 210 x 297 mm

Publication Date: 15-10-2021