the CIA’s plan was for the Hmong to act as guerillas, appearing out of the jungle to harass communist targets before vanishing. After some success, however, and under US pressure, the Hmong forces turned to more conventional warfare. The Hmong would now “take the war to the North Vietnamese army”, Ted Shackley, the CIA station chief in Laos, said in 1966, wresting areas of Laos from enemy control and holding them, forcing Hanoi to commit more troops to Laos and thereby reducing their fighting strength in Vietnam.America was never officially at war in Laos, but its bombing of the Southeast Asian country in the 1960s and 70s was so intense that it averaged one planeload of bombs dropping every eight minutes for a full decade.

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