Vint Lawrence – CIA handler of General Vang Pao dies

I somehow missed the recent passing of Vint Lawrence, CIA handler of notorious Hmong General Vang Pao in Long Cheng, Laos, in the early 60s, who threw his secret agent career away to become a political cartoonist in Washington. Read an obituary and summary of Vint’s remarkable life here. Vint Lawrence is interviewed in the […]

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The Life of the Others – Thailand’s Minorities Under Threat

Thailand’s minorities are having a hard time, not least because of the nefarious activities of powerful and ruthless missionaries. The original story this feature is based on was published in German and ran to 2.500 words. This is a seriously cut edit. The German article on the same subject was published in MERIAN and Spiegel […]

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Sobering and Grim Documentary Film on the US’s Secret War in Laos: The Players

Stumbled across this image of the three unusual suspects of The Most Secret Place on Earth on this Bangkok Expat blog. Taken at the packed FCCT (Foreign Correspondents Club Thailand) in November 2010 during our presentation and Q& A session of aforementioned documentary on the CIA’s covert war in Laos in the 1960s. From left […]

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Amerikas geheimer Krieg in Laos auf DVDThe Most Secret Place on Earth on DVD….in German

Endlich gibt es nun Amerikas Geheimer Krieg in Laos, ein Dokumentarfilm von Marc Eberle, bei dem ich als Drehbuchautor mitgewirkt habe, auf DVD. Der Vietnamkrieg war einer der medial präsentesten Kriege der Geschichte. Doch im Nachbarland Laos fand parallel der größte und längste Luftkrieg der Geschichte im Geheimen statt, was Laos zum meist bombardierten Land […]

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The Most Secret Place on Earth (The CIA Covert War in Laos) – Outtakes – Alfred McCoy

There’s new additional footage for Marc Eberle’ s The Most Secret Place on Earth, co-written by Tom Vater. Watch never before seen interview with James Lilley, Deputy CIA station chief in Laos, on the ghosts of the past and the high life in a war zone. This interview was filmed in August 2006. Note how […]

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