Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Lao SGU/RLA soldiers in the field. Lao Special Guerrilla Unit/Royal Lao Army Interviews collection. Southeast Asian Rare Book Collection. Library of Congress Asian Division.
Episode 3215 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about the secret war in Laos. The story is titled: Unveiling Secret War Laos: Tales from U.S. Allied Lao Veterans and CIA and U.S. Army Special Forces during the Vietnam War (Second Indochina War) and appeared on the Library of Congress Blog website. The story was submitted by Jonathan Loar. He is a South Asian reference specialist in the Asian Division of the Library of Congress. He received a doctorate in West and South Asian Religions from Emory University in 2016 and joined the Library later that year.
Loar reported that The Lao Special Guerrilla Unit/Royal Lao Army Veteran Interviews digital collection, launched in April 2025, offers rare oral histories from Lao veterans who served during the Secret War in Laos (1959-1975), a crucial part of the Vietnam War. These interviews, available in video, audio, and photographs, preserve personal accounts in both Lao and English, providing valuable resources for researchers, policymakers, and Lao American communities. To promote this collection, the Library of Congress hosted an event on May 9, 2025, titled “Unveiling Secret War Laos,” coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War’s end and the fall of the Royal Lao Government. The event featured veterans from Laos alongside U.S. military personnel, shedding light on their collaboration in the CIA-backed Special Guerrilla Units, or “Secret Army.” The event attracted a significant audience, with 40 in-person attendees and nearly 200 online viewers, fostering an important dialogue about this often-overlooked chapter of history. The digital collection allows users to hear firsthand from participants, including military commanders, nurses, intelligence officers, and translators who fought on key battlefields like the Plain of Jars and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This initiative ensures that their stories are remembered, making an important contribution to understanding the broader Vietnam War.
Listen to Episode 3215 and discover more about the secret war in Laos.
