In 1962, the International Geneva Accords declared Laos to be neutral and generally restricted from foreign interference and foreign troops. Thus began the CIA’s secret war in Laos, led by a handful of CIA paramilitary officers in the mountains of Laos against North Vietnamese and Lao Communist forces. One of those secret warriors, CIA Silver Star recipient Terrence Burke, gives a vivid account of primitive guerrilla warfare that eventually led to an attempt by the North Vietnamese to capture him.

Burke’s stories of that war are of gritty and often deadly hit and run tactics against the North Vietnamese, attempted rescues of downed pilots, and daily survival far from American support.