WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE WAR, DADDY?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200230023-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 26, 2004
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: April 10, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

.D VILLAGE VOICE
ARTICLE APPEARED
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What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?
A couple of weeks ago I noted the New York Tinu?s genial
treatment of a couple of war criminals in the shapes of Blow-
I torch Komer and William Colby, both veterans of the paci-
fication campaign in Vietnam.
The paper, I'm glad to see, is keeping up its efforts to draw
a veil over those emotion-fraught events in Southeast Asia.
Last Sunday, Steven Roberts had a pleasant piece, filed from
Montana, headed LAOTIAN, AFTER YEARS OF WAR, LIKES THE
PEACE OF MONTANA, Underneath was a cosy picture of Vang
Pao,. "a former major general in the Royal Laotian Army, ins
specting cattle feeding on his ranch in Montana."
Amid his rhapsodies about the Montana creeks "reborn
with melting snow," Roberts did find space to' mention that
Vang had been a major general in the Royal Laotian Army,
and "had been an influential leader among a mountain people
known as the Meos," helping "to organize them into a special
fighting force with heavy backing from the Central Intelli-
gency Agency." Roberts also noted that Vang had left Laos
in May I975 aboard his own American=made plane, along
with six wives and 28 children. Roberts said Vang stated that
he had managed to pay for his Montana spread with the help
of family, friends, and bank loans.
It's too bad that Roberts did not turn for added informa-
tion to Alfred McCoy's The Politics of Heroin in Southeast
Asia. Here we find numerous citations: for example,
.. the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics has reports that Gen.
Vang Pao, commander of the CIA's secret army [to fight the
Pathet Lao] has been operating a heroin factory at Long
Tieng, headquarters for CIA operations in: northern
Laos . o ." Or, "... In addition to his regular battalian,
Vang Pao was also commander of Meo self-defense forces in
the Plain of Jars region. Volunteers had been promised regu-
Jar allotments of food and money, but Vang Pao pocketed
these salaries, and most went unpaid for months at a time.
When one Meo Lieutenant demanded that the irregulars be
given their back pay, Vang Pao shot him in the leg. That set-
tled the matter for the moment ...." -
According to McCoy, the CIA and USAID helped Vang
form his own private airline, Xieng Khouarig Air Transport:
"Reliable Men sources report that Xieng Khouang Air
Transport is the airline used to carry opium between Long
Tieng and Vientiane." McCoy's analysis of Vang's alliance
with the CIA in purchasing and moving the opium crop is
most instructive. With such thoughts in mind, there is some-
thing a little moving about Roberts's final lines: "But now
the American land grows his seeds and his children and the
morning was slipping away. It was time to get on with -the
plowing."
Approved For Release 2005/01/13 : CIA-RDP88-01350R000200230023-4
For Releas3pG2qJ
1A-RDP88-0135OR0002002 0 23 j4
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