I have a cousin who was in Normandy (I think Omaha) and the Battle of the Bulge...after the war he went back to school and got recruited by the CIA. He went to Thailand and formed the PARU (on stipulation from the King that he be a Colonel)...He and the PARU went to Loas and trained the Hmong hilltribes to fight the Pathet Lao. Many Hmong died. Towards the end there, the CIA were abandoning the hilltribes to be slaughtered and persecuted by the Pathet Lao. My cousin was instrumental in bringing many of them here to the states. He still goes to the Hmong conventions. He still goes to the reunions of those were there. He still goes back to Thailand and is treated like a national hero there. Many of us in the family think he should have been treated that way here as well.

You can read about Bill Lair and the other key figures of this covert war in this wonderful book called Shooting at the Moon by Roger Warner.