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Once More into Laos

Joshua Kurlantzick provides a reasonably accurate (though not complete) view of the U.S. involvement in Laos from 1961 to 1975. Given the substantial body of existing literature detailing and dissecting the U.S. effort in Laos, however, to ask whether yet another assessment is needed is not unkind. To put it another way, is there anything new in his A Great Place to Have a War: America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA? Although the basic answer to that question is “not really,” Kurlantzick does offer two “hooks” in seeking to bring some originality to the discussion. First, he asserts that the war in Laos gave birth to today’s “militarized” Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); and second, he weaves into his narrative the roles and personalities