Original subtitles

In the early 1960s,

three idealistic young CIA officers

arrived in Laos,

a sleepy, mountainous country

of barely over 2 million people,

mostly rice farmers.

Their mission: stop the spread of Communism,

recruit and train hill tribe warriors

to fight a shadow war against the North Vietnamese

and the Pathet Lao.

The war in Laos was secret.

The Russians knew about it.

The Chinese knew, the Vietnamese.

The Laotians certainly knew.

The only people who didn't

was the American public and Congress.

♪ I took a walk through this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ Felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪

♪ Found something good in this ♪

♪ Beautiful world

♪ I felt the rain getting colder ♪

♪ La, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la

♪ Sha la, la, la, la, la

♪

♪

Though never actually at war with Laos,

at the same time we were fighting

in neighboring Vietnam,

the United States flew more than half a million missions

over this tiny Southeast Asian nation,

dropping more bombs here

than on Germany and Japan in all of World War II combined...

This only a part

of the largest covert military operation in history,

a conflict that became known as the Secret War.

There were three intelligence officers,

key players in this secret war,

who, depending on who you talk to,

were either greatly loved or greatly feared and despised.

Anthony Poshepny, also known as Tony Poe,

had an extensive paramilitary background

as a former Marine and CIA officer.

Bill Lair, a Texan and World War II vet,

was an influential CIA case officer.

Vint Lawrence was recruited right out of Princeton

even though he was an art history major.

They succeeded at first in impeding the flow

of Communist North Vietnamese arms and troops

on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

But by the end, they were arming even children.

What happened here...

Presumably in the cause of freedom,

of democratic Western values... Resonates still.

An estimated 30% of the bombs dropped on Laos

failed to detonate.

These and other UXOs remain in the ground

and continue to take lives and limbs.

♪

♪

When you get off the plane... Yes.

What's the first sort of

recognizable smell that registers?

Wood smoking, grilling.

♪

The river as well.

You know, it's just, like, the Mekong...

Diesel or whatever the fuel is here.

A little bit of that. Yeah, yeah.

♪

From the first time I heard of Laos, I was hooked

and filled with a desire to see the place,

once a storybook kingdom of misty mountains and opium,

at one time a protectorate of France,

a mysterious landlocked nation

bordered by China, Thailand, Cambodia,

and, as fate would have it, Vietnam.

♪

See, the best restaurant view ever.

All these women butchers.

♪

Chef James Syhabout earned his Michelin star

in San Francisco.

This is the first thing I eat.

Get off a plane,

I just want to go find some khao piak sen.

He learned to cook from his mother

and never looked back...

until recently.

It's crispy pork, sliced pork.

- Blood cake? - Blood cake in it.

- Meat broth. - Meat broth, yeah.

Oh, it's, like, steaming hot.

James' family, like many, fled the fighting in Laos

or the Communist takeover that followed it.

Mmm.

Nowadays, things are looking up a bit,

and some, like James, are returning.

Oh, yeah, this is, like, so homey.

Takes you to a place. Takes me to a place.

What's it like being back, man?

I mean, it's only your second time,

but what's it like?

Oh, man, it's like home more and more.

I totally get it when my mom says,

"I want to go back home."

That's a common thing.

Refugees live in the States for a couple years.

Once their children have their own careers and families,

they come back.

My mom's doing that now, rice farming again.

She said, "I want to move back to have a more relaxed life,"

but, like, it's hard work.

But she's happy?

She's happy, super happy.

She looks a lot younger now.

After she moved back.

Less stress, I guess.

Yeah, yeah.

♪

This village, we call Long Ian.

♪

- Rice farming? - Yes.

They're doing rice and also growing some vegetable.

Northern Laos... Enchantingly beautiful,

sparsely populated by remote mountain villages,

for centuries home to ethnic minority hill tribes

like the Hmong.

This is where the CIA recruited, trained, and armed

over 100,000 fighters.

Before that, how did you get up and down?

Walk?

In these same mountains

but on the other side of the conflict,

there were people like Mr. Li, now in his 80s,

who fought for the Communist Pathet Lao.

He is Hmong, and during the Secret War,

he fought other Hmong.

♪

Ah, fantastic. Wow.

Mmm.

- This is chicken. - Chicken.

And this is chicken also

but with blood and some inner heart.

Every Hmong family will know this.

Beautiful.

Mmm.

Mmm.

He was here when the French were here, yes?

How was he injured?

In the end, when the last choppers

hurriedly left Vietnam,

Laos and many Lao who fought with us

were left behind too.

What had been a kingdom was now a Communist regime.

Yeah, the bad guys won.

A few who'd been most directly associated

with the American effort,

unwilling to face rehabilitation camps or worse,

never surrendered

and are, all these years later, hiding in hills like these.

Hmong were killing Hmong bitterly for many years.

If the same people who were trying to kill him

and who he was trying to kill came back now,

how would he feel about that?

♪

♪

♪

Luang Prabang, Laos' ancient capital,

is a sleepy city of ornate palaces and temples.

♪ Get up in the morning

They enthusiastically observe Boun Ork Phansa here,

a big party marking the end of Buddhist Lent.

The whole thing culminates in a few days

with a fire lantern festival,

the symbolic casting away of your sins.

Hey!

♪

Oh!

But this morning, the Lao are watching and drinking

as others pull at oars and race to the finish line.

♪

Boat festival?

Yeah, boat festival here.

Today is the girls racing.

Each boat will be women from the same village.

Yeah, one boat is one village.

For weeks, racing teams have been practicing

on the Mekong River,

each team sponsored by a local Buddhist monastery.

♪ 'Cause it's true

♪

Eat, drink, enjoy view, enjoy boat.

How old is this tradition?

It's a long time ago, many generation.

We start maybe on sixth century.

♪

♪ If you want to figure it out, take my advice ♪

♪ You gotta think, you gotta think ♪

♪ You gotta think for yourself, a'ight? ♪

Uh-oh, what are we doing?

Lao lao? Yes, lao lao.

We doing some lao lao.

So made by the sticky rice, so it tastes good.

That one quite strong.

Ooh!

Boy, this is close.

Both of you born here?

Yeah, I'm the older sister,

and she's younger sister.

How has the country changed since you were little kids?

The country change a lot.

We open the tourism scene,

so it's good for the local economy.

And local people, they can earn money

from the visitor and tourist.

President Obama was just here a few months ago.

Few months ago.

Yeah, he offer a lot of help

for education and for the...

Unexploded ordnance removal.

I think $90 million. That's...

- That's a lot. - It's a lot of money?

Help a lot.

This one the local snack.

Oh, chicken feet. Good.

And buffalo tendon.

Oh, nice, good. Yeah, I'll try that.

Squid? Dry squid.

Dry squid. God, I love this.

This is delicious.

When we eat and we enjoy food,

in Lao, we say, "Sep lai."

- Sep lai. - Sep lai.

♪

- Your hotel. - My hotel.

How long has it been open?

Well, it's been about 20 years.

I'm having lunch at the Ban Lao Hotel.

During the Secret War, it was the offices

for USAID, America's foreign aid mission.

The building was also a cover for CIA headquarters.

Can we say...

USA or CIA. I don't know.

Well, this is what I want to ask.

Generally speaking, back in the '60s and '70s,

USAID and CIA had a lot of, let's say, overlap.

♪

Mama Von, who I met here on my last trip,

is making lunch, an elaborate spread of dishes

whose recipes are left over from imperial times.

So what do we have here?

This is lon song, a fish from Mekong.

We cook with shallots and garlic and chili

and coconut milk and pork.

♪

Crab? River crab?

River crab, yeah.

♪

- Mmm. - See?

It's good.

It's only in Luang Prabang.

- You can eat the shell. - Yes.

Mmm.

And fish with pork, grill.

Or in banana leaves.

Mm, and the ginger sauce.

We eat the pork skin. Pork skin.

And we have to have sticky rice.

Yeah, sticky rice.

Okay, bon appétit.

Food like this...

This is an imperial dish, a royal dish...

Have these disappeared, these recipes?

Or are they still here?

They're still here, but, you know,

sometimes they do it not the way

that not supposed to do it.

They change ingredient a lot.

My grandma teach me how to do this.

You were born here, yes?

In Luang Prabang? In Luang Prabang, yup.

And, Michel, you...

- I was born in Vientiane. - In Vientiane.

And you lived here all your life? No.

- In France. - In France.

At the age of 11, I went to France to study.

I came back in 1971.

Oh, difficult times, 1971, very difficult.

Yeah, it was still the war.

Mama Von's longtime friend Michel

was a journalist, though what that means

in a Communist one-part state like Laos

is necessarily different

than what you and I might define it as.

When I was in Paris, I studied ethnology.

When I came here, they said, "Ethnology can wait.

What we need is journalists."

That's why you get your job.

That's how I became a journalist.

American involvement here

remains a particularly painful and even taboo subject

with the Lao government.

Obama, the United States president,

just came here to visit.

What do you think it means for Lao?

Well, I think one important thing

is the UXO, unexploded ordnances,

Right.

American B-52s, they came on bombing missions in Laos

every day, every day, every day.

And after bombing,

they had to cross Mekong back and land,

but they are not allowed to land with bombs on board.

So if they have bombs left, they would drop them at random.

That's why we have so, so many in so many provinces.

What do you think it means, though,

that the president came here?

Look, this is a small country, only 7 million people.

- Yes. - Yeah.

Not a lot of mineral resources.

- No, not really. - No oil.

If you were a cynical person...

I'm not.

Well...

Why do you think he came?

Well, you have China. You have Russia.

You have...

You think that maybe we think

we need a friend in the neighborhood.

I think everybody needs friends.

♪

♪

So you were born in a refugee camp.

- Yes. - Moved to the States what age?

Two.

I don't really remember much.

My dad never once talked about the Secret War.

He didn't really explain why we had to come to the States.

It was just like, "We're here. Enjoy it."

♪

Almsgiving is a daily ritual, but this is special.

People always sit down along the street...

Right.

Wait for the monk coming, and give sticky rice.

Most people, they give sticky rice.

Boun Ork Phansa means the end

of months of isolated meditation.

Monks celebrate

with a once-a-year Halloween-like bonanza

where, in addition to the usual sticky rice,

all manner of treats are offered.

♪

I was a novice.

Come from my home village

to live in the temple in Luang Prabang.

I finished a monk.

The orange robes, the whole bit.

Mm-hmm.

Now, do most young men go to the temple to...

To get education, yes.

It's the only way you get, like, public education,

is to become a novice.

- Yes. - Ah.

So everybody. Everybody, yeah.

That's where you learn English. Yeah.

- And you speak French too? - No.

Chef James' friend Mr. C lives with his extended family

on the outskirts of Luang Prabang.

♪

Looks awesome.

So what have we got here?

Aw lahm is an incarnate Lao dish.

Wood ear mushrooms, dill.

The key ingredient is the pepper wood,

these wooden blocks,

which has, like, a white pepper, star anise...

That infuses the fish. You don't eat it.

It's like an umami.

Very herbaceous, peppery, really rich.

Unlike anything I've ever had.

We have two types of lahm. One's raw. One's cooked.

So it's cooked buffalo, raw buffalo.

- Buffalo. - Man, it's really good.

This was kind of improvised. Leuat paeng.

"Leuat paeng" translates to "fixed blood."

So it's buffalo blood.

It's a really tricky way to prepare the dish,

'cause you want the blood to set,

so the way you do is dilute the blood with water.

And just pour it over herbs, and that's it.

Lao panna cotta.

Mmm, this is really, really good.

You know, the balance is so beautiful.

This meal kind of represents, like, a Lao table.

You always got to have a soup.

You always got to have some kind of lahm, a stew,

some kind of muddled salad,

sticky rice, of course, and a dip.

- And Beerlao. - And Beerlao.

Yeah, let's get that. Let's get that.

Your parents left Laos in what?

- '81. - '81.

And, you know, we migrated to a community

of other Laotians.

And it was pretty much a community like this.

We all shared water. Scratching out a living.

I mean, if you were Laotian and you wanted

to make money back then, you were cooking Thai food.

Exactly. My mom worked in Thai restaurants, and...

What does your mom think of your Lao cooking?

She's just pretty impressed, surprisingly.

The first thing she does

when she walks through my kitchen is,

she goes to the waste bin,

and she goes looks in the trash and goes...

"Why you throwing this out?"

Yeah, yeah.

You know, it's, like, cilantro stems.

So how many years were you a novice?

Three years.

- Three years? - Yes.

Well, what's the minimum?

Ah, minimum seven days.

- Wow. That's easy. - Easy.

I don't have time.

What's life like at the temple?

Sleep on the floor? You sleep in a bed?

Normally, we sleep in the floor,

and later I sleep on bed.

- One meal a day. - One meal a day.

- Two. - Two.

- Breakfast and lunch. - Yes.

And you get a snack from the almsgiving.

Yes, snack and drink: coffee, Ovaltine.

Coffee and Ovaltine, did you say?

- Ovaltine. - Ovaltine.

He got it. Here's a cup.

- Ovaltine. - For you.

Cheers.

♪

♪

♪

The American experience in this part of the world

is something that everyone wants to pretend

never happened.

More bombs dropped here than all of World War II.

This is the gold medal of Laos.

It's, they say, one ton per person.

And if they continue to clean the country at that reason,

more 600 years to clean it.

Come on, 'kay. Come on. Come on. Come on.

Oh, no, this is the strong stuff.

Good for you.

Hello.

One, two, three.

Très bien.

♪

♪

Motorbike... the only way to see this part of the world.

The thick, unmoving air. The smell.

Past rice paddies, water buffaloes.

What feels like another century.

♪

Laos is the kind of place that can easily

capture your heart and not let you go.

This is what you do, right?

I mean, if you're thinking of a place

to open a bar or restaurant,

you're gonna put it by the river.

- Yes. - Nice breeze, nice view.

And you see the Lao people.

They come here during the afternoon.

They have a drink. It's nice.

- Perfect. - Perfect.

More than a few people came here for vacation

and never went home, like Ben.

So how long have you been in Laos?

In Laos? Oh, around 15 years.

I haven't been back to France for a long time.

When you first came here, what was it like?

It was just open.

You know, it was beginning of 2000.

What do you mean by "just open"?

Before, it was very difficult to travel, you know.

If you have a permit to travel in Luang Prabang,

you can only visit Luang Prabang.

If you want to go another province,

you need to have a special permit to change.

And I had a friend, and my friend say,

"No, let's go to Laos.

"It's more protected, more natural,

more authentic."

I said, "Okay. Why not?"

The first time I arrived in Luang Prabang,

I was feeling like Indiana Jones

discovering a beautiful city.

And the point is, I fell in love,

and I couldn't go back.

What's your typical day here?

Like, if you're not working, on a good day, you know.

On a good day, you have a party.

You have a party.

Beerlao, friends, that's what for.

Again, there is nothing special to do.

It's just the way of life.

♪

- Look. - Yeah, training.

♪

So how has it changed over the years?

I mean, you go to Saigon or Hanoi...

Money, money, money coming in.

Foreign ownership of everything.

Is... that's not happening here?

Yes, I can see there is the next generation now.

Now when you go to the markets and you say,

"Where is it from?" they say,

"Thailand, Vietnam, China."

And to find local foods is difficult.

But if you talk to old people, they will say, "Boh penh nyang."

"We are like the bamboo. We are not trees.

"So when there is too much wind, we bend, and we get up,

and boh penh nyang."

I was a monk for a little bit more than one month.

In fact, I "signed" for three weeks.

After three weeks, I wanted to stay a little bit.

They push a lot the way to not suffer,

to learn how to disconnect the important things in life.

That's why the people, they drink a lot.

They like to enjoy, to share.

If you don't share, you are poor.

The more you give, the more you are rich.

You have money a lot. You lose your money tomorrow.

Some people would be upset.

And you go up and going down.

It's never a good feeling.

Boh penh nyang.

I just say look at the river.

It's go up. It's go down. But always in the same way.

And at the end is the end.

Boh penh nyang.

♪

Let us assume the best

of the intelligence officers who served here,

of the pilots and bombardiers who ran missions over Laos...

Watch your step.

That they were doing their duty as they saw it,

that they believed they were serving the interests

of their country.

So this is a banana plantation?

Yes, banana and lemongrass.

That still leaves us with the unarguable fact

that generations later,

UXOs, or unexploded ordnances, remain a huge problem.

What's here? Cluster bomb, mostly?

Or bombies? Yes, yes.

Organizations like UXO Lao

are tasked with cleaning up the mess.

You go with a metal detector,

dig them out by hand, no machines,

detonate them.

The technology we use nowadays

is the same as 20 years ago.

Right.

Wow.

That's a big bang.

Yeah.

Laos is the mostly heavily bombed country per capita

in the history of the world.

Yeah.

80 million is the number of cluster bombs

that did not detonate.

Since the war in Vietnam ended

and we left our Secret War here behind,

20,000 people, many of whom

were not even alive during the conflicts,

have been killed or maimed.

Now, most of the people

who are blown up, who are they?

Mostly farmers?

Nowadays, the picture's a little bit changed

to the children right now,

because the children, is look like tennis ball,

is good for playing,

for the children to pick up as a toy.

So far, only half of 1% of the country

has been cleared.

80 million cluster bombs are still left in the country.

Right.

20 years, what we did is 1.4 million.

- In 20 years. - 20 years.

- So that's a lot left. - That's a lot.

And many people are asking me how many years it will...

I have no answers.

- Saam! - Three.

- Song! - Two.

- Neung. - One.

♪

So this is bamboo soup.

This bamboo is very fresh,

because they just get it from the forest up here.

Normally, the bamboo is still a bit bitter.

Mm-hmm.

- But he has to boil it. - A long time.

And then he will take off the water.

Ah, will change the water.

He'll change the water

and cook it again with chicken or duck.

- Right, some flavor. - Yes.

So what year was he born?

How old is the gentleman?

1960, so born at the beginning

of the war here.

Yeah.

While these days, the effects of the Secret War

are receiving more attention,

much of how we got here remains off limits.

The CIA and their relationship with Hmong,

in part because there are to this day

insurgents deep in the jungle,

is a sensitive subject with the Lao government.

Where did the American doctors come from?

Uh...

So, actually, it's...

I think this is not...

This is not a question, I think.

Okay.

In a Communist, one-party state like Laos,

it can be dangerous to talk politics.

You tell me whether we can talk about this or not,

whether it's a comfortable subject or not.

But here on one hand, we have Americans dropping bombs

that blow this, at the time, child up.

Yeah.

And then there are American doctors

to put him back together.

Given that, is he angry?

I mean, all of the bombing, all of the suffering,

all of the death...

What did he think it was all for?

♪

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