Long Chen: Film Reveals CIA's 'Most Secret Place on Earth'

[Ian Bungy]

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Fantastic Photos of a very Important Part of Asian History! Alot of other Links in that Article as well. Great Stuff.

[Auke]

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I have just come across some interesting images of LS20A and a trip report from some gents [vets] who managed to finagle their way in to Long Tieng in 2008.
http://aircommandoman.tripod.com/id38.html

One of these gents is a member of this forum - a few months ago they got permission to travel offroad from Xaysomboun via Long Tieng and Sam Thong to Phonsavan.

[Davidfl]

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I now have a copy of the film, so perhaps we can organize a GT Rider viewing somewhere in Chiang Mai.

Schackster & Well, lets run this film at Euro Diner on Thursday 17th March or Friday 18th March at 7.30PM.
Please confirm - Thursday or Friday.

[schackster]

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Ok, Euro Diner it is on Thursday 17th March @ 7:30 PM.

Please let us know via this thread if your coming

[brian_bkk]

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Believe this will be on the History channel in April.. Saw a promo for it the other night.

Can't wait to see it..

Cheers
Brian

[brian_bkk]

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Hi All,

If you would like to download the film.. Here is the torrent.

I have downloaded and watched it.. Good clear quality.. copied from ABC1 Australia.

If you don't have bittorent. Install it.. Then click ont he link below and the link download torrent.

http://www.kickasstorrents.com/the-m...-t5105238.html

It took about 2+ hours to download in Bangkok.

Cheers
Brian

[Ian Bungy]

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It was on History Channel Sunday Night at 9pm. Quite a few of Us watched it together. OK Documentary but I thought they lost there way a bit with their Anti-American Slant? Strange considering History Channel is an American Channel? Obviously the Producers were against them! There was a lot of things happening during that Era and All Sides were Guilty of Atrocities Much like Afghanistan & Iraqi today. A Total Mess! You can't fight a War with one Hand Tied behind Your back and You can Never Win if the UN is involved!!! I have the Perfect Solution for all such Conflicts but best not Publish them here!!!

[Franksmith]

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Has anyone ever herd of the Rothschilds? google them and see what you think, even the CIA work for them, as that was there main informants back then, now I know that the CIA was formed and publicised at a much later date, But actually they were first formed in the late 1700's early 1800's. anyway its all there to read about. lets put it this way, in the late 1800's was the last time anyone made a estemate on there wealth, and it was arround the one trillion dollars. They have been most renound for there antics of funding both sides of war's and crashing economies. buying up all the bonds, flooding the ecomomies with money in inflating the econnomies, that was done with france, germany and so on. In the pipe line they say now they could be worth 500 trillion dollars. this one family owns the Federal reserve, there is 10 banks that form the federal reserve, all owned by the Rothschild family. And it is said that they own 68% of the worlds wealth. Hard to bieleave i know, but check it out before critisizing it.... see link below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothschild_family

[Rhodie]

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It was on History Channel Sunday Night at 9pm. Quite a few of Us watched it together. OK Documentary but I thought they lost there way a bit with their Anti-American Slant? Strange considering History Channel is an American Channel? Obviously the Producers were against them!

You are quite right this doc had an agenda, but it was the film maker's own which allowed him to gain access to LS20A. It is also probably why it's taken him 2 or so years to get it broadcast. HC, like SBS in Oz, bought it off the shelf. Interesting viewing nonetheless, but the Hysterical/Hitler Channel is not always known for its accuracy.

[brian_bkk]

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It was on History Channel Sunday Night at 9pm. Quite a few of Us watched it together. OK Documentary but I thought they lost there way a bit with their Anti-American Slant? Strange considering History Channel is an American Channel? Obviously the Producers were against them! There was a lot of things happening during that Era and All Sides were Guilty of Atrocities Much like Afghanistan & Iraqi today. A Total Mess! You can't fight a War with one Hand Tied behind Your back and You can Never Win if the UN is involved!!! I have the Perfect Solution for all such Conflicts but best not Publish them here!!!

Agree with you.. Anti American agenda.
The book The Raven's gives you a bit more balance to the history as well as what they really did there.

There is no mention that when Laos was declared neutral the US sent in the CIA.. but the North Vietnamese changed uniforms for Pathet Lao and continued fighting..
or
Not only did the US drop bombs over Laos because they could could not land with bombs on-board.. They also did this over South Vietnam where the tunnels were.. indiscriminate bombing there too.. no mention of that in the documentary.

But it was still good to see and like anything, we always have to do your own research to ensure you have a balanced view.

Cheers
Brian

[Davidfl]

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Tonight at the Alliance Francaise in Chiang Mai.

REMINDER
334th Meeting – Tuesday, May 17th 2011, 19.30 at the Alliance Française

The Most Secret Place on Earth: The CIA’s Covert War in Laos
A 75 minute DVD documentary directed by Marc Eberle
Additional commentary will be provided by Rebecca Weldon

It was known as the ‘secret war’, a covert operation waged by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) throughout the sixties and early seventies against communist guerrillas in Laos. And the most secret location in this clandestine war was the former CIA air base of Long Chen, in central Laos, a place still off-limits today. The Most Secret Place on Earth, which explores this little known conflict, includes images of Long Chen shot by the first Western camera crew to enter the base since the communists took control of the country in 1975.
“I first got the idea to do the film when I visited the Plain of Jars in Laos in 2002,” recalls Marc Eberle, the 36 year-old German director. “You could still see the craters from the air bombing and unexploded ordnance was everywhere. Then I heard about Long Chen and the fact that no one had got there since the war and I thought, how do I visit and how do I make a film about it?”
Little is known about the Lao conflict despite the fact it remains the largest and most expensive paramilitary operation ever run by the US. It was completely run by the CIA using largely civilian pilots from the Agency’s own airline, Air America, and mercenaries recruited from the Hmong, an ethnic tribe living in mountainous areas in central and northern Laos.
Despite being the centre of the covert operation and at its peak one of the world’s busiest airports with a population of 50,000 people, Long Chen’s location was never marked on any map. “I found it bizarre that at one time this was the second biggest city in Laos and it was completely secret,” Eberle says.
Long Chen remains off-limits to foreigners and most Lao due to clashes with remnants of the CIA’s Hmong army and until recently formed part of a special administrative zone under the direct control of the Lao army.
Renewed interest in the Laos’ secret war was briefly rekindled in 2003 when two Western journalists made contact with members of the Hmong resistance, the first white people they had seen since the CIA abandoned them 27 years ago.

Rebecca Weldon is the daughter of two physicians, Charles Weldon and Patricia McCreedy, who administered the public health assistance program in Laos for USAID between June 1963 and September 1974. Raised in Laos during the war and fluent in French and Lao, she worked as a summer intern for USAID/Laos between 1968 and 1973. Her duties included translation of Lao government documents, collation and research on the origin and personal histories of refugees from northeast Laos to the Vientiane Plain, research in Lao government archives to create a chronology of political and military events in northern Laos between 1945 and 1972 and translation from French to English of the first doctoral thesis written by a Hmong, Yang Dao.
In 1981 she worked for Joint Voluntary Agency (JVA) in the Nongkhai refugee camp, documenting events in Laos from 1975 to 1981 by collecting oral histories of Lao refugees, organized by social background and profession. She also recorded oral histories of refugees in the holding center, recently released from “seminar” camps and was the first to record the story of the deaths of the King, Queen and Crown Prince of Laos.
With a background in material culture and museum studies, she has worked in Thailand from 1982 to the present as a gallery owner, curator and museological consultant.
Rebecca writes: “Many people, across generations and around the world, have grown up in a war zone. I am one of those people. I do not pretend to have played any significant role. My father documented his work and experiences in Laos in his book, “Tragedy in Paradise”, and I recommend it as a personal memoir to those who would like to understand how a non-military, non-CIA, but, active participant, viewed the events that transpired in the north of Laos. It was through his work and my mother’s that I met General Vang Pao, the CIA officers, USAID officials, writers and journalists featured in the documentaries of the “Secret War”. My knowledge of the events in Laos was nurtured by conversation around my parent’s dinner table. Many of them told stories I could never forget. On occasion, and because my father retired in Chiang Rai, where I live, I discussed and helped to illuminate for others, the story of the war. I was much amused to discover that Long Tieng was “secret”, for it never was in our family. I was distressed to read of attributions of Air America as “Air Opium”, knowing many of the pilots who flew the planes. I joined the Air America Association, just to be with them when they met, as a representative of friends from the past.
Over the years, when researching the history of Chiang Rai, I met many Thai who fought the war; an immigration officer in Mae Sai, a businessman in Chiang Khong, even a T’ai Lue villager in Sri Don Chai. These stories remain to be told and the generation who lived them is passing away. I hope that there will be a time when modern Southeast Asian history is better understood by all who live here, a time when the politics of the situation will give way to facts. This can only happen if the personal stories can be recorded and the documents be revealed.”


Comment: for those at all interested Charles Weldon's book "Tragedy in Paradise" is a highly recommended read.

[Axel_F]

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Most Secret Place on Earth on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsOtM9Y7Prs