Summary: Documentary about American involvement in Laos, both American bombing and CIA support for local forces, and its effect upon the people of Laos.
Description: The documentary is shot at an airbase in the North, Bouam Long, where the CIA are supplying the local tribesmen with arms, and at a village in the South that has suffered from US bombing. The US policy is to back anti-communist local forces with money and arms without committing ground troops. The documentary looks at the Mayo tribe around Bouam Long who have been decimated by the war they have been fighting with US supplies for ten years. One of the ten year old boys who is fighting, armed to the teeth with US equipment, is interviewed. Edgar Buell the chief US supplier of arms to the tribe is interviewed and gives some very frank answers. In a village suffering from US bombing the stories of some of the maimed villagers are told. The pattern of US bombing from low level strafing to high level saturation bombing is outlined. There are shots of CIA military advisers arriving by helicopter and photographs of some of their agents under innocent civilian guise. The journalist T D Ullman explains much of the CIA activity.
Alternative Title:WORLD IN ACTION [Series Title]
Colour:Colour
Digitised:
Object_Number:PMO 23
Sound:Sound
Access Conditions:IWM
Featured Period:1946-1975
Production Date:1971
Production Country: GB
Production Details: Granada Television (Production company)
Clarke, Stephen (Production individual)
Woodhead, Leslie (Production individual)
Wallington, Jeremy (Production individual)
Turner, George Jesse (Production individual)
Walker, Peter (Production individual)
Hendrie, Kelvin (Production individual)
Bale, Alan (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Buell, Edgar (person)
Ullman, T D (person)
Cambodian Army, irregular troops (regiment/service)
United States Air Force (regiment/service)
CIA (regiment/service)
Keywords: casualties, Cambodian wounded - civilian (object name)
operations, Cambodian military - preparation (object name)
operations, United States air - sortie (object name)
society, Cambodian - ethnic: Mayo tribe (object name)
strategy, United States military: Cambodia (object name)
Laos & Bouam Long <US Air Force Base> (geography)
Physical Characteristics: Colour format: Colour
Sound format: Sound
Soundtrack language: English
Title language: English
Subtitle language: English
Technical Details: Format: 16mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 1
Footage: 1130 ft; Running time: 30 mins
