CIA activities in Vietnam the next 14 years, the focus of their paramilitary operations changed over time. Until 1964, the Hmong fighters in Laos focused on trying to fight back North Vietnamese fighters and on preventing further encroachment. They were highly important, because the US hadn't begun putting troops on the ground in any great numbers, yet. After that, in 1965, the report describes the Hmong activities in Laos as "flitt[ing] over mountain trails or mov[ing] by air to occupy key high ground and to harass Hanoi's tanks and artillery," meaning that US troops took on a frontline role and asked the paramilitary forces
The 25 Year War The 25 Year War The 25 Year War: America's Military Role in Vietnam () is a book by General Bruce Palmer Jr. about the Vietnam War, and was published in 1984. The book is split into two parts, the first which follows chronologically the events leading to the fall of Saigon in 1975 and mentions Palmer's position in those events. The second part is called 'Assessment' and more broadly calls out what was done right and wrong and also offers an alternate role the US could have played in the conflict: Palmer is critical of covert operations: War involves fighting