As World War II drew to a close, the Imperial Japanese military seized control of Laos, a French protectorate, and encouraged nationalist movements to forestall the revival of French power in the region.Despite these efforts the French re-entered Indochina and methodically retook the protectorate. By 1957, the government of Laos and the core of the Communist Laotian forces, known as the Pathet Lao, entered an uneasy truce, which plunged the country into 15 years of...

For most Americans, Cambodia was a sideshow to the war in Vietnam, but by the time of the Vietnam invasion of Democratic Kampuchea in 1978 and the subsequent war, it had finally moved to center stage. Kenneth Conboy chronicles the violence that plagued Cambodia from World War II until the end of the twentieth century and peels back the layers of secrecy that surrounded the CIA’s covert assistance to anticommunist forces in Cambodia during that span.Conboy’s path-breaking study prov...

Influenced by the German use of paratroopers early in World War Two, General Sir Robert Cassels, the Commander-in-Chief India, ordered the formation of an airborne cadre in October 1940.Thus marked the origins of India's first élite units. Pakistan can trace the origins of its own army airborne to the common parentage of British-raised forces. Following the partition from India in August 1947, it raised its own Special Service Group, with individually specialised c...

Elite units have long been prominent in the armies of South-East Asia and, given the turmoil in the region after the 1960s, these forces have had ample opportunity to be tested in combat.Acknowledged expert on South-East Asia Ken Conboy outlines the history, organization and insignia of Vietnamese, Cambodian, Indonesian, Malaysian and various other South-East Asian special forces from their origins up until the late 80s, covering such groups as the Vietnamese Luc L...

Defiance against Chinese oppression has been a defining characteristic of Tibetan life for more than four decades, symbolized most visibly by the much revered Dalai Lama. But the story of Tibetan resistance weaves a far richer tapestry than anyone might have imagined.Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison reveal how America’s Central Intelligence Agency encouraged Tibet’s revolt against China—and eventually came to control its fledgling resistance movement. While the CIA's presence in T...

This book examines the uniforms, equipment, history and organisation of the troops that fought in Cambodia in the 1970s.Kenneth Conboy and Ken Bowra's detailed text discusses all the US and Cambodian forces, including Special Operations, and summarises the course of the war. Alongside the text, uniforms are shown in full illustrated detail, highlighting the varied range of military clothing used by each of the different forces.

In 1940 Japan placed Vietnam under military occupation, restricting the local French administration to a figurehead authority.Seizing the opportunity, the Communists organised a Vietnamese independence league, the Viet Minh, whose armed forces became known as the PAVN (more commonly known to the West as the Vietcong, or NVA) and prepared to launch an uprising against the French at the war's end.This text details the history, organisation and uniforms of the...

In the towering mountains of northern India, a chilling chapter was written in the history of international espionage.After the Chinese detonated their first nuclear test in 1964, America and India, which had just fought a border war with its northern neighbor, were both justifiably concerned. The CIA knew it needed more information on China’s growing nuclear capability but had few ways of peeking behind the Bamboo Curtain. Because of the extreme remoteness of Chinese testing groun...

This book examines the uniforms, equipment, history and organisation of the troops that fought in Cambodia in the 1970s.Kenneth Conboy and Ken Bowra's detailed text discusses all the US and Cambodian forces, including Special Operations, and summarises the course of the war. Alongside the text, uniforms are shown in full illustrated detail, highlighting the varied range of military clothing used by each of the different forces.