Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.