My father fought the CIA's secret war in Laos

[Judi Lynn]

By Peter Lang-Stanton

BBC World Service, The Documentary

The summer before university, my dad and I went for a drive in the old Volvo - just the two of us, something we never did. We buckled our seatbelts, and kicked up dust on the gravel lane.

"Peter, it's time to tell you about the family business," my dad said as he tapped his fingers on the wheel waiting for a red light. The light turned green and we pulled out onto the main road.

"Espionage."

My father had a deadpan sense of humour, but if this was another dad joke, I thought, it seemed very elaborate and not very funny. As we drove through our town, a suburban huddle of strip malls and telephone poles, he told me he had worked undercover for the CIA for almost 40 years.

When he didn't smirk and the silence became dense, it occurred to me that he was serious.

More:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42314701

[left-of-center2012]

1. He fought (opposed) the war

or fought in the war.

[marble falls]

2. My wife knew Gen Vang Pao and she knew Allen Stanton. She was CIA and stationed at Udorn and...

her code name was "Olive Oyl". She was in Laos when there were "no Americans" in Laos.

[Nitram]

3. My Dad was a CIA officer. Our family lived in various political hot spots while I was growing up.

Mostly in Latin America. When I turned 18 he told me what his job was. I always suspected something was going on, but I never knew for sure until then. He was very proud of the work he did, and very, very secretive about it.

[marble falls]

4. "Olive" had one job her professional life, but she had about fifteen cover jobs - State, DoD, AF ...

etc. I asked her about it and she told me just before she shot me.

She was closer to the shit than I ever was (I was a submariner) and has much better war stories than I do: she was in Thailand, France during political assassinations in the streets in the seventies, Mauritania during a coup ... I don't know where I went and if I did I wouldn't be able to say. They call it the "silent service" for a bunch of reasons.

Ironically while she was dealing with intelligence regarding war planning in Viet Nam I was home protesting the war. I'm Dharma to her Greg. I enlisted in '73 after not getting anywhere with college and there was a strong anti-Viet Nam war sentiment in the Navy. Her clearance was higher than mine.