ABSTRACT
Others also served. They weren't exactly soldiers. Nor were they militia or "people's self-defense force" types. They were generally described, for want of a better term, as "paramilitary." They were all over Indochina, on all sides of the conflict, but the most famous were the "advisers" and whatnot hired by the Central Intelligence Agency to run the war in Laos. They had no precedent in American history, these daring, often middle-aged men in PX sport shirts and slacks, who had learned their trade while in the army's special forces or the marine corps, among other places. They theoretically did not carry weapons but naturally thought nothing of breaking this rule while training hardy tribesmen, jumping with them into combat—or spending weeks in some of Indochina's densest jungles or scaling its craggiest peaks.
