The Anything Goes Youtubery Thread

[Coss]

for those of us with an interest in Laos 

enlightening

 

 

[bust]

Not sure it was a secret just not spoken about. The Hmong fought along side the American soldiers. They got pretty much nothing in return. Some were lucky enough to get a certificate or citizenship.

[Coss]

This is the funniest thing I've seen Jon Stewart (The Daily Show) do recently, some very good laughs in here, also interesting bits and bobs about, Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan's new book  - On “Regime Change” & Inside The Trump Presidency.

 

 

[bust]

Trump swore he'd never to do another interview with Jonathon Swan after he made a fool of him during Covid

[Coss]

and then he did...

[Coss]

60 minutes Australia with Haberman and Swan on Trump

more of the same but with a tempered tone:

"In Trump's mind the world is a corrupt place, he's just more honest about it ..."  Haberman.

 

 

 

[Mekong]

 

[Old Hippie]

On 6/22/2026 at 12:50 AM, Coss said:

for those of us with an interest in Laos 

enlightening

 

 

I’ve read up a lot on this, fascinated by the “hidden history” of that entire era. I have actually met many of the heavy hitters from that era, going back to my very first trip to Bangkok. Jack Shirley, Tony “Po,” Raven pilots including “magnet ass” and Les Strouse, Izzy Freidman lots of Raven FAC pilots etc…great stories.  Going back to the JFK years, he considered Laos a bigger threat than Vietnam and put eyes on it while trying to scale back the operation in Vietnam. Oddly, lots of Generels didn’t consider Laos much of a threat and thus chose to ignore it once JFK was out of office…LBJ signed executive orders to escalate Vietnam within a day or 2 of JFK’s assassination. Flashermac and I used to discuss this all the time. You may recall, he was a veteran of the war in Vietnam, lots of great information. 

     Some good books on the subject “tragedy in Paradise a country doctor at war in Laos” “Shooting the moon” “Shadow War,” (highly recommended),  “The politics of Heroin in South east Asia” (chapter about Pop Buell who helped the Hmong improve their opium growing) “The ravens”  “Air America” (same author as the Ravens) and a few others.  The hidden history or history the USA wishes we’d all forget, it’s still an open wound here for many of that generation. The history is deep and it seems I keep meeting people who are somehow part of it. I work with kids now who are Hmong, Their parents or grand parents played parts in fighting the Pathet Lao (commies). Some don’t like to talk about it, others are glad someone knows about it and cares. I recall meeting a waiter/owner of a Lao restaurant in Richmond California who proudly wore his Paru Beret. When I asked him about it he was surprised I knew anything about it at all. I ran some names by him and he knew some of them. I said “…what can you tell me about them and everything…” He said “…well, we were all younger then…” and let it go at that. I remember as a kid reading about the wars in South East Asia and for some reason wanting to go see these places, which I have done for the most part. Still a lot to see…

     Side note, worked with a Cambodian guy who survived one of the Khmer Rouge camps and escaped to Thailand. Also work with a young guy who came here much later from Cambodia who swears the KR were misrepresented and were really nice fun loving guys…was not a good mix…almost as bad as the Indian and Pakistani having a discussion on who was the bigger shit…

[bust]

3 hours ago, Old Hippie said:

Also work with a young guy who came here much later from Cambodia who swears the KR were misrepresented and were really nice fun loving guys…

He's either a relative of KR soldier or has no idea what he was talking about.

One thing a friend told me who has lived in Cambodia for almost 15 years is most Cambodians don't talk about that period. Just too painful for them. They have moved on. Why can't a certain other lot?

[Old Hippie]

19 hours ago, bust said:

He's either a relative of KR soldier or has no idea what he was talking about.

One thing a friend told me who has lived in Cambodia for almost 15 years is most Cambodians don't talk about that period. Just too painful for them. They have moved on. Why can't a certain other lot?

In the USA, this can pertain to several different lots…everyone is a victim here…