Invasion of Laos, 1971: Lam Son 719, by Robert D. Sander

“The only chance we have is to initiate bold moves against the enemy,” na- tional security adviser Henry Kissinger confided in 1971. This was his advice to the administration of President Nixon, which sought to end the Vietnam War by creating “peace with honor.” “Bold moves” would include two new strate- gies. One was resumed bombing of North Vietnam. The second would be new ground raids into Cambodia and Laos to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail—the network that allowed Hanoi to supply communist forces in the south, and that at its peak even in- cluded an oil pipeline from the Chinese border to the environs of Saigon. The raid into Laos, code-named LAM SON 719, is the subject of Robert Sander’s recent book Invasion of Laos, 1971