Difficult to criticise such a book. Nonetheless, the accumulation of sometimes small, sometimes big inaccuracies casts a shadow on the value of the work of Mrs.Hamilton-Meritt. There is strong evidence of massive -to the Laotian scale- use of toxic agents against Laotian opponents to the present regime, including voluntary targetting of civilians. This book is a useful testimony of the suffering of a population extensively used by the US governement and then quietly abandonned. But it is maybe not as clear-cut as exposed. Opium is an issue altogether avoided. The French actively promoted its cultivation to take advantage of the smoking habits of some Indonchinese. French Indonchina was a net importer of raw opium, and it certainly was not for 'medical uses'. The hill-tribes continued their ancestral cultivation of the poppy during the various conflicts and still do. All sides found a profit there, either because of a direct involvement in the traffic, or more beningly in perceiving a tax on the raw opium or ensuring its safe passage in their zone of control for a fee. Not a word of this in the book. Similarly, posing the Neutralists as straight allies of the Communists is rather surprising, at best. Finally, the Hmong were not alone, some Laotian officers and soldiers were brave, and the Thais also played a major role in MR2, with up to 16 infantry battalions and 3 artillery battalions in the field. The reality has a few more shades of grey than this book.
