Charismatic and cunning, Vang Pao would quickly rise to the rank of general — the only Hmong tribesman to attain the position — and take on a volatile edge that could make some around him nervous. The North Vietnamese were spilling the blood of his people, and he had no problem allying with the Americans to turn battlefields red in kind. In the late 1950s, when the U.S. began looking for Laotian leaders to groom, he was the obvious choice. One official claimed he was Genghis Khan incarnate. The U.S. government threw its support behind him and helped fund his guerilla army of 10,000. According to the Geneva accords, Laos was still technically neutral, so America’s support had to be kept secret. The job fell to the CIA.
The Hmong army under Vang Pao stood no chance against the North Vietnamese without air power. To that end, the CIA provided a skeleton crew of Forward Air Controllers that flew under the call sign “Butterfly” and radioed in airstrikes from the Air Force base in Udorn, Thailand. In 1966, the Butterflies were replaced by recruits from the Steve Canyon Program, men dubbed “Ravens.” The name was apropos: Ravens are agile, clever, and fearless. They are also harbingers of death.
The Ravens used intelligence supplied by the CIA, received air support from the Air Force, and reported to the American Embassy. But, in all practicality, they belonged to General Vang Pao.
To join the Ravens, Platt had to be reborn. He flew to Thailand, where his military record was transferred to a top-secret intelligence file. He handed over every memento that indicated he was an American soldier: dog tags, uniform, even his Air Force ID card. The process — called “sheep-dipping” — effectively wiped Platt off the earth. In Thailand, he awaited a briefing from a colonel whom he hoped would shed some light on the program he was joining. As one declassified report attests, these officials knew little of the secret program. “I am supposed to be your commander…” one colonel said to a batch of recruits. “I don’t really know what the hell is going on and I don’t have control over you. Goodbye.”
Next Platt was sent to Laos. In the country’s political capital of Vientiane, he received a Laotian driver’s license, a nickname, and a cover story. (Many Ravens became “forest rangers” or “agricultural advisers” with the U.S. Agency for International Development.) Finally, Platt was sent to the beating heart of the secret war: Long Tieng.