Until now, the history of America's war in Vietnam has been incomplete. The origins of that conflict - the most controversial and painful chapter in American history since the Civil War - were in Laos, a remote, landlocked, mountainous country where the CIA waged a secret war against communism. Drawing on unprecedented access to previously closed files and on extensive interviews, Back Fire fills in the last missing piece in the puzzle of America's tragic involvement in Southeast Asia.

Taking us to the heart of the war in Laos - from CIA headquarters in Washington to the Hmong tribesmen's huts, where ideals were discussed and promises made and then broken - Roger Warner tells the previously untold story of the secret war through the experiences of the key players. Beyond his narrative of key players and events, Warner shows how the secret war in Laos was connected to the larger war in Vietnam, and how Vietnam was central to the shifting alliances of Cold War geopolitical rivals.