While American forces fought openly in Vietnam, the CIA ran a parallel war next door in Laos that Washington denied existed. This film traces how the agency built and directed an army of Hmong fighters under General Vang Pao, backed by American pilots flying secret bombing runs out of bases like Long Tieng, itself so covert it was left off maps. Laos absorbed more bombing tonnage than Germany and Japan combined in World War II, most of it dropped on a country the United States was not at war with by any public admission. Archival footage of the bases, the aircraft, and the refugee camps runs alongside interviews and narration that lay out how the operation was funded, staffed, and hidden from Congress and the American public for years. The film follows the war from its Cold War origins through its human cost, tracking what happened to the Hmong fighters and civilians once American support ended and the secret finally came out.