MACV-SOG: The Secret War in Laos Washington Planned to Deny

MACV-SOG is the unit named in a 1966 State Department memo that also drafted the exact words Washington would use if reporters ever asked about it. This video is a close read of that memo, plus two Medal of Honor citations whose own paperwork cannot agree on which country the action happened in. On October 3, 1966, a State Department official explained why a proposed press line needed White House clearance: if pressed, the U.S. would say it "is not conducting such operations" in Laos, and call any exposed mission an accident. The small reconnaissance teams behind that line, first called Shining Brass, were authorized in September 1965: ten men, no more than three American, moving up to 20 kilometers into Laos. By June 1966 they were burning huts and villages, far from their original no-contact orders, and that October, eight of the nine teams operating needed emergency rescue. By 1967 the program had a new name, SOG, a proposal for a 3,000-man guerrilla force, and a sister operation, Daniel Boone, sending teams into Cambodia, where over 80 percent of missions made enemy contact. Two of the men who served, Specialist John J. Kedenburg and Sgt. Robert L. Howard, received the Medal of Honor. Their citations and the Army's own records name three different countries for where their actions took place. I read it all side by side, and show you where the record breaks down -- including what Vietnamese state histories say about the route these teams were watching. CHAPTERS 0:00 The Proposal 1:32 How I Check This 3:37 What The Teams Were 11:00 Prairie Fire, And SOG 11:57 Crossing Into Cambodia 16:03 Two Medals, Two Places SOURCES FRUS 1964-68 (State Dept., Office of the Historian): Vol. XXVIII (Laos), doc. 254, Unger to Donnelly -- https://history.state.gov/historicald... Vol. XXVIII, doc. 270, Unger to Katzenbach -- https://history.state.gov/historicald... Vol. XXVIII, doc. 277, State Dept. telegram to the Embassy in Laos -- https://history.state.gov/historicald... Vol. XXVIII, doc. 282, Joint Chiefs of Staff to McNamara -- https://history.state.gov/historicald... Vol. XXVII (Mainland Southeast Asia), doc. 211, Warnke to McNamara -- https://history.state.gov/historicald... Vol. XXVII, doc. 208, Aldrich to Bundy -- https://history.state.gov/historicald... Vol. XXVII, doc. 258, Bundy to Katzenbach -- https://history.state.gov/historicald... Vol. XXVII, doc. 256, Wheeler to Nitze -- https://history.state.gov/historicald... USASOC History Office, Medal of Honor citation: 1LT Robert L. Howard -- https://arsof-history.org/medal_of_ho... SWCS, Special Forces Regimental Hall of Honor: Col. Robert Howard (inducted 2010) -- https://www.swcs.mil/Portals/111/sf_h... USASOC History Office, Medal of Honor citation: SP5 John J. Kedenburg -- https://arsof-history.org/medal_of_ho... USASOC History Office, Medal of Honor index -- https://arsof-history.org/medal_of_ho... Official Vietnamese perspective: Nhan Dan -- https://nhandan.vn/65-nam-bo-doi-truo... Binh Doan 12 (successor to Group 559), unit history -- https://binhdoan12.vn/gioi-thieu/lich... PHOTO CREDITS CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons: David CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons: NARA photo 111-CCV-345-CC37988 by SSG Francisco Salas ARCHIVE MATERIALS Public domain: U.S. Department of State, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, Central Intelligence Agency, and a White House photograph held by the National Archives. AI illustrates scenes where no historical photograph exists; the three named people, Souvanna Phouma, John J. Kedenburg and Robert L. Howard, appear only in real public-domain photographs. MUSIC "Oppressive Gloom", "Ossuary 1 - A Beginning", "Darkest Child", "Deliberate Thought", "Anguish", "Despair and Triumph" -- Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Sound effects: freesound.org (CC0) and synthesized for this film. Footage: U.S. National Archives / archive.org. Company Clerk: both sides, on the record. If you served, tell me your unit and the year. #VietnamWar #VietnamVeterans #History