or just smoke and mirrors? Under the direction of the CIA, the secret war in Laos gains momentum as Montagnard tribesmen and SOG teams fight to cut off the Ho Chi Minh Trail and deny the Viet Cong and NVA the weapons and supplies they need to win the war in South Vietnam. Using an odd mix of older warplanes and modern jet fighters, Operation Barrel Roll brings American airpower to the struggle in the Laotian mountains. As the Laotian military loses control over The Plain of Jars to the Pathet Lao, the CIA turns a blind eye when an American pilot is coerced into transporting opium grown by the hill tribes as their only source of income. Run by the Corsican mob in Saigon, it's a treacherous tangle of deceit that will cost thousands of American lives. Like all the books in the airmen series, When War Dawns is based on historical events and real people. It's full of military action and suspense. War has arrived and it seems like nothing can stop it.