Monday, June 29: From Missionaries to CIA Agents (1868-1952)

Monday, July 6: CIA Role in Laos Secret War (1952 – 1975)

Time: 9:30 am – noon

Description

The Young family has had a profound impact on the religious, military, and political milieu of Southeast Asia, particularly among highlander populations. Bill Young was undoubtedly the most famous, spending almost his entire life in the Mekong region.

William Young, Bill’s grandfather, was the first in the family to arrive in Asia. As a Baptist missionary in the so-called “Unadministered Territories” of British Burma, William survived multiple assassination attempts and performed over 40,000 baptisms — amassing the largest number of converts in the history of the American Baptist Foreign Mission.

In 1942, William’s two sons, raised amid these tribes, left missionary work to join America’s spy agencies as “tribal experts.” Their assignment: to convert their Christian flock once again, this time into guerrilla battalions to fight the invading Japanese. The Young family, at the CIA’s behest, would later deploy these Baptist warriors against communists across Southeast Asia.

By the 1950s, every male in the family was working for the CIA. By the 1960s, Bill was able to capitalize on his family’s reputation as missionaries-turned- intelligence-operatives to amass a multi-ethnic army of more than 5,000 guerillas, part of America’s secret army in Laos of around 30,000 men — the largest armed force in the history of the CIA.

This course will offer a detailed look into the many generations of the Young family and their influence and impact in the Mekong region.

Presenter:

David Lawitts was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He first arrived in Thailand in 2002 on a study abroad program.

He has been a research fellow at Chiang Mai University, where he became fluent in Thai, proficient in a number of hill tribe languages, and earned a Master’s Degree in Sustainable Development.

David has filmed a number of documentaries about the politics of ethnic minorities in Southeast Asia. Many of these minority groups (the Wa, Lahu, and Shan to name a few) were converted to Christianity in the 1800s by American missionaries, and many later joined the CIA during the Secret War in Laos in the 1960s.

David has spent the last decade interviewing these Christian secret warriors, many of whom will appear in the documentary films shown in this Life Long Learning course.

COST : 350 THB per session or 600 THB for both sessions