The
Secret War was the
Lao front of the
Second Indochina War[?] and lasted 13 years (1962-1975). It was the largest paramilitary operation ever undertaken by the
CIA, and though not officially acknowledged, was no secret at all. Using a proxy force of some thirty thousand Laotians on the ground, mostly
Hmong tribesman, supported in the air by
Air America and the
Royal Lao Air Force, the CIA fought North Vietnamese units in Laos and the
communist Pathet Lao to a standstill.
In Marvel comics, the Secret War (and Secret War II) were limited series used as an excuse to drag a whole bunch of heroes and villains across the universe to make them fight. In the first Secret War, Spiderman got his alien costume, which turned out in later story arcs to be a creature which became his bitter enemy, Venom.