"A long country inhabited by lotus eaters": Washington encounters Laos -- "A soft buffer": Laos in the Eisenhower administration's grand strategy -- "Help the seemingly unhelpable": "little America" and the U.S. aid program in Laos -- "Foreigners who want to enslave the country": American neocolonialism, Lao defiance -- "Doctor Tom" and "Mister Pop": American icons in Laos -- "Retarded children": Laos in the American popular imagination -- "No place to fight a war": Washington backs away from Laos epilogue