conducted photo-reconnaissance and numerous clandestine missions. On April 21, 1972, the CIA was ordered to give up control of Air America and related companies. Air America dissolved upon the conclusion of the end of the American War in Southeast Asia. On April 24, 1971, the Air America vice president for flight operations sent a message warning all crew members that there had been an appalling number of deaths and serious injuries. According to the warning, the airlines was performing under the most difficult environmental conditions in the world. He warned them they should exercise extreme caution when conducting flight operations in Laos. Air America's vice president sent this message upon the assumption that Air America was thought to give relinquish control. On June 3, 1974, the last Air America aircraft crossed the border from Laos into Thailand. In 1973, there was a report stating that "distrustful as always of FAR security practice, Vang Pao insisted that all forces committed to the new operation (dubbed ABOUT FACE) of Hmong SGUs, most of which was trying to fend off the North Vietnamese on the periphery of the Plain of Jars. Fully in sympathy with Vang Pao's aversion to including FAR-even assuming regular troops were available-Clyde McAvoy introduced an innovation that would become standard' practice until the February 1973 cease-fire." Legacy Air America's public image has fared poorly due in part to the 1990 film Air America. Ultimately, the communist versus anti-communist war in Laos is depicted as a facade for the real war, which was fought for control of the area's opium fields. U.S. bombing inflicted a large number of casualties during the Laotian Civil War. However, the U.S. State Department's analysis has determined that about 30% of all bombs dropped on Laos failed to detonate. Since 1975, according to a nationwide survey, an estimated 20,000 people in Laos have fallen victim to unexploded ordnance, with 60% of cases resulting in death. Others sharply criticize the United States for the way it abandoned thousands of Hmong fighters and their families at Long Tieng. Others claim the loss of life could have even been worse if not for some ingenuity on behalf of General Heinie Alderholt and the CIA's Jerry Daniels, who worked to secure a C-130 to evacuate as many Hmong from the airstrip as possible. Daniels later recalled the ordeal, "All was in turmoil ... We took off at 10:47 and