NEW : The United States did not want to admit it had troops in nominally neutral Laos . Chief Master Sgt . John L. DePuy, the commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam at that time said he was told by his superiors there were no plans for a permanent American presence on the ground. So the Lao government allowed construction of the U.S. radar site provided it was kept secret , according to Tom Keany , an Air Force B-52 squadron commander during the Vietnam War and currently a military historian with the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University . He died after saving three comrades in Laos .
NEW : The United States did not want to admit it had troops in nominally neutral Laos . Chief Master Sgt . John L. DePuy, the commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam at that time said he was told by his superiors there were no plans for a permanent American presence on the ground. He died after saving three comrades in Laos .