What was Operation Tailwind
At 10:00 p.m. EDT on Sunday, 7 June 1998, Cable News Network (CNN) telecast the first edition of a new show, "NewsStand: CNN & Time," in coordination with Time magazine. The lead story on the 7 June telecast, called "Valley of Death," alleged that a U.S. Special Forces unit was inserted into Laos in September 1970 to kill U.S. military defectors. The story claimed that during the operation, code named TAILWIND, the Special Forces unit assaulted an enemy base camp "village" and killed enemy troops, women, children, and U.S. defectors. The telecast alleged that Air Force A-1 Skyraider aircraft dropped sarin nerve gas CBU-15 munitions on the enemy base camp prior to the attack by the Special Forces unit. The CNN telecast also claimed that during their extraction, the Special Forces personnel called in Air Force A-1s, which again dropped Sarin nerve gas weapons on enemy soldiers.
The next day, Time magazine, dated 15 June 1998, included a similar story on Operation TAILWIND, written by CNN staff.
Read the official report on the story: Air Force History Report on Operation Tailwind.
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