By Khedroob Thondup

When Tibet was swallowed by Chinese occupation in the 1950s, the world largely looked away. The Himalayan plateau, once a buffer state between empires, became a silent battlefield where six million Tibetans faced repression, cultural erasure, and military domination. Yet in this silence, one agency broke through: the Central Intelligence Agency. For nearly two decades, the CIA became the first external force to help Tibetans resist, offering not just weapons and training but a sense of solidarity that inspired unity against overwhelming odds.

The First Ally. The CIA’s involvement in Tibet was not born of altruism alone. It was the Cold War, and Washington sought pressure points against Beijing. But for Tibetans, this mattered little. What mattered was that someone recognised their plight and acted. Beginning in the late 1950s, the CIA trained Tibetan fighters at Camp Hale in Colorado and later in bases across S...