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May 16, 2022 · But by 1975, the U.S. had withdrawn from Vietnam and a weary nation was ready to move on. In Laos, the communist Lao People’s Revolutionary Party took power, which it has held ever since. The ...
Jan 22, 2022 · The CIA executed 580,000 bombing missions in its secret attempt to support the Royal Lao Government against the Communist Pathet Lao, a force affiliated with North Vietnam and the Soviet Union during the Vietnam War. The United States’ “Secret War” in Laos had a long-lasting effect on Laotian history, hindering Laotians’ health ...
Apr 17, 2021 · The United States intervened in Laos, but the conflict remained secret at the time, as was eventually acknowledged. 3 More than 270 million cluster bombs were dropped in the country during this ‘Secret War’, about a third of which did not explode. It is estimated that around 50,000 Laotians, most of them civilians, especially children, have been killed or injured by US bombs.
- Where Is Laos?
- History of Laos
- Laos Civil War and The Pathet Lao
- The CIA’s Secret Army
- The U.S. Bombing of Laos
- Air America
- Laos Bombing Casualties and Legacy
Laos is a landlocked country bordered by China and Myanmar to the North, Vietnamto the East, Cambodia to the South and Thailand and the Mekong River to the West. Its proximity to Mao Zedong’s China made it critical to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Domino Theory of keeping communism at bay. “If Laos were lost, the rest of Southeast Asia would follow,” Eise...
Long before the Cold War, Laos had a history of interference from its neighbors. Fa Ngum founded the first recorded Lao state of “Lan Xang,” or “The Kingdom of a Million Elephants,” in 1353. From 1353-1371, Fa Ngum went on to conquer most of today’s Laos and parts of what is now Vietnam and Northeast Thailand, bringing Theravada Buddhism and Khmer ...
The United States watched closely as the Pathet Lao gained popularity in newly-independent Laos. The Pathet Lao was a communist group founded at Viet Minh headquarters in 1950 during the French war. Largely dependent on Vietnamese aid, their leader was Prince Souphanouvong, the “Red Prince.” Born to a prince of Luang Prabang and a commoner, his edu...
In 1960, the CIA approached Vang Pao, a major general in the Royal Lao Army and a member of the Hmong minority in Laos, to be the chief of their secret army to push back the communist Pathet Lao. The Hmong made up an ethnic group that had originated in China and lived in the remote mountains of Laos, often in extreme poverty, and had a history of e...
A ground war in Laos with U.S. forces was not on the table. President Kennedy wrote as early as 1961 that, “Laos…is a most inhospitable area in which to wage a campaign. Its geography, topography, and climate are built-in liabilities.” Bombing Laos was seen as a safer means of cutting off communist supply lines into Vietnam before they could be use...
Air Americawas the lifeblood of the CIA’s Laos operation, transporting personnel, food and supplies to and from remote bases. As a former CIA officer explained: “We’d negotiate with the tribal groups. If you don’t make a deal with them, give them aid, the communists will do it, and then they’ll join with the communists.” The CIA set up medical faci...
By 1975, one-tenth of the population of Laos, or 200,000 civilians and members of the military, were dead. Twice as many were wounded. Seven hundred and fifty thousand, a full quarter of the population, had become refugees—including General Vang Pao himself. Declassified documentsshow that 728 Americans died in Laos, most of whom were working for t...
- Jessica Pearce Rotondi
- 2 min
Oct 27, 2017 · The U.S. government swept the secret war under the rug and as a result men, women and children continue to be killed and injured. In August 2016, Barack Obama was the first sitting U.S. president to ever visit Laos. On behalf of the American people, he pledged three years of $30 million in aid to the Lao government.
Feb 11, 2020 · 10 years of US air surveillance missions and bombings between 1964-1973 have given Laos the tragic title of the most heavily bombed country (per head of population) in the history of warfare. The equivalent of a planeload of bombs were dropped every 8 minutes, 24-hours a day, for 9 years. Over two million tonnes of ordnance were released by US ...
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Jun 14, 2022 · A woman walks past a restaurant littered with unexploded bombs dropped by US Air Force planes during the Vietnam War, in Xieng Khouang, Laos September 2, 2016. Most Americans learn something about ...
