Xiangkhouang Province and The Secret War

I will be the first to admit that my knowledge of American history after WWI is a bit lacking as anything after WWI was never covered in school and I’ve never taken the time to learn about it on my own. I’ve learnt a lot being here in SE Asia about American involvement in different wars and it has fueled a desire to know more. Being the nerd that I am, I’ve already started a list of things I need to read up on and try to understand. When reading about Laos in my guide book, I kept running across the phrase, “The Secret War” and was very puzzled by it was and what it meant.

What I learnt about this Secret War and America’s involvement in it made me quite upset.  During the time period of the Vietnam War, America was not supposed to be in Laos as we had signed the Geneva Conference stating that Laos would be neutral ground. However, the military broke this agreement and bombed it heavily in an attempt to disrupt supplies being sent down the Ho Chi Minh Trail and to destroy a communist Lao group that was in the area.  Between 1964 and 1975 enough bombs were dropped in the Phonsovan area to equal one bomb being dropped every 8 minutes for those nine years. A lot of the bombs dropped were leftovers that were not able to reach their targets in Vietnam. Instead of taking the risk of landing the aircraft with bombs still on it, the pilots would just dump them indiscriminately on the Laos countryside. These bombs were not targeting military bases or strongholds but instead ruining the farmland and killing wildlife, farm animals, and people.

Nobody knew what was happening until the villagers began fleeing to Vientiane to escape the bombs and their destroyed homeland. Hundreds of villages harboring nothing more dangerous than farmers and children were destroyed. In one instance, four planes dropped bombs on a cave holding close to 400 villagers that had been living there for years for protection. The first three planes missed their target but the fourth one hit the cave killing everyone inside. In the documentary we watched, a man interviewed said it took three days for the heat to subside for him to go in and look for the remains of his wife and three daughters. 

It is estimated that 10 to 30% of the bombs dropped never exploded and they are found everywhere today. Most of these unexploded bombs are cluster bombs or ‘bombies’ as the locals call them and are designed to kill or maim people, not to destroy military vehicles or buildings. They pose huge risks to children and farmers still today. Children think they are balls and pick them up to play with them. In doing so, it sets the bomb off, either maiming or killing the child and anyone around them. Farmers are at risk of setting one off when they plow their fields or go out to stake a cow or buffalo for the day. As a result of all the bombies, villagers and farmers are scared to plow new land or put in irrigation systems for fear of setting off a bombie. Because of this, most Lao people live in extreme poverty and barely grow enough food to feed their families. 

The organization, Mines Advisory Group, (MAG) works to educate and clear the land of the bombies. They have trained local Lao to be bomb specialists. They find the bombies everywhere including school grounds. An education program has been put into the schools to teach students how to identify the difference between a bombie and ball and what to do if they encounter them. Even though MAG works daily to clear the bombies, it is estimated that it will take over 100 years to clear all the land of the bombs and make it safe again.

I understand that times of war require a different set of rules but I still feel that what happened in Laos was excessive and unnecessary. Despite knowing how unreliable cluster bombs are at exploding when they are supposed to, more sophisticated forms of them have been developed and are still used today in other war torn areas. I am very blessed to have grown up where and how I did and could not imagine trying to raise a family as the people in the Xiangkhouang Province do, worrying every minute that a child or other family member will be killed by something that fell out of the sky some 40 years ago.