America's Secret War in Laos Uncovered

[Deleted]

Not more bombs per capita. More bombs, period.

http://www.anesi.com/ussbs02.htm

The total tonnage of bombs dropped by Allied planes in the Pacific war was 656,400. Of this, 160,800 tons, or 24 percent, were dropped on the home islands of Japan. Navy aircraft accounted for 6,800 tons, Army aircraft other than B-29s for 7,000 tons, and the B-29s for 147,000 tons. By contrast, the total bomb tonnage in the European theater was 2,700,000 tons of which 1,360,000 tons were dropped within Germany's own borders.

i guess you are right, since google says about 2 million tons were dropped on Laos.

despite the trend that more tonnage is used over time, seems some serious overkill was done there.

[Invrlose]

http://www.anesi.com/ussbs02.htm

The total tonnage of bombs dropped by Allied planes in the Pacific war was 656,400. Of this, 160,800 tons, or 24 percent, were dropped on the home islands of Japan. Navy aircraft accounted for 6,800 tons, Army aircraft other than B-29s for 7,000 tons, and the B-29s for 147,000 tons. By contrast, the total bomb tonnage in the European theater was 2,700,000 tons of which 1,360,000 tons were dropped within Germany's own borders.

i guess you are right, since google says about 2 million tons were dropped on Laos.

despite the trend that more tonnage is used over time, seems some serious overkill was done there.

That's why I shared the article. The metric fuck tonne (literally) of bombs seems massively overkill.

[Auxora]

This was super-common knowledge and about as "secret" as the Iraq war. Even a casual Vietnam history review will tell you all about it. The only thing secret about it was that war was technically never officially formally announced against Laos. The US didn't have a problem with Laos at all and never attacked troops of Laos.

The quick summary for those who haven't read up on it, Laos bordered Vietnam and was trying to stay out of the war by basically being neutral (although covertly helping the US modestly). The Vietkong would pass through Laos to move troops and supplies north and south in Vietnam since it was safer, hoping the US wouldn't cross-over into Laos to pursue them. It's essentially the same thing Al-Qaeda and the Taliban did with crossing over into Pakistan to evade the US in Afghanistan. So they'd attack from there, then go back to relative safety. In both Laos during the Vietnam War, and with Taliban troops hiding out inside the Pakistan border areas, the US finally said forget the border and would cross over and bomb. It would be silly to do otherwise and let an enemy attack you where you cannot attack them back. But also in both cases the OP describing like it was open war or that they were bombing cities in Laos is incorrect. This all happened in the border forest areas and there were no troops from Laos anywhere near there. It was a no-go zone for them, since it was being controlled by the Vietkong at the time, much like the Taliban areas in nw Pakistan are today. This was very common knowledge even back in the 60s and not secret at all, and the reasons for why it happened make complete sense.

Seems like the article is trying to mislead people who don't know much about the Vietnam War history, by acting like this is some big new secret conspiracy that was uncovered.

[Invrlose]

This was super-common knowledge and about as "secret" as the Iraq war. Even a casual Vietnam history review will tell you all about it. The only thing secret about it was that war was technically never officially formally announced against Laos. The US didn't have a problem with Laos at all and never attacked troops of Laos.

The quick summary for those who haven't read up on it, Laos bordered Vietnam and was trying to stay out of the war by basically being neutral (although covertly helping the US modestly). The Vietkong would pass through Laos to move troops and supplies north and south in Vietnam since it was safer, hoping the US wouldn't cross-over into Laos to pursue them. It's essentially the same thing Al-Qaeda and the Taliban did with crossing over into Pakistan to evade the US in Afghanistan. So they'd attack from there, then go back to relative safety. In both Laos during the Vietnam War, and with Taliban troops hiding out inside the Pakistan border areas, the US finally said forget the border and would cross over and bomb. It would be silly to do otherwise and let an enemy attack you where you cannot attack them back. But also in both cases the OP describing like it was open war or that they were bombing cities in Laos is incorrect. This all happened in the border forest areas and there were no troops from Laos anywhere near there. It was a no-go zone for them, since it was being controlled by the Vietkong at the time, much like the Taliban areas in nw Pakistan are today. This was very common knowledge even back in the 60s and not secret at all, and the reasons for why it happened make complete sense.

Seems like the article is trying to mislead people who don't know much about the Vietnam War history, by acting like this is some big new secret conspiracy that was uncovered.

That's a good parallel.

[Foosha]

Hey OP, go suck a cock. Report me. Fucking clickbait as hell and obvious information. Everyone knows Laos was a safe haven for the communists during the vietnam war, and that America (MERICA!) dropped a fuckload of bombs in that region (ROLLING THUNDA BABAYYYY).

At this point I hate your more than tennisace, and I'll gladly report your sorry ass posts whenever I see them, since the fucking bot cant differentiate between posts. Oh whats that??? Laos is still a third world shithole, but Vietnam is moving up???

WHO THE FUCK CARES

infracted - minor flaming

[rnbwtrout]

This was super-common knowledge and about as "secret" as the Iraq war. Even a casual Vietnam history review will tell you all about it. The only thing secret about it was that war was technically never officially formally announced against Laos. The US didn't have a problem with Laos at all and never attacked troops of Laos.

The quick summary for those who haven't read up on it, Laos bordered Vietnam and was trying to stay out of the war by basically being neutral (although covertly helping the US modestly). The Vietkong would pass through Laos to move troops and supplies north and south in Vietnam since it was safer, hoping the US wouldn't cross-over into Laos to pursue them. It's essentially the same thing Al-Qaeda and the Taliban did with crossing over into Pakistan to evade the US in Afghanistan. So they'd attack from there, then go back to relative safety. In both Laos during the Vietnam War, and with Taliban troops hiding out inside the Pakistan border areas, the US finally said forget the border and would cross over and bomb. It would be silly to do otherwise and let an enemy attack you where you cannot attack them back. But also in both cases the OP describing like it was open war or that they were bombing cities in Laos is incorrect. This all happened in the border forest areas and there were no troops from Laos anywhere near there. It was a no-go zone for them, since it was being controlled by the Vietkong at the time, much like the Taliban areas in nw Pakistan are today. This was very common knowledge even back in the 60s and not secret at all, and the reasons for why it happened make complete sense.

Seems like the article is trying to mislead people who don't know much about the Vietnam War history, by acting like this is some big new secret conspiracy that was uncovered.

thank you for providing much needed background detail. i'll just add that it was kept "secret" because all parties involved had signed papers in Geneva to not involve Laos in the Vietnam theatre. of course the Vietcong had no intentions to honor their pledge and was actively moving troops and supplies along the Ho Chi Minh trail which went through large streteches of North and South Laos. not only that, the Vietcong were actively plotting to overthrow the King of Laos and install a puppet government. american had a hard time allowing the Vietcong to do what they wanted in Laos; but, unlike the Vietcong, they had to publicly keep out of Laos. so instead, america ran a "secret" war, recruiting native troops and only allowing "volunteers" to operate within Laos, allowing them to still legally adhere to the Geneva treaty.

[Deleted]

It was hardly a secret war. I think everyone knows about the mass bombings in Laos and Cambodia and the fact that lots of people still get maimed,killed by unexploded ordinance.

[Independent voter]

Well we did win the Cold War, the Soviets are all gone and we're still here.

And Vietnam was part of the Cold War, there was no other reason for us to be there.

Laos and Cambodia were secondary to Vietnam.

And you have to remember Ho came to us first

[Deleted]

Well we did win the Cold War, the Soviets are all gone and we're still here.

I love the way right-wing yanks love indulging in this triumphalist shit. "We" won the cold war, the Soviet Union wasn't destroyed from within by dissidents and the people, you know the ones who might actually have got shot or put in prison rather than claim credit from thousands of miles away.

I also love the way right-wing yanks also tend to take none of the responsibility for the fucking horrible mess that followed, even though all those freemarket theorists from the US and Britain had a much greater role in the subsequent collapse of freemarket democracy within a couple of years.

Now, Russia is pretty a much fascist state in all but name. Thanks for that, you fucking idiots.

[Skaiz]

I learned this in highschool. Many...many years ago. Not exactly breaking news, and certainly not a "secret"

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I love the way right-wing yanks love indulging in this triumphalist shit. "We" won the cold war, the Soviet Union wasn't destroyed from within by dissidents and the people, you know the ones who might actually have got shot or put in prison rather than claim credit from thousands of miles away.

I also love the way right-wing yanks also tend to take none of the responsibility for the fucking horrible mess that followed, even though all those freemarket theorists from the US and Britain had a much greater role in the subsequent collapse of freemarket democracy within a couple of years.

Now, Russia is pretty a much fascist state in all but name. Thanks for that, you fucking idiots.

yeah you yanks! right wing yanky yanks! blah blah right wingers! go yank some yanks!

[stabetha]

Yeah because it's common knowledge to most americans that their country went to war with Laos and dropped more bombs on Laos than were dropped during the entirety of World War 2. NOWHERE does the title suggest that the war is currently going on. "Uncovered" brings to mind digging up something long and forgotten.

what do the number of bombs matter? The bombs dropped in Los were small anti-personal bombs the bombs dropped in WW2 were large take out whole building/city block bombs.

Also what ever country you're from has done some shity things in the past too.

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I love the way right-wing yanks love indulging in this triumphalist shit. "We" won the cold war, the Soviet Union wasn't destroyed from within by dissidents and the people, you know the ones who might actually have got shot or put in prison rather than claim credit from thousands of miles away.

I also love the way right-wing yanks also tend to take none of the responsibility for the fucking horrible mess that followed, even though all those freemarket theorists from the US and Britain had a much greater role in the subsequent collapse of freemarket democracy within a couple of years.

Now, Russia is pretty a much fascist state in all but name. Thanks for that, you fucking idiots.

Wait so we didn't "destroy the USSR" but we are responsible for the fascist in control now?

[Bakis]

Wait so we didn't "destroy the USSR" but we are responsible for the fascist in control now?

Hehe yea his post made lite sense. Cherrypicking at its best

[May90]

I love the way right-wing yanks love indulging in this triumphalist shit. "We" won the cold war, the Soviet Union wasn't destroyed from within by dissidents and the people, you know the ones who might actually have got shot or put in prison rather than claim credit from thousands of miles away.

I also love the way right-wing yanks also tend to take none of the responsibility for the fucking horrible mess that followed, even though all those freemarket theorists from the US and Britain had a much greater role in the subsequent collapse of freemarket democracy within a couple of years.

Now, Russia is pretty a much fascist state in all but name. Thanks for that, you fucking idiots.

Ha-ha, so many things are wrong with this comment...

- The West, indeed, won the Cold War.
- USSR was collapsed by both efforts from the inside and the outside.
- There was no "freemarket democracy" in Russia at any point in history.
- As much as I despise the current Russian regime... "Fascist state", really?

But then, you claimed once that life in Venezuela is more enjoyable than in the UK or the US. So...

[oxymoronic]

I love the way right-wing yanks love indulging in this triumphalist shit. "We" won the cold war, the Soviet Union wasn't destroyed from within by dissidents and the people, you know the ones who might actually have got shot or put in prison rather than claim credit from thousands of miles away.

I also love the way right-wing yanks also tend to take none of the responsibility for the fucking horrible mess that followed, even though all those freemarket theorists from the US and Britain had a much greater role in the subsequent collapse of freemarket democracy within a couple of years.

Now, Russia is pretty a much fascist state in all but name. Thanks for that, you fucking idiots.

lol who pissed in his cheerios? do you dislike america or something?

[Helgrimm]

The real secret war has been in South Sudan and other parts of Africa during the Obama administration.

I like this passive-aggressive attack on Obama; like it's his fault or something. America is controlled by groups, not by individuals.

[Medusa Cascade]

lol who pissed in his cheerios? do you dislike america or something?

He dislikes everyone

[Dsonsion]

Ask the average american about their opinion of the bombing campaign in Laos and then tell me how many blank stares you get back.

Ask the average American about the position of Mongolia or Venezuela in the world map. That doesn't prove that those countries are being hidden from public knowledge, just that they don't care.

[Mistame]

The jar of fucks given on this topic seems pretty empty. I'll save mine, too.

[Invrlose]

what do the number of bombs matter? The bombs dropped in Los were small anti-personal bombs the bombs dropped in WW2 were large take out whole building/city block bombs.

Also what ever country you're from has done some shity things in the past too.

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Wait so we didn't "destroy the USSR" but we are responsible for the fascist in control now?

It's measured in tonnes not number of bombs. You are wrong. I never made any accusation that any country had done anything wrong. If Viet Cong were moving through Laos then it was fine to bomb them.

[Deleted]

Germany, Japan, Laos and Vietnam should all demand reparations from Russia, USA and the UK for all this. No less than 1 million dollars per ton dropped.