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10-07-2023, 11:30 AM
Since the last bomb fell on this neutral country 50 years ago, unexploded ordnance has killed 20,000 people. And it could take 100 years to clear it all.
At a news conference in March 1961, the US president, John F Kennedy, said: “I want to make it clear to the American people and to all the world that all we want in Laos is peace, not war.” But neither Kennedy, nor his promise, lasted long.
As part of US anti-communist operations in south-east Asia – commonly known as the Vietnam war – between 1964 and 1973, American pilots flew 580,000 attack sorties over Laos, an average of one planeload of bombs every eight minutes for almost a decade.
By the time the last US bombs fell in April 1973, a total of 2,093,100 tonnes of ordnance had rained down on this neutral country.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-devel...-from-laos
At a news conference in March 1961, the US president, John F Kennedy, said: “I want to make it clear to the American people and to all the world that all we want in Laos is peace, not war.” But neither Kennedy, nor his promise, lasted long.
As part of US anti-communist operations in south-east Asia – commonly known as the Vietnam war – between 1964 and 1973, American pilots flew 580,000 attack sorties over Laos, an average of one planeload of bombs every eight minutes for almost a decade.
By the time the last US bombs fell in April 1973, a total of 2,093,100 tonnes of ordnance had rained down on this neutral country.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-devel...-from-laos
