Barack Obama is the first US President to visit Laos. Yet Laos has a long and painful history with the US, stretching back over 50 years. And this history is made up of a secret war, a secret army and a secret city.
The history of the US intervention in Laos has all the ingredients of a thriller. It’s a dark thriller, set in the period of the Vietnam War about 50 years ago. Its a story above all in which there are only losers. And the greatest loss of all has been suffered by the Laotian people. From 1964 to 1973 the US undertook the heaviest aerial bombing attacks on Laos. For the first five years this was a “secret war” that not even the US Congress knew about – let alone approved. The US … continue reading
