Madventures/Blog

Laos. We were standing on the scars of war that was fought long ago, but in many ways, still goes on. Those scars might easily open any second if we didn’t watch our steps.

From 1964 to 1973, the United States of America constantly planted seeds of destruction here. More than half a million B-52 missions delivered two to 5 million tons of explosives to block the flow of North Vietnam’s People’s Army through Laos territory to help the Arvins.

This went on every eight minutes. 24 hours a day. For nine years.

Every eight minutes. 24 hours a day. For nine years.

More ordnance was dropped on Laos in this period than was dropped during the whole of the world war two.

Up to 30% of all those lethal devices did not explode. Unexploded ordnance – UXO – remains in the Laotian ground, still killing people or worse, leaving them alive after shredding them violently apart and crippling them for the rest of their lives.

The US government funded this nine year rampage from seizing control of the Golden Triangle’s opium fields, taking heroin trade back to the home country and selling it to the black ghettoes of America.

This same UXO played a major role in the Cambodian tragedy during the Red Khmer reign – slave labor, malnutrition, poor medical care, and executions went on unhindered, because the country’s borders had become virtual minefields with the 266 million sub-munitions released from American cluster bombs.

Madventures took part in UXO LAO, the Lao National Unexploded Ordnance Programme. It was a crash course in cleaning up someone else’s dirty laundry.