The Secret War
As promised, here is some info on "The secret War" that was waged by The U.S. and the North Vietnamese in Laos.
In the 1960s, during the Vietnam war (or also called the 2nd Indochina war), the North Vietnamese were in the process of invading Laos along with some communist bretherens. Both had the support of China and the Soviet Union. The U.S. bought the support of a local minority called the Hmong to fight the guerilla war for them, but they were badly outnumbered.
The U.S. then decided to halt the communist progress by fighting in Laos. The problem was that the U.S. hadn't told anybody that they were fighting in Laos. Neither the american people, nor the House of Congress were aware. The secret war was in the hands of the CIA. The CIA had fighter pilots and army pilots fight in Laos without dogtags, and would deny their existence if they were captured. This was a blatant violation of the geneva accord which was signed in 1962. Now, it's true that the North Vietnamese were also violating the protocol, but one would think that U.S. could have been above them on that.
During the war, there were more bombs dropped than were dropped on both Nazi germany and Japan combined (or so my sources say). Even worse; if bombers or fighter planes that would take off in Thailand to attack targets in North Vietnamese territory find themselves unable to reach their primary objectives would on many occasions drop their ordinance on random targets in Laos. This was to make sure they wouldn't get back to base with any ordinance left.
It is quite a shock to learn of this story (and to see it's destructive impact in person). The United States has done a lot of stupid things in it's history, but the Secret War waged may be it's worse offence. And very, very people are aware of it.
In the 1960s, during the Vietnam war (or also called the 2nd Indochina war), the North Vietnamese were in the process of invading Laos along with some communist bretherens. Both had the support of China and the Soviet Union. The U.S. bought the support of a local minority called the Hmong to fight the guerilla war for them, but they were badly outnumbered.
The U.S. then decided to halt the communist progress by fighting in Laos. The problem was that the U.S. hadn't told anybody that they were fighting in Laos. Neither the american people, nor the House of Congress were aware. The secret war was in the hands of the CIA. The CIA had fighter pilots and army pilots fight in Laos without dogtags, and would deny their existence if they were captured. This was a blatant violation of the geneva accord which was signed in 1962. Now, it's true that the North Vietnamese were also violating the protocol, but one would think that U.S. could have been above them on that.
During the war, there were more bombs dropped than were dropped on both Nazi germany and Japan combined (or so my sources say). Even worse; if bombers or fighter planes that would take off in Thailand to attack targets in North Vietnamese territory find themselves unable to reach their primary objectives would on many occasions drop their ordinance on random targets in Laos. This was to make sure they wouldn't get back to base with any ordinance left.
It is quite a shock to learn of this story (and to see it's destructive impact in person). The United States has done a lot of stupid things in it's history, but the Secret War waged may be it's worse offence. And very, very people are aware of it.
posted by Benji99 at 10:20 PM
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