Lessons Left Unlearned

Laos is a great lesson in when a country should just be left to do its thing. I mean, it may look quite sizable on the map, and that's probably as far as the President of the United States of America looked when he decided that its communist movement was dangerous, but this population of four million (compare with Vietnam's 80 million) had to endure the American air force dropping bombs on them throughout the American presence in Indochina. Laos had been declared neutral by the Geneva Accords, so the USAF pilots were dressed in civilian garb and flew single prop aircraft. The mortality for these pilots was as high as 50%.

As the Americans pulled out of Vietnam, more aircraft were available for Laos. In the end, there were 50% more sorties flown in Laos than Vietnam - a total of 580,944 for this diffusely populated country. That's the equivalent of one plane-load of bombs every eight minutes, 24 hours a day for the nine years from 1965 to 1973. B-52 bombers dropped 500kg of explosive for every man, woman and child in Laos, making it the most bombed country on a per capita basis in the history of warfare. What's more, up to 30% of the ordnance is still unexploded. Even given this (probably excessive) figure, a 350kg bomb exploding next to you is more than sufficient to kill you.

We can deduce two things from these figures. Firstly, that American bombs are badly made. Secondly, the pilots are rotten shots.

Finally, when the Americans were leaving, the area was divided up into 13 provinces whose borders were identical to those before war. Before the Americans bombed the life out of the proletariat, the communist Pathet Lao controlled two of the 13 provinces. By the end, they controlled 11. It just goes to show that fighting a population is going to drive them even further towards your enemy's ideology. This should come as no surprise. You can't convince someone of your argument by bombing them. If only that were the last time an American President were to make that mistake.