Bomb impacts the memory of USA

Most people are very aware of the war in Vietnam, and America's involvement there, but fewer are aware that a very large part of the war was fought in Laos. Called 'The Secret War' by many due to US denial of any involvement.

The Communist forces in Laos were building, and the US was threatened by their ties with Vietnam, so it moved in to help protect the royal family from falling to the communists. It enlisted the help of the Hmong people, a hilltribe group who lived high in the mountains. It is now widely known that the CIA's 'Air America' air force were used to transport the Hmong people's prime crop: the poppy from which both opium and heroin are derived. This was then sold overseas to raise funds to fight the war.

From 1963 to 1974, the equivalent of one bomb was dropped every eight minutes. Two million tones of ordinance was dropped on Laos, more than the US dropped on Germany and Japan combined during World War II.

Bombs were dropped on this area for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because it was part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, where troops, supplies and artillery were smuggled out of northern Vietnam and through the mountains on the eastern edge of the country, and into southern Vietnam. Secondly, American aircraft flying out of their Thai air bases were sometimes unable to launch their bombs at the 'primary target', due to bad weather or other circumstances. Unwilling to land safely back at the base while still carrying bombs, they dropped them on Laos.

The most common bombs at this time had a rocket shaped outside, filled with up to 600 small 'bombies'. The rocket casing split open as it fell, launching the smaller bomblets, which in turn were filled with hundreds of ball bearings. Up to around a third failed to explode on impact, leaving up to 30 million bombs lying on or beneath the ground to this day. Bombs lie under houses and roads, in school playgrounds and rice fields.

These bombs were not designed to maim, so there is not an enormous amputee rate in the country. Instead there is a disproportionately large death rate from the exploding bombs, as inquisitive young children find them lying around and whole families work to hoe their land for farming. In 2001 there were more than 12,000 casualties.