Invisible History

[georgephillip]

"The American Air War in Laos, 1964-1973

“'The roar of the bombs and the noise of the planes frightened me terribly. Our lives
became like one of animals who search to escape the butchers. Each day, across the
forests and ditches, we sought only to escape from the bombs. When looking at the face of
my innocent child, I could not stop crying for his future.” — from a 1971 essay by a
35-year-old woman refugee from the Plain of Jars'"

"In 1964, the United States began a covert operation of aerial warfare in Laos. In northern Laos
one of the reported goals of the bombing was to 'destroy the social and economic infrastructure
of the areas under the control of the anti-U.S. Pathet Lao forces...'”

"...But mostly it involved bombing from the air on a scale never before seen in the
history of the world.
The U.S. dropped an estimated 6 million to 7 million bombs, plus huge but unknown numbers of
antipersonnel bomblets, on Laos over the course of the nine-year air war. In Xieng Khouang an
estimated 300,000 tons of bombs were dropped, for an average of more than two tons per
inhabitant."

http://clusterbombs.mcc.org/system/files/Legacy%20of%20the%20Secret%20War.pdf

 

[georgephillip]

What's changed since 1971?

"“What does it mean, after all, when the strongest of the species is systematically killing and maiming some of the weakest? ...and the most prosperous regularly destroying the homes and belongings of some of the poorest? ...the most industrialized constantly devastating the land and food supplies of some of the most rural? ...and the most technically advanced using their most sophisticated weaponry against a people who pose the most marginal of challenge to their interests?” — 'The Era of the Blue Machine,' Fred Branfman, 1971"

http://clusterbombs.mcc.org/system/files/Legacy%20of%20the%20Secret%20War.pdf

 

[Indofred]

Shhhhh.

You'll have posters shouting "Screw the Asians, God bless America".
After all, the only people bombed were potential commies and we know how they all hate America.

Saying that, they probably didn't until a load of bombs were dropped on their heads.

 

[Indofred]

I say, be a good chap and check my facts for me.
Was it still communists who hated America back then or was it Muslims who you were told hated you?

I must check in wikipedia.

 

[georgephillip]

Shhhhh.

You'll have posters shouting "Screw the Asians, God bless America".
After all, the only people bombed were potential commies and we know how they all hate America.

Saying that, they probably didn't until a load of bombs were dropped on their heads.

"From 1964 to 1969, the bombing remained a secret to the outside world. It was only in the early
1970s that the extent of the damage caused to civilians became widely recognized. But heavy
U.S. bombing continued during the early 1970s and right up until the formation of the coalition
government in 1973 that brought the Pathet Lao forces into the government.

"Although U.S.
officials continued to deny that civilians were being bombed, a growing mass of evidence
showed otherwise.

"During 1970, a former International Voluntary Services volunteer in Laos,
Fred Branfman, interviewed hundreds of refugees who had fled the bombing in Xieng Khouang.
The vast majority reported having their villages bombed. He documented his findings in several
articles and the 1972 book, Voices from the Plain of Jars.

"Even the United States Information
Service’s own 1971 refugee survey revealed what the people of Xieng Khouang already knew:
that there had been massive bombing of civilians and that at least 80 percent of the victims of the
bombing were villagers rather than soldiers."

http://clusterbombs.mcc.org/system/files/Legacy%20of%20the%20Secret%20War.pdf

In the 1970s it was Communism that Americans were told to fear; although, a former US Attorney General, Ramsey Clark, has alleged the Pentagon hatched a plot in the mid-1950s to invade northern Iraq through Turkey and occupy the oil fields. Naturally, the evil Communists would've filed some nuclear objections, so the whole plan got delayed until 2003.

A slightly better documented event took place on June 8, 1967 when the Israelis attacked a US Navy vessel in international waters:

"The USS Liberty incident was an attack on a United States Navy technical research ship, USS Liberty, by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy torpedo boats, on June 8, 1967, during the Six-Day War.[2]

"The combined air and sea attack killed 34 crew members (naval officers, seamen, two Marines, and one civilian), wounded 170 crew members, and severely damaged the ship.[3] At the time, the ship was in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula, about 25.5 nmi (29.3 mi; 47.2 km) northwest from the Egyptian city of Arish."

USS Liberty incident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Israel had no support in the US Congress in 1967 comparable to what it enjoys today, hence I think it's highly unlikely they decided to attack Liberty on their own initiative.

I think the attack was an Operation Northwoods knock-off hatched in the Pentagon and signed off on by the Secretary of Defense and President of the United States. The idea, imho, was to sink Liberty with all hands, blame the Egyptians, then occupy Egypt and take control of their oil.

I turned 20 during that summer and had a few friends who were serving in Vietnam.
They were none too happy to find themselves neck deep in the big muddy, but they would've torn Egypt to shreds for free if Liberty had gone down with all hands with the "Evil Muslim's" taking the blame.