Land of the Bomb
Between 1964 and 1973 America waged a secret war on the remote, land-locked nation of Laos in an attempt to block supplies from North Vietnam flowing along the Ho Chi Minh trail into South Vietnam and to support Laotian government forces fighting against communist Pathet Lao rebels. Over two million tons of high explosive rained down from bomber raids launched on average once every eight minutes, of this as much as one third failed to detonate.
Now, 30 years after the end of the Vietnam war, over 100 Laotians are being killed every year with hundreds more injured by unexploded ordnance (UXO). The most dangerous of the explosives dumped on Laos was the cluster bomb. Although designed to kill waves of advancing soldiers they are indiscriminate and, due to a high failure rate, account for most of the casualties today. Some say it could take 100 years to clear Laos of all its UXO others say it will never be completely free. For Laos the secret war goes on.