During his visit to Laos on Tuesday, President Barack Obama promised to spend $90 million over the next three years to clear millions of unexploded bombs left behind during the Vietnam War, citing a “moral obligation” to help Laos recover.
“Many of the bombs that were dropped were never exploded,” he said. “Over the years, thousands of Laotians have been killed or injured — farmers tending their fields, children playing. The wounds — a missing leg or arm — last a lifetime,” Obama said to the people of Laos at a cultural hall in Vientiane.
The president’s pledge would double current funding levels from the $100 million given out over the past 20 years, which has thus far helped to reduce the annual casualty levels from more than 300 to fewer than 50.
“Given our history here, I believe that the United States has a moral obligation to help Laos heal,” Obama added. “[T]hat conflict was another reminder that, whatever the cause, whatever our intentions, war inflicts a terrible toll, especially on innocent men, women and children. Today, I stand with you in acknowledging the suffering and sacrifices on all sides of that conflict.”
Laos became the most heavily bombed country in the world after it was carpet bombed between 1964 and 1973 when the United States funded The Secret War, a CIA-led war that rained down two million tons of bombs on Laos to cut off critical North Vietnamese supply routes. About 80 million unexploded ordnance (UXO), or bombs, remain live and buried into the Lao landscape. The National Regulatory Authority for UXO/Mine Action Sector in Lao PDR estimates that about one quarter of Laos’ “10,000 plus villages are UXO contaminated.”
Unexploded bombs have led to the deaths or maimings of more than 20,000 people since the war ended. About 50 people are maimed or killed every year, almost half of whom are children who sometimes mistake the bombs for toys. The bombs have deeply affected a country that relies heavily on subsistence-farming, with farmers losing out on productivity when they lose life or limb.
Obama is the first sitting president to visit the communist nation of Laos, with the visit being seen as a “landmark opportunity to reset ties,” the Manila Bulletin reported. The Laotian government led by President Bounnhang Vorachith, in turn, promised to find and return Americans missing in war.
Obama’s visit to Laos to acknowledge the atrocities committed in war has some parallels with his symbolic visit to Hiroshima, Japan in May. During that visit, he paid homage to survivors of the nuclear bomb, and spoke about a nuclear weapons-free world, the New York Times reported at the time.