The document summarizes the extensive bombing of Laos by the United States during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1973, dropping over 2 million tons of ordnance including large numbers of cluster bombs. It notes that this bombing was a covert war not reported to the US Senate and resulted in unexploded ordnance (UXO) that continues to kill Laotians today, with estimates of 50,000-350,000 killed during the war and another 50,000 deaths since from UXO. In comparison, US contributions to UXO clearing in 2010 amounted to only $5 million or less than $1 per Laotian, while the bombing cost the US $57 billion and left 75% of the country

1. 5 million USD...
less than a dollar per Lao
2010 US contribution
to UXO clearance in Laos...
(For those of you who don't live in Laos, UXO = UneXploded
Ordnance..)

2. 870 kg
worth of
bombs
1964~1973 US contribution
to generating UXO in Laos...
Back then, Lao people were judged worthy of receiving
much more:
1 Lao
That's more than 20 kg of bombs per kg of Lao.

3. Or in financial terms...
Each Lao was delivered 7 000 USD worth of bombs
over 9 years
0.72 USD/citizen/year
of US-financed UXO-
related aid
Yes, that's
9700 times less!

4. 26 bombies each,
discounting the many extras
At least 288 million bombies, shells and mines
for only 3 .1 million people
With love, from America

5. Indiscriminate killing
The CBU-75 Sadeye cluster bomb, the most
commonly used over Laos, carried 600 BLU-26
bomblets embedded with 300 small iron bearings.
Its total lethal area? 157 soccer fields...
No wonder at least 80% of
the victims were civilians...

6. Between 50 000 and 350 000 Lao
were killed in a 9-year covert war not
even made public to the US Senate
Wrong place, wrong time...
Plus another 50 000 post-war
casualties due to UXO...

7. You thought that the Vietnam war was
limited to Vietnamese theatres of operation?
0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5 3
Only 23% of the total
number of bombs were
dropped on the official US
war zone (ie. Vietnam)
Laotians received 24.6
times more bombs per
capita than the
Vietnamese ;
Cambodians 10.1 times
more...
M t of bombs dropped...
during WW2
on Vietnam
on Cambodia
on Laos
(official targets - actual
figures are even higher for Laos)

8. The bombings of Laos and Cambodia were
fully-fledged war crimes
Covert bombing of neutral countries
Aborted bombing missions over
North Vietnam routinely led to
emptying the bomb cargo over Laos
After the US officially withdraw from the Vietnam
war by the end of January 1973, it emptied its
stockpile over Laos and Cambodia until Senate
reacted... in May 1973

9. Official end of the US implication
in Vietnam war
On a sidenote, Henry Kissinger, the mastermind of
the massacre, received the Nobel Peace Prize that
very same year.
You find that hard to believe? Think again:
Bombs over Cambodia...

10. Probably more than 80 M units of UXO still scattered
around. A third of them didn't explode on impact...
Let's try to see life as a
rural Lao in UXO zone...
Yes, that would be the actual number for a family of 5!

11. With 125 USD, I can either plant 1 ha of maize and
get some food for my family
Rural economics 101
"Planting maize in Xieng Khouang province"
… or pay the first out of 28 installments to clear
my land. Hey, and that's if I could somehow manage
to get the money interest-free!

12. My daily income is around 0.60 USD a day. During
the wet season, I cultivate rice and produce my
yearly needs.
Rural economics 101
"Collecting UXO scrap in Sekong province"
Dry season now. Should I:
(A) Make ends meet the difficult way?
(B) Collect UXO scrap and make 1~3 USD a day.
65% of casualties occur during essential daily activities...
After a while, collecting UXO doesn't even seem more
dangerous than lighting a fire or hoeing through the ground.

13. Rural economics 101
"Collecting UXO scrap in Sekong province"
Went where the money is?
Collect 20~30 kg of metal.
A defused BLU-26 bombie weighs only 350 g...
That'll be 71 bombies to handle today.

14. Rural economics 101
"Collecting UXO scrap in Sekong province"
And what about kids?
scrap collecting pocket money ice-cream
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
1 day income
collecting UXO scrap
typical amount
of pocket money
cost of a cheap
ice-cream cone
99,6% know
the equation
"UXO = danger"
Yet 52%
collect UXO
scrap metal...

15. A theoretical 16 billion USD would be necessary to
clean up the whole country. After all, 75% was
bombed to bits...
High-priority zones, based on risk to human life and
agricultural value, could be cleared for only a
fraction of that: 150 million USD.
Think of it as an economic miracle: when else does
1% of the money get you most of the value?
How much is needed?

16. War economics
Now for the US point of view
The bombing of Laos cost around 57 billion USD (in
2010 dollars) – a quarter of the total cost of the
Vietnam war.
5 million USD programmed for UXO clearance by the US
= 7 hours worth of bombing.
150 million USD for cleaning high-priority areas
= 42 days worth of bombing.

17. War economics
Let's play pretend
The US is presently pretending that they stopped
bombing Laos a few hours after that actually
happened. That's how they manage to find 5 million
dollars a year to give out to Laos.
Pretend harder!
How about pretending the mess finished a month
afterwards? A zero US-casualty month. With the
cash, clean up Laos... a real bargain!

18. Compared resources
50 cents per US citizen could help ease a bit of guilt
and solve the most crucial UXO issues in Laos.
Allocating 0.01% of the US federal budget … or 0.5%of
the budget of the Department of Defense would even
solve the problem entirely in 5 years.
Things aren't going fast. At this pace, clearing high-
priority zones in Laos will take decades. As for clearing
the rest of the country... it should take 3,000 years.
Good thing rust works a bit faster than that!

19. What about the treaty?
The US didn't sign the convention on cluster munition
bombs. Better stand ground with moral heroes such as
Kim Jong-Il, right?
Oh, and apparently the US has up to 1 billion bombies
in stock.
That's how responsible the US is at the moment. They
have enough ordnance to bomb the most bombed
country on earth 11 times worse than the first time,
bombie-wise...