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Brendan Smialowski / Pool via AP
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, greets Phongsavath Souliyalat, who lost his forearms and sight from a blast of an unexploded bomb left over from the Vietnam War, in Vientiane, Laos, on Wednesday.
Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Laos in more than five decades, gauging whether a place the United States pummeled with bombs during the Vietnam War could evolve into a new foothold of American influence in Asia.
Clinton met with the communist government's prime minister and foreign minister in the capital of Vientiane on Wednesday, part of a weeklong diplomatic tour of Southeast Asia. The goal is to bolster America's standing in some of the fastest growing markets of the world, and counter China's expanding economic, diplomatic and military dominance of the region.
Thirty-seven years since the end of America's long war in Indochina, Laos is the latest test case of the Obama administration's efforts to "pivot" U.S. foreign policy away from the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It follows a long period of estrangement between Washington and a once hostile Cold War-era foe, and comes as U.S. relations warm with countries such as Myanmar and Vietnam.
In her meetings, Clinton discussed environmental concerns over a proposed dam on the Mekong River, investment opportunities and joint efforts to clean up the tens of millions of unexploded bombs the United States dropped on Laos during the Vietnam War.
Greater American support programs in these fields will be included in a multimillion-dollar initiative for Southeast Asia to be announced later this week.
"Here in Laos, the past is always with us," Clinton said.
Tracing the 'arc' of a relationship
After the meetings, she said they "traced the arc of our relationship from addressing the tragic legacies of the past to finding a way to being partners of the future."
US eases way for Afghanistan to acquire defense gear
Clinton also visited a Buddhist temple and a U.S.-funded prosthetic center for victims of American munitions.
At the prosthetic center, she met a man named Phongsavath Souliyalat, who told her how he had lost both his hands and his eyesight from a cluster bomb on his 16th birthday.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that Afghanistan will have special military privileges stemming from its relationship with America. NBC's Lester Holt reports.
"I would like to see all governments ban cluster bombs and (try) to clear the bombs together and to help the survivors," Souliyalat said. "I am lucky because I got help ... but so many survivors are without help. Their life is very very hard."
"We have to do more," Clinton told him. "That's one of the reasons I wanted to come here today, so that we can tell more people about the work that we should be doing together."
A key 'domino' in U.S. Cold War policy
The last U.S. secretary of state to visit Laos was John Foster Dulles in 1955. His plane landed after being forced to circle overhead while a water buffalo was cleared from the tarmac.
At that time, the mountainous, sparsely populated nation was at the center of U.S. foreign policy. On leaving office, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned his successor, John F. Kennedy, that if Laos fell to the communists, all Southeast Asia could be lost as well.
While Vietnam ended up the focal point of America's "domino theory" foreign policy, Laos was drawn deeply into the conflict as the United States funded its anti-communist forces and bombed North Vietnamese supply lines and bases.
Cause of killer Cambodia illness likely found
The United States dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on the impoverished country during its "secret war" between 1964 and 1973 — about a ton of ordnance for each Laotian man, woman and child. That exceeded the amount dropped on Germany and Japan together in World War II, making Laos the most heavily bombed nation per person in history.
Although the U.S. does not want to assume a military role, it does want tougher sanctions. NBC's Andrea Mitchell.
Four decades later, American weapons are still claiming lives. When the war ended, about a third of some 270 million cluster bombs dropped on Laos had failed to detonate, leaving the country awash in unexploded munitions. More than 20,000 people have been killed by ordnance in postwar Laos, according to its government, and contamination throughout the country is a major barrier to agricultural development.
Cleanup has been excruciatingly slow. The Washington-based Legacies of War says only 1 percent of contaminated lands have been cleared and has called on Washington to provide far greater assistance. The State Department has provided $47 million since 1997, though a larger effort could make Laos "bomb-free in our lifetimes," California Rep. Mike Honda argued.
"Let us mend the wounds of the past together so that Laos can begin a new legacy of peace," said Honda, who is Japanese-American.
The United States is spending $9 million this year on cleanup operations for unexploded ordnance in Laos, but is likely to offer more in the coming days.
Reorienting U.S. policy
It is part of a larger Obama administration effort to reorient the direction of U.S. diplomacy and commercial policy as the world's most populous continent becomes the center of the global economy over the next century. It is also a reaction to China's expanding influence.
Despite Washington's difficult history in the region, nations in Beijing's backyard are welcoming the greater engagement — and the promise of billions of dollars more in American investment. The change has been sudden, with some longtime U.S. foes now seeking a relationship that could serve at least as a counterweight to China's regional hegemony.
A stampede that occurred during a popular festival in Cambodia has killed hundreds. Msnbc's Tamron Hall reports.
Vietnam, threatened by Beijing's claims to the resource-rich South China Sea, has dramatically deepened diplomatic and commercial ties with the United States, with their two-country trade now exceeding $22 billion a year — from nothing two decades ago. Clinton on Tuesday made her third trip to the fast-growing country, meeting with senior communist officials to prod them into greater respect for free expression and labor rights.
A lagging economy
Landlocked and impoverished Laos offers fewer resources than its far larger neighbors and has lagged in Asia's economic boom. It remains one of the poorest countries in Asia, even as it hopes to kick-start its development with accession soon to the World Trade Organization.
In recent years, China has stepped up as Laos' principal source of assistance, with loans and grants of up to $350 million over the last two decades. But like many others in its region, Laos' government is wary of Beijing's intentions. And it has kept an envious eye on neighboring Vietnam's 40 percent surge in commercial trade with the United States over the last two years, as well as the sudden rapprochement between the United States and nearby Myanmar.
Persistent human rights issues stand in the way of closer relations with Washington. The United States remains concerned about the plight of the ethnic Hmong minority, most of whom fled the country after fighting for a U.S.-backed guerilla army during the Vietnam War. Nearly 250,000 resettled in the United States. The United States has pressed Laos to respect the rights of returnees from neighboring countries.
Washington also has been seeking greater cooperation from Laos on the search for U.S. soldiers missing in action since the Vietnam War. More than 300 Americans remain unaccounted for in Laos.
And it is pressing the government to hold off on a proposed $3.5 billion dam project across the Mekong River. The dam would be the first across the river's mainstream and has sparked a barrage of opposition from neighboring countries and environmental groups, which warn that tens of millions of livelihoods could be at stake.
The project is currently on hold and Washington hopes to stall it further with the promise of funds for new environmental studies.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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John McNarmara, Defense Secretary under JFK, along with Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State under Nixon are both war criminals for that mess and monstrosity called Vietnam. NONE of those educated, elite boneheads ever took a history course,or if they did, who care when you have an agenda. Vietnam was dominated by China, Japan, and France for way too long. They were fighting to get FOREIGNERS out of their country. Yeah, the communists were the ones who united the country politically and militarily but what other force could take on the most powerful military in the world. Not only did this small, backwards, no real army of a county beat us. our actions caused the rise of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, who turned the country into a prison camp, on a level as bad as, mabye even worse than the Nazis and Soviet Communists. Loas, a small, quiet, farm country minding its own business was dragged into this mess, and today, they are still under communism. A lot of the mountain people who helped us ended up in communist prisons called reeducation camps. The dominoe theory was a joke, just like the Gulf of Tolkin incident, completely false in order to promote an agenda. The US should apologize for all the destruction it caused in a region that had nothing to do with the Soviet Union or Maoist China. But, we still haven't learned anything as we prance around the world showing everybody how tough we are. How come no one likes us or wants us? Hmmm...maybe we should pick and choose our fights and make sure we are fighting someone who is really our enemy and not because politicians who want to look MORE american than the next keep the war machine going.
You sound seriously unhappy living here in the USA. You may want to consider moving to another country.
I think most Americans are against wars. However, most will serve their Country when asked to do so rather than hide in the shadows and complain.
One can look back in time and see many errors in judgement on many issues. Vietnam may have been one of them.
I suggest you let it go. It's over.
I was there in the worst of it.
After 14 months I returned and was told by the Army to not wear my uniform in public because some people were spitting on soldiers returning HOME. Probably people much like you.
I wore mine and was proud of it.
Unlike you, I am still proud to be an American.
Jim...thanks for your service and sacrifices. God bless you.
I don't think so BECAUSE as an AMERICAN, I have a right to my opinion and a right to speak or write it. IF you don't want to live in a country where people who think or act or speak or write different than YOU, then maybe you should move to a nice, homogeneous place like North Korea, because in North Korea, you are REQUIRED to be proud of your country and you are REQUIRED to show it and speak it and act it AND if you don't, you are arrested and thrown into a reeductation camp and either tortured, killed, or maybe if you are lucky, just locked up. You would like it there. No OTHER opinions. Just one. The government's.
Jim Allen
I would NEVER spit on or blame the brave men and women like you WHO went when required. I DO hold our politicians accountable. When they send our troops to fight FOR NOTHING, they weaken this country militarily, politically, and morally. You did what you were asked. I WAS NEVER a radical, hating the troops or any one who does what they are TOLD. If you remember, though, NIXON eliminated the STUDENT DEFERMENT (fair enough, IF we are going to fight a war TO SAVE our way of life, or at least tha's what the politicians tell us) and as soon as he did, GUESS WHAT, an anti war movement. Why do you think we do NOT have an ANTI WAR movement now? Because our chickens$%$% politicians who tell us OUR WAY OF LIFE IS AT STAKE, send the National Guard AND volunteer army to fight. The average person doesn't get riled up. After all, IT;S ONLY the people who volutarily joined who go. If someoen wants to join, they what do they expect. But our chickes$%$%% politicians ALSO KNOW IF they had a draft WHERE everyone went, THERE WOULD BE an anti war movement BECAUSE Iraq is a George Bush - Dick Cheney production that had NOTHING to do with Al Quida and if you remember, Saddam Hussein was OUR FRIEND who we gave tone of money and weapons to so he would START A WAR with Iran, who HATED US after they overthrew the bloody dictator, the Shah of Iran, who came to power AFTER THE CIA meddled in Iran and set up the overthrow of their leader. Do I blame you. No. Do I think America is one of the greatest countries and socieites ever. But I have little use for our fedreral politicians who WANT ME to wave the flag EVERY TIME they want to get reelected or start some war. I am NOT going anywhere because I vote, I read, I listen, and I am NOT going to let these people run things the way they want WITHOUT letting them know a lot of what they do stinks.
I believe the Vietnam war was designed to be a never-ending war so the president's friends can profit from it - at the costs of tens of thousands of lives and the American taxpayers.
Someone has to apologize for initiating a conflict on false pretense & bombing neutral countries. And before some star spangled REMF gets their knickers wrinkled, I am once & forever 11Bravo2Papa, 69-75. Long Binh to Hue, 70-73 (rice paddy daddy says "M60 gets the red out"). I yearn for just one armchair commando to say "Well uhh..if you don't like this country, I'll give you a plane ticket outta here". And back it up with a one way to Vung Tau. Grunts & line doggies are still bein' played by the government & the people they protect are still surrendering ALL our rights. Under a government 'of the people, for the people, by the people, blame for the goverment's tyranny rests firmly with the soft-skinned jelly fish that are the backbone of this land. I can't see my flag anymore.
The USA should be held ACCOUNTABLE for the mess the CIA and US Military has done...
A good start would be signing the International Treaties that ban the use of land-mines, bomblets, and chemical weapons. POTUS; Clinton, Bush, and Obama have refused to sign them...
IMO - The World Court should bring the World Leaders to stand trial for using these types of weapons, also to include 'Armed Drones' for ASSASSINATIONS outside of declared War zones...
Jim- Thanks for your service, but everyone has the right to ask questions about a war protecting corporate interests as much as fighting communists expansion. Not all who question it's governments motives blame it's veterans.
Rockefeller had oil interests off the coast of Vietnam, I'll bet you didn't hear about that while you were stationed there.
A good book on the success of our troops:
FORGOTTEN VALOUR written by a US Marine on how we won all the major engagements (but lost when Walter Cronkite and the American public lost interest, and finally the final straw was when Vietnam broke the Paris Peace Accord).
To this day, for Laotians (especially children) to be injured or killed by an unexploded charges from the Vietnam War is not an uncommon occurence. However, the U.S. government has managed to keep things pretty much swept under the carpet in terms of media coverage.
This is sad but a consequence of war. People in the US have unearthed Civil War explosives in the past few years that have killed. Should we blame Abe Lincoln.
It depends on which side they are from. However if you are looking for the instigators of the war to blame, then blame the Confederates. They were the ones that separated from the rest of the country because they would not agree to changes being made within the country at that time; we had to drag them kicking and screaming into a more civilized era.
The Laos government and people supported the North Vietnamese crossing into their borders and gave them refuge. Please tell me we will not pledge 10 Billion dollars to dig up bombs scattered all over hundreds of miles of jungle. Did we pay for finding all the unexploded bombs in Europe? No, move on Hillary........
First we bombed. Now we send Hillary.
War is hell. What is done is done. Don't be volunteering our US Tax Dollars to clean up any unexploded bombs. Hillary couldn't even be having this meeting now if it weren't for what happened in the 60's. Feel anyway you want about the Viet Nam War but don't be spending our US Tax Dollars outside this Country. We really can't afford it.
So you do not want us to take responsibility for our actions? Isn't that the opposite of what we actually want to be happening these days?
When is Laos taking responsibility for the NVA and the Ho Chi Mihn Trail?
The US concerned with Laotian human rights abuses? LOL. The largest aggressive war complex in the world and mass murderer of Laotian civilians- the USA- lecturing Laos about rights abuses? Shameless.
The US has absolutely no shame. Stay out of Laos, you have done enough already to them.
Some new business ventures must be on the horizon in Laos. Maybe a small elite group wants to start a McDonald's franshise or open some new sweat shops and factories. That's why Washington is coming down with the million dollar smile and friendly shoulder rub! Big money! Big money! That's the only thing people in Washington think about. They are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites.
'Ol Hillary is racking up a lot of frequent flyer miles.
as an american i feel sorry for what we did.....
I feel ya Dan. I mean, decades later Hillary walks in and say's let us help you clean up all the bombs we dropped on you. A new low, even for her.
We should at least clean up our mess we left there and apologize for not doing so.
Binkie, When the apologise for the Ho Chi Mihn Trail?
Uh oh, Looks like we will be giving Billions to Laos and bringing Thousands and Thousands of those people here to the U.S. Every time Hillary goes to some country it cost us money. The Hmongs that they bring here to the U.S. get Nine, count them, Nine years of SSI plus other benefits the minute they step on U.S. soil. Our government says it's because they helped us during the Vietnam war. Well our soldiers fought in Vietnam and they can't get Nine years of SSI plus other benefits. Something is screwed up in our country.
You are nothing, but such an idiot. You need to get your brain transplant before saying something about Hmong. They are million and million people came from all over the world that gets even better SSI then Hmong. Why didn't you include them on your comments, too? Seriously, you need to get your brain transplant right away and get it functionings properly before spell out the word "Hmong" in you comments. Otherwise, don't even think about accusing Hmong of getting 9 in your stupid comments. They got it because they deserved it. An idiot like you could get it, too; probably not 9 but 20 for your case.
As a lowly ex-Vietnam Vet, I suppose you would have to be a Harvard or other Ivy League school Graduate to be able to calculate the benefit of a US foot hole in Laos? Maybe it is to gain respect from our Number 1 trading partner, China. Takes a Washington loon to understand it and our body parts to keep it.
500,000 of the 1,000,000 new immigrants this past year are from Asia.
That guy lost his hands in the Vietnam war? He doesn't look like he's over 30!!
ok, I re-read it!
@Yank,
Actually it is the other way around. China has dominated Southeast Asia for centuries. Most of the countries fear China much more than you might think. While China, as a Communist country has done very little to try to export its form of goverment overseas, the same is not true for countries near its border. Countries like Vietnam loathe and fear the Chinese and have actually had a border war with China in 1979 with numbers of casualties on both sides similar to the US-Vietnam War. Like the Americans, the Chinese found that they were unable to prevail against the Vietnamese.
These countries see the United States as a counterbalance to China. Prior to the collapse of the old Soviet Union, these countries were lining up to sign mutual defense treaties with the Soviet Union. Since the collapse of the Soviets they have been courting the United States as a potential offset to the growth in Chinese military power.
Old Vietnam vet here as well. Tuy Hoa 67-68
Most of China's aggressive actions in Asia started after the Chinese Communist came to power in 1949...
Vietnam has kicked China out of their country 17+times. And is currently in a territorial dispute over natural resources in the South china Sea...
Vietnam was instrumental in defeating the Pol Pot regime (backed by China), out of Cambodia...
Thailand sided with Japan during WWII to prevent the US backed Chinese from making in-roads into Thailand. And supported the USA during the Vietnam Conflict, for the same reason...
The Laos Leadership was taken over by the Chinese during 1975...
The Nepal Leadership was taken over by the Chinese supported Politicians during the 1990s...
China is still OCCUPYING Tibet...
The Asian Countries not directly controlled by China POLITICALLY are controlled through extensive business ownership and trade agreements...
Both Thailand & Australia are not taking sides in the territory/natural resource disputes in the South China Sea. Because of their extensive business and trade agreements, with China...
China also has extensive Military and Business ties with; Iran, Iraq, Myanmar, Pakistan, and now Afghanistan...
The reason behind her visit this time is nothing but try to start another war in that area. The only different between this time and 50 years ago is US + Vietnam against China.
Research the number of dams that are scheduled to be built by China on the Mekong River...
Two have already been completed by China in Laos, another is being built. Resulting in massive loss of migratory fish and unseasonal changes in the river water flow. This flow disruption and diversion has decimated the fish farms and rice farms along the Mekong, impacting MILLIONS of peoples lively-hoods...
China has already decimated the environment in China with their Three Gorges Dam. The Mekong River countries are trying to stop the impending disaster. But China's current answer is - "We are bigger, you small countries have to adapt to US"...
This is one of the reasons the USA is in Laos...
Just give us the bottom line...how much money are we going to give them?
The USA dropped the equivalentof a fully loaded B-52 every 8+minutes, 24/7, for almost a DECADE on Laos. Under the leadership of the CIA, while the US Politicians were lying to the US Citizens...
The USA will not sing the International Threaties than ban; land-mines, anti-personnel bomblets, or chemical weapons...
You ask - WHY??? Because the Treaty requires the signers to remove the weapons they have deployed and to destroy their manufacturing & stock-piles of these weapons...
BTY - The Thai King's Mother set-up medical facilities and has supplied FREE prosthetics in Laos for DECADES...
IMO - Hillary Clinton should experience these bombs, first hand. Then she could be a poster-child for the removing and banning of these weapons...
We are going down reparation's road, where will it stop nobody knows. I believe as an American who lived through all this stuff I am entitled to some monetary relief do to mental scaring, and having lost faith that anyone can really lead our country. Leaders thinking of America first, that is what true leaders would do. Save your pity; because there is none in war. That has always been the deterrent, why people do not want war. When you try to orchestrate how to fight it becomes tolerable. Horrific battles, or great destruction of cities, and taking of life have ended wars.
During the Vietnam war Laos proclaimed its neutrality, henceforth not allowing the U.S. access for strategic reasons. But while remaining "neutral" they openly and knowing allowed North Vietnamese troops refuge from attack and of course the Ho Chi Mihn Trail to resupply and provide troops for the NVA coming from North Vietnam. How many American soldiers lives did this action alone cost? Then we are the "Bad Guys" for Bombing the Ho Chi Mihn Trail? You get what you ask for!
A ton of bitching and complaining.
How about the fact that the two are talking?
How about though it may be for economic reasons at least something good may come of this?
Try to focus on what could be instead of what happened.
Not that it doesn't have its place.
This meeting kinda marks the start of something.
Keep your fingers crossed and maybe we will make good on our wrongs.
At least this president understand the error in judgment the U.S. has made and is trying to do something to make good.
To the men and women that have served our country .THANK YOU A MILLION TIMES OVER. Regardless of the ignorance of government sometimes you do without flinching and we should be proud of you.
Error in judgement the U.S. has made? How is that so??????????
I think we can all agree Vietnam from the U.S. perspective was Good Intentions gone down the Toilet.
Once the U.S. Military Industrial Complex started making Big, Big Bucks!
Our intentions went from trying to Help a small Country embroiled in a Civil War, to intentionally failing to do the Job we were there to do.
Had we gone in there with the full intention of driving out the Cong and having North Vietnam agree to Terms, than maybe the results would of been different and the U.S. would of suffered much less Causalities.
It's too late to Debate whether we should of interfered to begin with.
However, we were there. But is it wise that we continually Beg For Forgiveness. Pay to clear Bombs that would of never been dropped had the North agreed to a Peace of some sort.
I understand that the French had been kicked out. But there was Two Vietnam's at the Time we entered the fiasco Full time.
Maybe a better approach would be that both the U.S. and Vietnam work together to clear the unexploded Ordinance.
Better yet, let's send over the Manufactures of the Bombs.
Make them clean it up.
Tell them we are filing a Warranty Claim.
Sad anyway you look at it. This was a Tragedy. Greed and more Greed costs the U.S. dearly.
And we are still paying for it Today.
The ultimate tragedy is the US POLITICIANS lied and continued to lie to the people that elected them...
Even when the US Citizens became aware of these lies, they held NO ONE ACCOUNTABLE...
When a US Service member kills or wounds a INNOCENT, the WORLD calls for retribution, including the US Citizens...
But the US POLITICIANS and the people with their finger on the buttons that can cause MASS-CAUSALITIES. They are FREE to do almost anything they want, with NO ACCOUNTABILITY...
Saddam Hussein, Osama ben Laden, Omar Qaddafi, paid the ultimate price after they EXPORTED terror to other countries. It is just a matter of time, until the other POLITICIANS are added to this list...
Dear people of Laos, please keep her.
Some bombing was done there and Cambodia because the people killing Americans were running over there in this war started by the french and escalated by the democrats. Clinton and that bunch were too busy protesting and spitting on our troops that the demos sent there. Go away hillary, just go away.
so why are we so anti/cuba is it because it has a COMMUNIST govt. so much BS in this govt. of ours! it's always trying to cover it's ass by giving away our tax money to others!
What an awful misguided title for an article, rather Laos and Viet Nam have been plummeled with Human Rights Violation ever since they have been Illegally occupation by the International Socialists Occupation Forces AKA the Communists.
Nhan Quyen Cho Viet Nam! Human Rights for Vietnam!
How can anyone say 'they are proud to be American' The real terrorists are the American government and it's people.
speak for yourself I'm not a terrorist. I'm neutral. Critical times hard to deal with, will be here.
the goal is to bolster americas standing in some of the fastest growing markets.................
Now thats from the heart
do you feel the love
I mean do you feel the love (double self chest slap over aorta)