B.C. Archeology/A.D. Bombing

remnants

This will be the most difficult subject to blog about.  Prior to travel blogging, I wrote long and descriptive letters to my Mother and Father and friends voicing all that I was witnessing and experiencing.  It was a voice spoken to a singular person, it was intimate and it was thoughtful.  Its original purpose is not within the same realm in how we communicate electronically.  I believe that we will mourn and regret the loss of  the introspective, revealing and  importance of letter-writing; historically it has be invaluable.

The subject at hand is the legacy of the American bombing of Laos; a kind of collateral damage that may be thought  intellectually as history, but in reality it remains as an overt presence.

reminder of how long we were there secretly, using a neutral country: Laos as a pawn

No, these are not flower urns

bomb craters abound + scorched earth policy 50 + years later

Originally, Ariel and I planned to go to Phonesevan to see the ancient Plain of  Jars (dating back 4000-2000BC).  Knowing it was on the Ho Chi Minh trail and the headquarters of the Pathet Lao (revolutionary party- Communist) I knew i was confronting history.  Full disclosure: I have not been to Vietnam for just this reason.  The shame/pain that my government caused to this nation has not been one I have been able to confront.  In Cambodia, the atrocities of Pol Pot eclipsed the US's; not that we weren't culpable for the political vacuum it caused, but in Laos the evidence remains.
The first thing you notice is the barren land..... going on for miles and miles..... up and down the terrain; No it is not slash + burn...... but Agent Orange  used  over 50 years ago....still poisoning the ground and the water table.  The Laotians have just begun a program to plant eucalyptus trees so that they may take up the poison and the land may be arable again.  Then the landscape is marred by huge craters; provided relentlessly by the
methodical use of carpet bombing.   Remember these terms?  To see them wrought is to see Evil.

Re-use, recycle, re-purpose...... (is this what we had in mind?)

 Bomb shells as household tools/

"Bomb Oven"

no matter how much black humor it may elicit

Bomb Planter with spring onions

We visited a  Hmong village and they were re-purposing a lot of "Materiel".
Remember the Hmong?  These are the persecuted hilltop tribe that created a secret army (including 12 year old boys) to help the Americans; as they were promised autonomy. At the end of the war and the fall of Saigon they had to flee. Most of the Laotian people emigrated to the USA are from this tribe.

A brief timeline of the history of Laos during this period is that
after the French left Indochina....
 during the 1950's, an agreement for Lao independence was granted, but internecine fighting between the Pathet Lao (leftist) and the First Coalition gov't  erupted into a coup d'etat
that renders the country into NEUTRAL status in 1960.
The CIA the comes in and forms a covert army. (to help them in their agenda to win  the war in Vietnam-vertical porous borders with Vietnam)
 With their presence in Laos secured, the US then turns against Laos as the Vietnam war spills over, and the Pathet Lao becomes the "communist" enemy. In 1964 the  bombing in Laos begins in the Plain of Jars....and continues until the ceasefire of 1973 with Vietnam. Nine years of Terror.

Now, is where it really gets tricky and I cannot truly decipher it.
It is a Communist run country until 1991 (when the Soviet Union collapses and the money stops)  the  Lao PDR (People's Democratic Party???????) is created. I am told by Vilan it's socialist.
Frankly, it seems like the same ole same ole.... as in Vietnam.... Economic mobility/restructuring.... but little else that defines a democracy.  Vietnam is the "poster boy" for SE ASia; look at what's happening in Myanamar.  It's only about the economic system. No other reforms occur.


A very good book on this subject is by the recently deceased journalist, Stanley Tarnow; his tome "Vietnam" is thoroughly readable and historically accurate.




So as if this landscape isn't surreal enough it's  also punctuated by these huge granite and sandstone "jars" recently found to be dating back to 4000-2000 BC. (roughly similar to the period the pyramids in Egypt were built)
There are hundreds of them, and below/and around these monolithic relics are  more recent burial chambers filled with
precious and everyday items  of the dead.
There has been a lot of conjecture as to what "filled" these jars + lids but there remains no organic material to be carbon dated.
The area itself contains quartz stone (boulders moved there) which attracts lightening.  In other words, it is a place of great
electric currency....and I add spiritual energy.

Our guide, Vilan spoke beautiful English. (a real rarity in Laos, even with people in the hospitality trade)
His Father was the man who in the 80's recognized the significance of the site and opened it to tourism.  His Father has a real survival tale being from the royal family (650 years of monarchy ended with Communism).
But, really Vilan's purpose to his Father's legacy is an even deeper one; Mine Removal.
All around this area, are UXO's ; unexploded mine ordinances.
(some of you may remember that i volunteered for CPI , Clearpath International ).  MAG (originally Princess Diana's organization) leads the crusade in mine removal in this area.
Up to now, they have cleared 5%

Therefore the population is still very vulnerable along with all the grazing animals.  All this land....... but very little is used to feed the people or give them the security to use their land.

It was a very difficult day for me.  9 hours of touring, eating something bad at the roadside lunch, or at the Hmong wedding (more later) left me feeling like I had a virus.  I crawled into bed and tried to fend off the remnants of how policy truly affects people, or as it's euphemistically spoken about, "collateral damage".

 travelin' woman