News stories didn't mention the fact that bombs were dropped on Laos to clear the Ho Chi Minh Trail and the resultant deaths in Laos. Does this alter your feeling an/d or knowledge about the war?
Created: 03/22/21
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I did. In 2019, I visited the Plain of Jars, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, consisting of megalithic archaeological stone jars. We had to walk within confined areas as there were still unexploded mines as a result of the Vietnam war. I not only took pictures of the jars, but the huge craters created by bombs on the surface of the land. From one of the sites, I could see rice paddy fields in the distance. The site was eerily quiet and beautiful.
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My brother flew HH53 helicopters during the war in Vietnam. His plane came under fire as he was flying over Cambodia. (He was finally killed in Korea in 1973 when a helicopter he was a passenger in failed to clear a mountain top.)So, yes, the war involved not only Vietnam but Laos and Cambodia.
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Many people who lived through that era and were old enough to be listening to news (and/or have friends and family drafted to fight there) heard the reports, but the geographical names did not always resonate as being a country separate from the one we were officially at war with. Also, the news reports usually presented information like this with the angle as Bill mentioned above. The same was true for the bombing of Cambodia. The Robert McNamara 2003 documentary THE FOG OF WAR is a vital part of the study of the Vietnam War; many truths are finally told in that documentary.
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