“My name is Yeng-Chang Cheung-Wu. I come from Xieng Khouang Province in Laos and I work for the Mines Advisory Group. MAG is an international humanitarian organisation that clears and destroys landmines, cluster munitions and other unexploded ordnance in areas affected by conflict. We have been working in Laos for more than thirty years to help communities live safely and build a better future. My country is still scarred by unexploded ordnance (UXO) left behind by a war that ended more than fifty years ago.” Yeng-Chang Cheung-Wu’s testimony to Vatican News sheds light on one of the least known chapters of the Cold War—a story marked by at least three striking paradoxes.
First, Laos is the most heavily bombed country in history relative to its population, yet its story remains largely forgotten. Second, the conflict was never officially declared. Unable to wage war openly against a country recognised as neutral, the United States carried out a massive bombing campaign that became known as the “Secret War”. The third paradox is its enduring legacy: millions of cluster munitions failed to explode. An estimated 80 million unexploded bomblets are still scattered across the country, and in 2024 alone unexploded ordnance caused 48 casualties, a reminder that, for many Laotians, the war has never truly ended.
To understand this story, it is necessary to go back to 1954, when the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu at the hands of the Viet Minh ended nearly a century of colonial rule in Indochina. The Geneva Accords recognised the independence of Laos and Cambodia and declared them as neutral states, while Vietnam was temporarily divided along the 17th parallel: the communist North under Ho Chi Minh and the U.S.-backed South, pending elections that were never held.
The newly independent Laos, however, faced two challenges from the outset. A civil war pitted the royal government against the communist Pathet Lao, backed by North Vietnam. At the same time, its geography made the country strategically vital. Running through the forested Annamite Mountains was much of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the logistical network used by Hanoi to move troops, weapons and supplies into South Vietnam. Although parts of the trail also crossed Vietnam and Cambodia, Laos became its principal corridor, turning a formally neutral country into a key battlefield of the Cold War.
