The United States Air Force dropped the equivalent of a planeload of bombs every eight minutes for nine years on the people of Laos, from 1965 to 1973 — over 2,000,000 tons. This was some of the heaviest aerial bombing in world history.
Estimated civilian deaths: 500,000 people
The United States dropped an estimated 285 million cluster bomblets all over Southeast Asia during the course of the Vietnam War — seven bomblets for every man, woman and child. By 1973 it was estimated that there were at least nine million unexploded bomblets still lying on Laotian territory.
As much as half a million tons of unexploded ordnance (primarily cluster-bombs) remains littered all over the Laotian countryside — 35 years later.
Every year, throughout all these past 35 years, hundreds of innocent Laotian children and civilian people are murdered or maimed by American cluster-bombs. Bombs dropped by United States Air Force crews.
With the passage of time cluster bombs become more unstable, making deadly accidental explosions increasingly likely.
The deprivation of the fertile lowlands because of the presence of unexploded bombs has created hunger and despair among the people.
Photo of excavation pit at the killing fields.
Photo of excavation pit with skulls of 
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