United States Secret War in Laos: Long-Term Environmental Impacts of the Use of Chemical Weapons

Abstract

In 1959, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operation, against the Pathet Lao insurgences and Viet Mien military troops and supply route, began. The Hồ Chi Minh Trail was developed after the North Vietnam government and military decided to reunify South and North Vietnam. The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) then connected the old trails leading from North Vietnam panhandle southward into eastern Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam. Starting from Hanoi, the primary trail turned southwest into Laos and eastern Cambodia before branching into South Vietnam. Beginning in 1960s, the volume of traffic on the network of trails expanded significantly, but it still took more than a month's march, by foot and bicycle, to travel from North to South Vietnam. Hồ Chi Minh Trail traffic was impacted by repeatedly by Royal Laotian Air Force (RLAF), which was supported by US Air Force tactical herbicide spraying (Operation Ranch Hand program), and US Air Force bombing runs. By the late 1960s, the trail was improved and could accommodate heavy trucks in some sections and was used to supply the annual needs of over one hundred thousand regular PAVN troops active in South Vietnam. By 1974, the trail was a well-marked series of jungle roads (some of them paved) with underground support facilities such as hospitals, fuel-storage tanks, and supply caches with weapons. The Hồ Chi Minh Trail was the major supply route for PAVN forces that overran Republic of Vietnam (RV) forces in 1975 and unified Vietnam. The primary objective of this paper is to determine the environmental and human health impacts of RLAF and US Air Force secret spraying of tactical herbicides on Hồ Chi Minh Trail in Laos.

Review and Analysis: United States Secret Wars in Cambodia: Long-Term Impacts and Consequences

“…The U.S. continues to maintain that the chemicals were not widespread there, despite records indicating otherwise [14] [16]. As a result, the U.S. has offered no assistance to affected Cambodians and Laotians, and constrained benefits to Americans who secretly served in these countries [1] without entering Vietnam (no boots on the ground) [12] but still may have been exposed to dioxin and/or arsenic [16].…”

“…Once called Annamite Range Trail, the Ho Chi Minh Trail was a logistical network of trails and roads from North Vietnam to South Vietnam through the Kingdoms of Cambodia and Laos (Figure 1). During the Vietnam War, the trail system provided support, in the form of labor and supplies to the PAVN and Viet Cong guerrillas [1]. Construction for the network began after the North Vietnamese invasion of Laos in July 1959.…”

“…There was a Viet Minh, an organization formed in China by Ho Chi Minh in 1941, maritime logistics supply line called the "Route of Ho Chi Minh" [1].…”

Use of Agent Purple, Agent Orange and Agent Blue on Royal Thai Air Force Base Perimeters in Thailand during the Vietnam War

“…The similarities between base defense in Vietnam and Thailand were highlighted in the 1969 CHECO Report [6] titled "7AF Local Base Defense Operations: July 1965 -December 1968". This report provides a general analysis of Air Force base operations [4] [5].…”

“…General Prem Tinsulanonda signed a declaration of amnesty the insurgency declined and ended in 1983 [4] [5]. President Nixon and Henry Kissinger tried to prohibit the press from observing the secret CIA's war on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos and Cambodia by denying media access outside South Vietnam [6]. Unsympathetic journalists were not permitted to interview American pilots and were kept off RTAF bases.…”