Bombing of Plain of Jars
Over 25,000 attacks were known against the Plain of Jars from May, 1964, through September, 1969; over 150,000 tons of bombs were dropped on it 1; over 50,000 airmen at distant bases were involved; below on the ground, thousands were killed and wounded, tens of thousands driven underground and the entire above ground society levelled. And yet for five and a half years, this massive war was unknown to the world beyond. The ground battles raging elsewhere in Laos were reported on fairly regularly during these years. But one searches in vain through the newspapers and magazines of the western world for a single word about the bombing of the Plain. Neither in the deliberations of the United States Congress, nor in debates within the United Nations, nor in hearings of anti-war conferences does any mention of the automated war against the Plain appear.
For five and a half years-as village after village was levelled, countless people buried alive by high explosives, or burnt alive by napalm and white phosphorous, or riddled by anti-personnel bomb pellets-the leaders of the superpower waging this war kept it secret. They did so by officially denying that they were doing any bombing in northern Laos during these years by prohibiting newsmen from going out on bombing raids over the area; and by similarly refusing them the right to interview, the pilots conducting these raids. Finally, in October, 1969, officials of this superstate the United States, admitted that they had indeed been bombing in northern Laos since slay, 1964 they continued to mask the destruction of the Plain, however, by claiming that civilian targets were never struck.
In October, 1969, as the survivors of the bombing of the Plain were being herded into refugee camps, former U.S. Ambassador William H. Sullivan testified in closed session to the united States Senate that: ''. . . the Lao, of course, placed restrictions on the strikes that would go into populated areas. The United States Air Force contribution was limited to striking at the logistic routes .. . choke points . . . or at points of concentration which fed into the area where the actual ground battling was taking place . . . it was the policy not to attack populated areas.''
And when an American president first told his people on March 6 1970 that the United States had been bombing in Laos for the past six years, he too avoided any mention of civilian destruction: “We have continued to conduct air operations. Our first priority ... is ... the Ho Chi Minh Trail.... In addition.... we have continued to carry out reconnaissance flights in northern Laos to fly combat support missions for Laotian forces...”
This policy of constantly denying any bombing of civilian targets, coupled with news management continues today. To this day the vast majority of people both in the United States and abroad do not have the slightest inkling of what happened on the Plain of Jars between 1964 and 1969. In April 1971, former Ambassador Sullivan referred to northern Laos as “the other war in Laos, which has nothing to do with operations in South Vietnam or Cambodia.” The bombing of the Plain of Jars was indeed “the other war”: automated war, in which participants are never face to face; war from the air, in which ground troops play but a supplementary role; secret war, in which whole societies are eradicated without a trace.
1 No one knows of course exactly how many tons of bombs werer dropped on the Plain. The Cornell Air War study (The Air War n Indochina: Preliminary Report, Center for International Studies of Cornell University, October, 1971) estimated that approximately 230,000 tons were dropped in northern Laos in 1968 and 1969.
This article is adapted from "Voices from the Plain of Jars: Life under an Air War" compiled by Fred Branfman.
