Forum Post: Clinton Pays Landmark Visit to Laos - two million tons of bombs!

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has visited Laos, becoming the first U.S. official in her position to do so in nearly 60 years. During her brief stay, Clinton met with a young victim who lost his forearms and eyesight after an unexploded bomb dropped by the United States during the Vietnam War went off beneath him. The victim urged Clinton to do more to clean up the millions of unexploded bomblets that remain in Laos and that have killed some 20,000 people and injured many more over the past 40 years. The United States has never apologized to Laos for its nine-year bombing campaign, which dropped more than two million tons of bombs between 1964 and 1973. The bombing of Laos was one of the most intense of any country in history, surpassing the combined bombing of Japan and Germany during the Second World War.