Throughout Southeast Asia the reminders of war are everywhere. Bomb casings in Laos are used as household decorations (railings and such). In Cambodia, one cannot go a day without seeing a person missing a limb. Vietnamese sites of interest usually touch on one of the wars fought here in the last century. And throughout the region signs warn visitors not to stray from well-trod paths–mines and unexploded ordanance litter the countryside. The cause of these reminders of tragedy? In many cases, the not-so-Cold War.
This blog doesn’t contain anything that hasn’t been written before. But after spending the last month and a half in a state of semi-shame having seen the disasterous effects of my country’s policy, I feel compelled to recount this history. Not to do so seems foolish, and continues the opening of Pandora’s boxes of unintended consequences.
Relative Temperature: A Brief History of the Cold War
The term “the Cold War” was coined to describe the relations between the U.S and the U.S.S.R. Because the two countries never had direct military engagement, despite a large-scale military buildup, the war footing between the two was best described as cold. However, how cold that war was really depends on who you’re talking to, as hot proxy battles and wars were fought around the globe. These wars were the result of mis-employing political scientist George Kennan’s strategy of containment. The goal of containment, as put forth by Kennan, was to keep Communism pent up in its borders. Unfortunately, this wasn’t such a tidy concept as the war in Vietnam shows. The lines between communism and nationalism became blurred as many civilians preferred those fighting for communism to those colonial-like invaders who wanted to fight for their (multi-meaning pronoun use) freedom.
A Deadly Game of Dominoes
As the logic went, if one country in Southeast Asia fell to Communism, they would all fall–the so-called domino effect. The focal point of this conflict became Vietnam. Given Vietnams’ geography, which is a thin piece of land stretching North-South along both Laos’ and Cambodia’s Eastern border, it is inevitable, though not publicized, that these countries would become involved.
To be fair, both the U.S. and the People’s Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF; Viet Cong) used both Laos and Cambodia as a side-show to the war. For the PLAF, these countries were a handy route (the Ho Chi Minh Trail) from the North of Vietnam, where the Viet Cong ruled, to the South, where the U.S. was backing an anti-communist government. Of course, the U.S. needed to sever these crucial supply lines, as well as the support that PLAF was giving to indigenous communists in Laos, and what better way than a bombing campaign.
And what a campaign it was. Between 1964 and 1973, the number of bombs dropped in Laos during what has been dubbed “The Secret War” (it had to be. The U.S. helped develop the 1954 Geneva Accords respecting Laos’ neutrality) was roughly 3 million tons, the heaviest U.S. led bombing since WWII. Laos is about 80% agrarian with sticky rice being a dietary staple. The bombs that riddled the countryside then, and still now, made going to work a dangerous proposition. Over 350,000 civilians are thought to have been killed by the U.S. bombing campaign in those 7 years. That’s over 130 people per day, every day, for seven years out of a population of only 3 million. And the unexploded bombs continue to kill even today.
The Devil You Know
In Cambodia, similar bombing campaigns along the southern portion of the Ho Chi Minh Trail led to social and political upheaval. People angered by this seemingly inexplicable bloodshed and frustrated with the corrupt government of the U.S. backed Lon Nol, who was allowing the bombing (in 1965 the then King Sihanouk had allowed the North Vietnamese to establish bases and use Cambodia for supplies, provoking the U.S. bombing), walked into the open arms of the Khmer Rouge, an arm of Cambodia’s Communist party. Just as in Vietnam, political forces were more than communist vs anti-communist. In both countries the communist party doubled as a national party, one that was attractive because it was home-grown and against the so-called new colonial invaders. Who would you support? A corrupt government backed by the U.S. who is bombing your country or communists preaching equality and national pride with the backing of your revered, deposed king? Sadly, Cambodia, a country which desparetely wanted to remain neutral after gaining its independence from France in 1965 ended up having to chose between a domestic devil and a foreign one. Unfortunately, the former won when the U.S. gave up in 1973, and genocide ensued killing between 1 and 2 million Cambodians. During the dropping of 2,756,941 tons of bombs, an estimated 150,000 people were killed.
Crystal Balls and Collateral Damage
All told, the U.S. escapades in Southeast Asia came at the cost of about 60,000 U.S. lives and roughly 2 million Laotion, Cambodian and Vietnamese lives (double that if you include the victims of the genocide. U.S. bombing in Cambodia contributed to the Khmer Rouge coming to power). We have no way of really knowing what would have happened had the U.S. not pursued its policy of containment to such a degree. However, all signs point to the fact that neither China nor the U.S.S.R. were out for world domination. Difficult though that may have been to see at the time, it seems implausible that the worst-case scenario envisioned by politicians could have been any worse than the death and destruction that the wars in Southeast Asia brought at the risk of nuclear war.
And for what? All three countries experienced communist governments after the U.S. left in the early ’70’s. And the U.S. continued on, despite containment having not worked.
Lingering Heat
The fighting in Southeast Asia wasn’t the only hot part of the Cold War. Afghanistan, for example, was the U.S.S.R’s “Vietnam.” While the U.S. didn’t have official troops there, we were supporting and funding those fighting against the Soviets. And just to prove that history isn’t so tidy, those fighting against the Soviets included none other than Osama bin Laden.
Too often, it seems, we settle for our information in easily digested pieces. It’s what keeps the Vietnam War only in Vietnam for most people. It’s what ends the Cold War in 1989 and restarts a chapter in history in 2001. This compartmentalization is a dangerous habit for it seems to overlook connections and consequences. While the Cold War did not cause the rise of bin Laden, it did create the conditions for him to train and connect with other idealist Islamists. Just as the Vietnam War leaked into neighboring countries, so too does history leak from one era to the next, often with unforeseen consequences.
