Lao Voices

The U.S. Air Force wanted to use “nuclear weapons” against Vietnam in 1959 and 1968, and Laos in 1961, to obliterate communist guerrillas, according to newly declassified secret U.S. Air Force documents.

The 400-page document, titled, “The United States Air Force in Southeast Asia: The War in Northern Laos 1954-1973,” was written in 1993 by the Center for Air Force History in Washington and “classified by multiple sources.”

“This inclusion of nuclear weapons by the military was a legacy of the Korean War. To the chiefs, it was unthinkable for the United States to embark on another conventional, strength-sapping war,” the document said.

With hindsight, the authors of the 1993 declassified Air Force document said it would not have been a good idea “to employ nuclear weapons to destroy insurgents and their supply sources” in Vietnam or Laos.

Oh, really? Well, such deep insight and wisdom. Further in the report, the researchers wrote down why they did not consider it a good idea to use Nuclear weapons. According to the writers: “…More important, such an attack would have given the communists a tremendous propaganda victory and possibly spread the war to China and the western Pacific”.

The loss of hundreds of thousands of humans, animals and years of nuclear fall out did not bother them but the possibility of “bad press” scared them. What a twisted perspective. All those lives at stake for the glory of some military paper pusher that loves the power play is, in my humble opinion, rather sick.

Nevertheless, extreme plans like these are often put forward by certain segments of the military but that does not mean that they are approved by those making the decisions. They are often just widely varying contingency plans although often guided by political whims.

Still, to even contemplate the use of such a weapon and actually write a plan down to use it…… Food for thought.