Inside Operation Barrel Roll, a covert US military campaign that dropped 2 million tons of bombs on Laos over 9 years

James PasleySep 9, 2023, 20:14 IST

A boy runs past rusted halves of cluster bomb shells and other military hardware in a scrap metal shop along the main street in Phonsavanh, Laos.Jerry Redfern/LightRocket via Getty Images

For nine years, a covert CIA-run operation called "Operation Barrel Roll" dropped more than 580,000 bombs on Laos.
The US was trying to stop North Vietnamese forces from transporting weapons and soldiers through Laos.

Between 1964 and 1973, the US dropped about 2 million tons of bombs on Laos in a covert campaign known as"Operation Barrel Roll."

The CIA covertly executed the bombings, which is referred to as the US "secret war" on Laos.

The bombings were indiscriminate. They killed about 200,000 people in Laos, which was around 10% of the country's population. Another 400,000 people were wounded and 750,000 people were forced to flee due to the devastation.

Here's what happened and why the bombs are still hurting Laos today.

Laos is a landlocked, mountainous country, which at the time had a population of about 2.5 million.

President John F. Kennedy points to a map of Laos at a news conference.Bettmann/Getty Images

In 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower told President-elect John F. Kennedy in a briefing that Laos was the "cork in the bottle."

John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower sit at a table in Washington, DC.Abbie Rowe/PhotoQuest/Getty Images

Two years later, in 1964, after Kennedy was assassinated, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the first bombings in Laos.

Smoke billows from bomb blasts along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos.AP

The US was in the midst of the Vietnam War and was trying to stop the North Vietnamese from transporting weapons and soldiers through Laos.

Several trucks, belonging to communist forces, lay overturned on a rural road, part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, after the US Air Force bombed the road.Bettmann/Getty Images

For the next nine years, the US undertook more than 580,000 bombings, dropping more than 2 million tons of bombs on Laos.

A US Air Force Boeing B-52 Stratofortress dropping bombs over Vietnam.Pictures From History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The bombing wasn't just along militant routes.

Bomb craters in the Laos region of Xiang Khwang.Gerhard Joren/LightRocket/Getty Images

In 1969, when President Richard Nixon entered office, he decided to increase the bombing, thinking it would force Laos and Vietnam to surrender.

President Richard Nixon pointing to a map of Vietnam and Laos.STF/AFP/Getty Images

Back in the US, people were aware of the Vietnam War. There, the military action was run by the US State Department and the media had covered it extensively.

The US 173rd Airborne are supported by helicopters during the Iron Triangle assault in Vietnam.Tim Page/Corbis/Getty Images

It was only in 1971 that the bombings were officially confirmed in the US during a congressional hearing.

Aircrafts and 250-pound bombs at a CIA base in Laos.Bettmann/Getty Images

Even after the campaign was made public, the bombings continued.

A sketch by villagers in refugee camps of the bombing in Laos.Bruce Bisping/Star Tribune/Getty Images

Even after the war ended, the bombings' impacts continued. Their shells were used for a variety of things, including as the base of stilt houses.

Stilt houses built with American bombs in Laos.Dea Giannella/Getty Images

They were sold for metal.

Two men pick up half of a cluster bomb casing bought by the woman behind a scrap metal shop in Phonsavanh.Jerry Redfern/LightRocket/Getty Images

Some were even used as animal troughs.

A water buffalo eats from a trough made from the shell of a cluster bomb in Laos.Jerry Redfern/LightRocket/Getty Images

But they also continued to kill people. Cluster bombs in particular were deadly.

Villagers show off a cluster bomb in Laos.Peter Charlesworth/LightRocket/Getty Images

Children have been the most common victims.

Kids in Vang Vieng, Laos pose for a photo while sitting on a disarmed US bomb dropped during the Vietnam War.Gerhard Joren/LightRocket/Getty Images

In recent years, the US has taken steps to make amends for Operation Barrel Roll.

A worker uses a metal detector to search for bombs in Laos.Jerry Redfern/LightRocket/Getty Images

Despite the funding, less than 1% of the remaining bombs have been removed since the war ended.

A farmer stands beside a live mortar he found on his land in Laos.Jerry Redfern/LightRocket/Getty Images

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