Relax - New audio tour recalls America's secret war in Laos

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New audio tour recalls America's secret war in Laos

AsiaOne | Thu, Nov 19 2009

Between 1964 and 1973, America secretly dropped more bombs on Laos than were dropped on Europe in the whole of World War II.

New audio tour recalls America's secret war in Laos

Keywords

vietnam

viegxay

VIENGXAY, LAOS – A new audio tour launched 18 November in a remote corner of Indochina brings alive the story of America's 'secret war' in Laos.

Between 1964 and 1973 America, which was at war with North Vietnam, secretly dropped more bombs on neighbouring Laos than were dropped on Europe in the whole of World War II.

Over 20,000 people in Viengxay in northeast Laos survived by living in an elaborate network of caves which are now open to the public. Many of the caves had specialist functions such as hospital, bakery, school, shop, theatre or government office.

A new audio tour of the caves, produced by a Sydney-based company, is now available to tourists visiting Viengxay, which is a scenic mix of abrupt limestone mountains and green valleys with rice paddies and hamlets.

"The creation of the audio tour is of historical significance," says Ms Penny Street, Director and Founder of Narrowcasters, which produced the audio tour. "Forty-nine survivors were interviewed including farmers, doctors, soldiers, nurses, and mothers who gave birth in the caves. It is the first time a large number of eye witnesses have been tracked down and their testament recorded for posterity and future use by historians."

The 90-minute audio tour combines eye witness accounts and a narrative that explains the wider conflict of the Vietnam War.

Throughout the 1960s and 70s as the cold war dominated geo-political thinking around the world, the 'domino theory' compelled decision makers in Washington DC who were trying to contain communism in Indochina.

The consequences were dire for Laotian villagers, most of whom were subsistence farmers.

Ms Pengsi today.

"We would shout at the planes flying overhead, 'Why are you doing this to us? Why are you trying to destroy us?'" recalls Ms Pengsi Sommany, who was part of the Xieng Xeu village defence unit during the war.

In the audio tour, survivors recall how for nine years under guidance from the Pathet Lao resistance, they built shelters in the mountain caves, worked the bomb-strewn fields and defended themselves in their grottoes and forest retreats as the earth shook around them.

Translated interviews, music, sound effects and archival recordings recreate the cave experience for visitors walking round this peaceful site today.