Lao People's Army History Museum

[Martin Hash]

Laos Military Museum 1.JPG

America's decade long conflict in SE Asia, which we call "The Vietnam War" and they call "The American War ," certainly contains a mystery of purpose to both peoples. I have my own suspicions about America's motivations, mostly to do with the absolutism of mid-20th Century Western sensibilities, but what gave those people whose rice paddies we relentlessly bombed the fortitude to combat tanks with bamboo sticks? Consequently, I jumped at the opportunity to visit the Military Museum in Laos' capital city, Vientiane, hoping to get some insight into their perseverance against tremendous odds. The explanation was actually pretty simple: the people of Indonesia endured half a century of conflict before the U.S. got involved, and communism gave them an ideology & leadership to resist foreign dominion.

Laos Military Museum 2.JPG

The museum was big, interesting, and lacking in visitors. Outside were 1960s era military vehicles & the remnants of shot-down U.S. aircraft. Inside were guns, uniforms, video, and dioramas. The display descriptions were translated into grammatically hackneyed English which was difficult to decipher but got the point across. South Vietnam troops were called "Saigon Puppets," WW2 Japanese were called "The Enemy," Thai separatists were called "Extreme Rightists," but Americans were called Americans. It was obvious the text was written by Communist propagandists making bizarre claims of attempted genocide that would be funny if it wasn't so serious.

Laos Military Museum 3.JPG

[Okeefenokee]

Hmmmm. Let me do some math here. I knew a guy in 2005 who was 30 and came to the US from Laos when he was four. That makes it around '79. His mother had about a half dozen kids at the time, putting her probably in her thirties at least. She probably remembered the war. Good people. Thoroughly enjoyed eating Thanksgiving with them sitting on the floor around all the food. Smokin' hot sisters.

[TheReal_ND]

I want a Mao watch where the hands point to the numbers. I'll pay money or trade you for a little red book Hash.

[Martin Hash]

I want a Mao watch where the hands point to the numbers. I'll pay money or trade you for a little red book Hash.

I'll keep my eye out.

p.s. I say "eye" because I lost the vision in my right eye a couple months ago on the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan.