Another Example of the Legacies of War

While the example from the other day was an issue of a potential danger, this example is all too active.

Via the AP:  Vietnam: 100,000 killed, hurt by abandoned weapons

More than 100,000 Vietnamese have been killed or injured by land mines or other abandoned explosives since the Vietnam War ended nearly 40 years ago, and clearing all of the country will take decades more, officials said Monday.

[…]

[Prime Minister Nguyen Tan]Dung said 42,132 people have been killed and 62,163 others wounded by land mines, bombs and other explosives since the war ended in 1975. The United States used about 16 million tons of bombs and ammunition while allied with the former South Vietnam government, which was defeated by northern communist fighters who reunified the country.

FILED UNDER: Asia, World Politics, ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. JKB says:

    Funny how they down play that there were two sides in the that conflict. I guess it was just America fighting itself and the Viet Cong didn’t use landmines and booby traps as their primary weapon.

    But that is also the trouble with war, when you win, you get to do the clean up. So this sounds like a Vietnamese problem. Although, the US should provide information on the locations of mines the US placed, which as a legitimate Army, we document.