Bulletins and News Discussion from December 4th to December 10th, 2023 - The Legacy of Kissinger - COTW: Laos

Due to American cluster bombing campaigns advised by Kissinger during the Vietnam War to damage supply lines, over 2 million tonnes of ordinance were dropped on Laos over about a decade, averaging a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes. Laos is thus the most bombed country on the planet up to this point. 80 million bombs failed to explode - the cleanup operation is expected to take centuries, and 25,000 people have been killed and injured by bombs in the last 50 years. About 50 people are killed or injured every year to this day.

After the United States withdrew from Laos, the Pathet Lao took power and abolished the monarchy. Kaysone Phomvihane became a dominant figure in Laotian politics, keeping the course on Marxism-Leninism and implementing the first Five Year Plan in 1981. The second Five Year Plan in 1986 was modelled on Lenin's NEP, and this doubled rice production and significantly increased sugar production. After the fall of the USSR, Laos allowed a small capitalist class to exist, with similar control over them as in China. Laos maintains a 48-hour work week with paid sick leave, vacation time, and maternity leave, and workers are well-represented in trade unions. They faired relatively well during coronavirus from a social standpoint due to quick and efficient action to lock down the country, experiencing ~750 deaths out of a population of over 7 million.

There is hope even after utter destruction by genocidal oppressors.

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The Country of the Week is Laos! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

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1.5K comments

It's fucked up how Castillo is in jail without any sentence and Fujimori, a man that commited genocide, is free.
- I have been thinking about something, which is probably just a coincidence. When Castillo tried to dissolve the legislative and call new elections, he said he was forced by the Armed Forces and the Attorney General to sign it. He was then arrested while trying to reach the Mexican embassy and taken to an air base where he is still imprisoned to this day.
  During the 8th of January in Brazil of this year, some in the military tried to get Lula to sign a document that would give the military orders to act at will to "contain" the invasion. But Lula refused and decided to dismiss and arrest the Secretary of Security in Brasilia and appoint in his place an ally of his to command the national guard and stop the Bolsonaristas.
  This is probably a mere coincidence, since the military coup attempt in Brazil was not supported by the United States. Perhaps they just had similar methods that they probably learned from the School of the Americas.
  
  During the 8th of January in Brazil of this year, some in the military tried to get Lula to sign a document that would give the military orders to act at will to "contain" the invasion
  Where can I read about this?
- People voted for Castillo partly because they didn't want Fujimori's shitty daughter to pardon and free him, but he was still freed in the end.

1512 comments