Berks Barrister Summer 2019 - 8

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SOUTHEAST ASIA JOURNEY REVEALS RESILIENCE, RAW CAPITALISM
AND LETHAL REMINDERS OF A "SECRET WAR"
Continued from page 7
Every morning in Luang Prabang at about 5:30 a.m., people
line certain streets, and sitting on stools, hold a bamboo bowl of
sticky rice. Buddhist monks, in their bright orange robes, silently
walk down the streets holding large bowls to collect the rice
which is used both to feed those in the monasteries, as well as
the needy people of the town. As in Thailand, Buddhist temples
abound in Laos and function not only to spread the religion, but
to also provide social welfare and education in the community.

One afternoon, we had the chance to go to a language center
where every day Laotians come to learn English from volunteers
such as us. Some can barely speak a word of English. My wife,
Pat, and I were lucky, however, to have a young college student,
who spoke very good English, sit with us and work on improving
his conversational speech.

Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia is the largest
religious monument in the world.

A cluster bomb display in the
capital city of Vientiane, Laos.

My wife, Pat, emerges from a Cu
Chi tunnel near Saigon once used
by Viet Cong soldiers.
Tui, our guide in Laos, expects to
return to life as a monk as soon as
his children are grown.
8 | Berks Barrister

Our guide in Laos, Tui, spent part of his youth living as a
monk. He left, got married and has children. He confided to
us, that after his children are grown, he will divorce his wife
and return to life as a monk and his wife will enter a Buddhist
convent. He couldn't make me understand how this was normal
in Laos. I found myself pleading with him to reconsider such
a drastic change. He found me amusing and knew I couldn't
understand.

Our next stop took us to the capital of Laos, Vientiane.
While there, we visited a museum that focused on the carnage
that America inflicted during what was referred to as the "Secret
War"and the ramifications still being felt. The North Vietnamese
Army traveled through Laos on the Ho Chi Minh trail during
the War. Along with the normal big bombs that we dropped,
we also used these little balls of destruction called cluster bombs.
They are the size of a tennis ball and they don't necessarily
explode when dropped from a plane. Instead, cluster bombs sit
on the ground and wait for someone to step on it or hit it with a
plow, or for a little child to pick up what he thinks is a ball and
throw it to friend. Even in 2019, almost 50 years after the war
ended, hundreds of people each year are being maimed by these
things. You can't help but wonder how these people don't hate
us. They never posed a threat to us. In fact, the mountain people
of Laos helped our soldiers and pilots immensely. We had bases
there. In the end, we abandoned them, except for leaving our
little bombs as the gifts that keep on giving.

In Vientiane our group broke up into smaller groups to have a
dinner with a local family. Our group helped the family prepare
the meal, all the while talking about what life is like for a middle
class family in the major city in Laos.
We went from Laos to Cambodia, with our first stop
being the capital, Phnom Penh. Here again, the effects of the
American invasion were all too vivid. It was in Cambodia that
the war led to the revolution by the Khmer Rouge and one of the
worst genocides in modern history. One-third of the country's 8
million people were murdered by these maniacs. We visited the
Berks Barrister Summer 2019

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