You’ve heard of the Vietnam War, but what about the “secret war” in Laos? More than 16 million members of the largest generation fought in World War II, but what about the 5.8 million Americans who served in the “Forgotten War?” History is full of conflicts that have become footnotes in American history books – if they succeed. Here are five secret or forgotten wars that are generally overlooked.
WATCH: The Korean War: Fire and Ice
1. Philippine American War
American troops fire on insurgents in the Philippine jungle during the American-Philippine War, around 1899.
Captain JF Case / Hulton Archive / Getty Images
The United States responded by sending troops, and by the end of the war more than 4,000 American soldiers had died, ten times the number of Americans killed in the Spanish American War. Losses among residents were worse: 20,000 Filipino insurgents and an unknown number of civilians lost their lives in the struggle for independence.
2. The Korean War: “The Forgotten War”
As American infantrymen cross a line of refugees fleeing during the Korean War, around 1950.
Bettmann Archives / Getty Images
The Korean War (1950-1953) was the first military action of the Cold War, although it was often overshadowed by the Allied victory in World War II, earning it the nickname “Forgotten War” . It started when soldiers from the North Korean Communist People’s Army crossed the 38th parallel into the pro-West Republic of Korea (now South Korea). American troops were sent to support the South and by the time a ceasefire was proclaimed in 1953, more than five million soldiers and civilians had died. To date, no formal peace treaty has been signed.
Sheila Miyoshi Jager, professor of East Asian studies at Oberlin and author of Brothers at War: The Endless Conflict in Korea, writes: “Most stories of the Korean War end with the armistice; the fact that no peace treaty has ever been signed is presented in most history books as an unusual fact and that’s it. However, the lack of a final conclusion to the Korean War kept it alive as a major influence on Asian affairs. “
3. The “secret war” in Laos
Bomb craters from the Vietnam War are seen in Xiang Khwang province of Laos, photographed in 1991.
Gerhard Joren / LightRocket / Getty Images
Laos is the most bombed per capita country in the world. The American bombing of Laos (1964-1973) was part of a clandestine CIA attempt to wrest power from Pathet Lao, a communist group allied with North Vietnam and the Soviet Union during the Vietnam War. Laos was essential to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s domino theory to keep communism at bay, and Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon all intensified the bombing, which largely targeted the roads of ‘North Vietnamese supply along the Ho Chi Minh Trail which stretched from Vietnam to Cambodia and Laos.
As the invasion and bombing of Cambodia by the United States International protests, Laos’ secret war remains largely shrouded in secrecy, even if it marked the start of a more militarized CIA that would continue to wage proxy wars in Latin America and the Middle East.
4. Cambodian genocide
The aftermath of heavy bombing in Snuol, Cambodia, during the Cambodian Vietnam War campaign, photographed on May 11, 1970.
William Lovelace / Daily Express / Getty Images
The Cambodian genocide (1975-1979) killed more than two million people at the hands of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge – and was exacerbated by American bombing and the invasion of Cambodia. Vaddey Ratner, author of In the shadow of Banyan and Ghost music, and a survivor of the genocide, writes: “While the Khmer Rouge genocide is a tragedy perpetrated by the Cambodians, the American aerial bombardment campaign created the destruction and chaos that allowed the Khmer Rouge to take power. The bombing, which lasted eight years and has been kept secret from the American public for a long time, was, in the eyes of American officials, a “secondary spectacle” of the Vietnam War. ”
5. American Indian wars
Many elementary students in the United States are introduced to Native Americans as part of the first Thanksgiving. They do not reappear until they become side notes in lesson plans on Manifest Destiny and the American West – a story that often ends at Wounded Knee in 1890. The term “The American-Indian Wars” is a collection of multiple conflicts between various tribes and settlers spanning nearly three centuries of American history.
David Treuer, author of The heart rate of the injured knee, writes: “Rather than a sidebar of American history proper, Native American history IS American history. You cannot, for example, understand the American Revolution without considering that one of the main reasons for the revolt against Great Britain is whether the colonists or their British masters could have benefited from the westward expansion ; you cannot understand the tension between state rights and federal power unless you understand the withdrawal of the 5 civilized tribes of the American Southeast in the 1820s and 30s and how this opened the way for expansion of slavery … The natives have been, from the start, involved and involved in the construction of America. ”
