Posted on Mar 23, 2018

U.S. plane shot down over Laos - Mar 23, 1961 - HISTORY.com

SP5 Mark Kuzinski

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One of the first American casualties in Southeast Asia, an intelligence-gathering plane en route from Laos to Saigon is shot down over the Plain of Jars in central Laos. The mission was flown in an attempt to determine the extent of the Soviet support being provided to the communist Pathet Lao guerrillas in Laos. The guerrillas had been waging a war against the Royal Lao government since 1959. In a television news conference, President John F. Kennedy warned of communist expansion in Laos and said that a cease-fire must precede the start of negotiations to establish a neutral and independent nation.

U.S. plane shot down over Laos - Mar 23, 1961 - HISTORY.com

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Posted 6 y ago

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CW5 John M.

Posted 6 y ago

And so begins the saga of one of the saddest "heroic lost causes" in the Twentieth Century. We may have meant well, and the military displayed it's mettle, but the planning and execution by a somewhat presumptive, smug, naïve, and apathetic nation led us to waste lives and resources to a "bitter end".

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LTC Ronald Stephens

6 y

The sad part is when you fight a war of containment as was Viet Nam, and Korea as well, you are fighting to maintain the status quo, not win the war. From my perspective we may be involved in another such war right now. With a son who appears to be making the Air Force a career and has survived one deployment to Afghanistan and may have more its a little unsettling to consider.

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