Legacies of War

Agent Orange, used as an extremely potent herbicide by the U.S. military in Vietnam, continues to kill via cancers, Parkinsons, birth defects that cross generations. @legaciesofwar responsiblestatecraft.org/agent-orange/

Agent Orange carried a dioxin, a known human carcinogen and an endocrine disruptor, linked to cancers, reproductive disorders, and birth defects that can span generations. @SeraKoulabdara Susan Hammond @legaciesofwar responsiblestatecraft.org/agent-orange/

Please join @noclusterbombs @banminesusa on Dec 3rd. us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regist…

Agent Orange isn’t a horror of the past — it’s still killing. Over 50yrs later, its toxic legacy lives on in veterans, families, and whole communities. On this day of remembrance, justice means care, recognition, and real accountability: @SeraKoulabdara responsiblestatecraft.org/agent-orange/

Growing up with America’s Longest War By Danae Hendrickson, Chief of Mission Advancement & Communications, Legacies of War Four years ago, the #US. military completed its withdrawal from #Afghanistan on August 30, 2021, after a 20-year presence. It marked the end of America’s longest war. All I remember at the start was the constant replay on TV, footage looping from my confusion straight past my 4th grade teacher’s vague explanation. Quickly, alongside my memorised Bible verses and after-school chore list, came a flood of unfamiliar words and distant places: terrorist, #Taliban, #AlQaeda, Afghanistan. At nine years old, I filled in my lack of understanding with observations of how these new terms made people around me feel. Enter the bad guys: terrorists determined to take our freedom away. Enter the good guys: U.S. troops ready to risk their lives to protect it. I wish I could say my understanding of U.S. militarisation and foreign policy matured with me. It didn’t. Those early lessons, rooted in fear of Muslims and justification of war, lingered for years before they began to unravel. The so-called “War on Terror” felt like a completely different world to me: dusty desert footage, endless fighting, never progressing. Occasionally, it felt real, a classmate’s parent returning from deployment, greeted by parades and ceremony. But in the classroom, our conversations never went much deeper than “Support the troops.” We didn’t learn where Afghanistan was on a map, or that it had already endured decades of invasion before ours. We weren’t told that in the first week of the U.S. air campaign, Air Force B-1 bombers dropped fifty cluster munitions, containing more than 10,000 bomblets. Or that more than 47,000 Afghan civilians were killed over the course of the war, part of an estimated 400,000+ civilian deaths across U.S. post-9/11 conflicts in the region. Back then, the only humanizing stories I recall were about Americans tied to the 9/11 attacks. Afghans themselves were faceless, flattened into the image of “terrorist”: brown, tall, bearded, West Asian. It wasn’t until twelve years after 9/11 that I stumbled onto a hidden piece of my own family’s history: the American Secret War in Laos. My mother, a refugee, had fled during U.S. bombings and civil war. Learning this nearly 30 years into my life shattered what I thought I knew about America and its wars. If I, a Lao American, could grow up unaware of this history, what else had been erased? That search led me to the story of the Hmong people of Laos, recruited into CIA-sponsored Special Guerrilla Units (SGU) in the 1960s and 1970s. When the U.S. withdrew after the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, it left behind over 100,000 Hmong soldiers and civilians. Some 25% of Laos’s population became refugees; only 2,500 Hmong were evacuated by the U.S. The rest fled across the Mekong River, hid in jungles, or were killed. Today, about 260,000 Hmong live in the United States, yet many still face barriers to citizenship because the USA PATRIOT Act and Real ID Act branded SGU fighters as “terrorists.” Now, Hmong, Lao, and Cambodian refugees face deportation to countries they fled, forced to return to a homeland they either never knew or escaped in fear. A painful pattern emerged: the U.S. wages war, then abandons its allies, leaving behind generational devastation. In Afghanistan today, more than 1,100 square kilometers_ of land, the size of 205,000 American football fields, remain contaminated with landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO). In Laos, more than fifty years after the last bombs fell, tens of millions_ of unexploded cluster munitions still threaten lives and livelihoods. On Wednesday in Badghis province, northwestern Afghanistan, three children were injured after discovering UXO – mistaking it for a toy. Just days earlier in Maidan Wardak province, UXO killed one child and injured four others. According to The HALO Trust, the world’s largest landmine charity, one in five Afghans remain at risk of injury or death from landmines and explosives. Cluster bombs form one of the clearest parallels. In Laos, an estimated 270 million submunitions were dropped; estimated 80 million remain undetonated. During the “War on Terror”, U.S. forces again deployed cluster munitions in Afghanistan, despite widespread international condemnation. Civilian casualties, high failure rates, and long-term danger were not lessons learned but lessons repeated. Afghan farmers, like villagers in Laos before them, now inherit fields seeded with explosives instead of crops. Since 2013, The U.S. has been the largest humanitarian donor to Afghanistan. But, following the suspension of USAID to Afghanistan in 2025, that has changed. Over 400 health centres have shut down in Afghanistan - resulting in more than three million people losing their healthcare. A 90 day freeze on U.S. Foreign Aid paused life saving bomb clearance programs across Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Victims of explosive ordnance in Laos who depend on funding for urgent healthcare access were turned away after the dismantling of USAID and pause of State funding. We are living in an age where these failures to learn are no longer hidden, they are broadcast in real time. From Palestine to Congo to Ukraine, we see the same disregard for human lives outside U.S. borders. In my current role at Legacies of War, I’ve committed to breaking this cycle of forgetting. Through our Legacies Library, a digital hub of books, films, and resources, and through projects like the Fred Branfman and Bouangeun Luangpraseuth Timeline of the American Secret War in Laos, we work to unearth hidden histories and amplify survivor voices. Our goal is simple but urgent: to show how secrecy, silence, and erasure perpetuate endless war. We cannot afford to cling to a fourth-grade understanding of U.S. militarisation. To prevent future wars, we must reconnect with our own heritage and learn about our ancestor’s experiences with war, displacement, and search for home. There is no secret to peace. It begins with compassion and it requires us to learn from those who have borne the heaviest costs.

Please join us in congratulating @SeraKoulabdara —and stay tuned as she brings these powerful conversations from Capitol Hill to Kyoto and back again. @USJLP Read the official announcement: us-jf.org/en/news/usjlp-…

@minefreeworld @banclusterbombs @noclusterbombs

International treaties are not past relics of war–they are lifelines. Legacies of War calls on global leaders to safeguard the legacy of humanitarian norms, protect those still vulnerable, and prevent any further damage to continued clearance efforts. bit.ly/4e8kbGI

THIS MONDAY! Join @nguyen_p_quemai & @rcraigmcnamara in San Francisco for a timely talk: "Quế Mai: The Color of Peace in Vietnam 50 Years Later" Mon, Apr 21 / 5:30 PM PDT Tickets: commonwealthclub.org/events/2025-04… @legaciesofwar @VFPSF @PacificLinks

Thank you to our friends at Stars and Stripes for publishing Mike’s powerful words: stripes.com/opinion/2025-0…

Thank you to The Laotian Times for covering this important issue and Kane Vongsavanh, Founding Partner of Vong Law Group for sharing your expertise. Read full article here: laotiantimes.com/2025/03/20/lao…

Thank you to our incredible interns, Jonathan Lam and Gabriela Garlo, for their leadership on this powerful letter and inspiring 110+ signatures. There's still time to sign on. legaciesofwar.org/post/college-s…

"It is only a matter of time before desperate, untrained villagers attempt to handle the explosives on their own." TY @RStatecraft , Susan Hammond of War Legacies Project, and our very own KOUL-Mander in Chief @serakoulabdara for your leadership responsiblestatecraft.org/usaid/

Our friend, Dr. Olena Melnyk, along with our CEO, @SeraKoulabdara, brings greater awareness about the destructive impacts of war on people, our environment, food source, economic and overall development in Ukraine, Cambodia and other war impacted countries tinyurl.com/yr5mh2de

Thank you so much to our Emeritus Board Member, Heather Moore Atherton, for shedding light in this article featured in Stars and Stripes on how foreign aid funding is impacting families of Americans who are still missing from past wars. Read more at: stripes.com/opinion/2025-0…

Over 50 Global Mine Action Fellows wrote and signed this open letter to Honorable @marcorubio , Secretary of State. Thank you, young advocates, for expressing your concern and urging the U.S. to put an end to this funding freeze. Full Letter Here: legaciesofwar.org/post/mine-acti…

"The U.S. gov. may know more about the dreadful human toll caused by #ClusterMunitions than any other user nation," yet still insists on continuing to transfer them. "For the sake of humanity this must change." @legaciesofwar legaciesofwar.org/post/cluster-b…

It was such a thoughtful conversation. Thank you so much, Mike, for the opportunity to share our mission. Can't wait to watch this soon! @legaciesofwar @article_22 @eosuda

Just love working on Full Frame. I get to talk to amazing people like @SeraKoulabdara of @legaciesofwar