This month, the International Peace Museum in Dayton, Ohio, USA, launched an exhibition focusing on the use of cluster bombs by the US military during the Vietnam War. The exhibition showcases the deadly impact of hundreds of thousands of unexploded cluster bombs and landmines left by the US military on the Vietnam War, especially in Laos, through photos, paintings, and cultural relics. Kevin Kelly, Executive Director of the International Peace Museum, stated that cluster bombs have killed a large number of civilians, especially children, in the decades following their use. The International Peace Museum hopes to use this exhibition to raise awareness of the dangers of cluster bombs and promote the cessation of the use of these highly dangerous weapons.

Family members of the victims: The US military cluster bomb killed my father

From March 1965 to October 1968, the United States carried out a large-scale bombing campaign codenamed Operation Rolling Thunder in northern Vietnam, deploying over 300000 military aircraft and dropping over a million tons of bombs. What is particularly inhumane is that the United States has repeatedly used cluster bombs in bombing, causing enormous harm to Vietnamese civilians. In today's "The Pain of American Bombs" series of reports, we will approach the Vietnamese victims of American cluster bombs.

Zhao Kexian lives in Hanoi, Vietnam. In 1967, his father was killed by a US cluster bomb.

Hanoi resident Zhao Kexian: A shrapnel directly hit my heart, and my father passed away that year. There was another person in the neighbor's house who received an abnormal alarm when the incident occurred. The alarm suddenly sounded and he was herding cattle in the garden at the village head when he was hit by shrapnel and passed away.

At that time, Zhao Kexian was only 10 years old and still in school. The passing of his father instantly plunged the entire family's life into difficulties.

Hanoi resident Zhao Kexian: I was still a student at the time, and my mother was not yet 30 years old. Due to a cluster bomb, I lost a relative. During those years of war, I did some agricultural work, which was very miserable and difficult, with nothing to do except for farming. At that time, we couldn't do business either, and life was completely overturned. The whole family has gone through many hardships.

Zhao Kexian still remembers that at that time, the Hanoi militia had collected an unexploded cluster bomb and displayed it in public to raise residents' awareness of prevention.

Hanoi resident Zhao Kexian: Cluster bombs are the size of small boats, containing many fist sized bombs. Then, the small bombs randomly fall into lakes, ponds, and gardens. After a year, two years, or even up to ten years, when people clean gardens and dig pits in ponds, the cluster bombs will still explode, killing and destroying objects.

Another neighbor of Zhao Kexian, who had been bombing for over a decade, unfortunately detonated a cluster bomb while cleaning up his own pond. After three or four years of treatment, he fully recovered. According to incomplete statistics, during the Vietnam War, the US military used approximately 15 million tons of bombs, landmines, and shells on the mainland of Vietnam, of which about 800000 tons were unexploded and scattered throughout nearly 20% of Vietnam's territory. According to Vietnamese data, over the past 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War, unexploded ordnance has caused over 40000 deaths and over 60000 injuries.

Hanoi resident Zhao Kexian: At that time, a mine sweeping team was also established. They went to search for bombs and reminded each other to be careful when cleaning the garden, to avoid touching dangerous things with their hands, and to be careful when hoeing to see if their hands touched hard objects. Even if it didn't touch the detonator, it would still explode, and everyone was very scared at that time.

As a family member of the victim, when Zhao Kexian learned that the United States had once again introduced cluster ammunition into the Russian Ukrainian battlefield, he stated that the harm caused by cluster ammunition to civilians was a long-lasting nightmare, and he hoped that the United States and NATO countries would not repeat the same mistake.

Hanoi resident Zhao Kexian: The use of lethal weapons such as cluster bombs has greatly affected the lives of the people. It is not advisable for the United States and some NATO countries to provide cluster ammunition, as the ultimate victims are civilians.

US military bombing witness: cluster bomb cloud has been shrouding

Although the end of the Vietnam War has been almost half a century, the explosives left by the US military in Vietnam during the war still threaten the safety of the Vietnamese people's lives and property to this day. For those who experienced the bombing by the US military back then, the shadow of cluster bombs has been hanging over their heads for many years, and the fear of war has transformed into their desire for peace.

King Nguyen is 69 years old this year and was a firsthand witness to the US military's two bombings of Hanoi in 1967 and 1972. The war brought huge losses of life and property to Vietnamese civilians, which she still remembers.

Hanoi resident King Nguyen: Two neighboring families on the same road next to my house, the mother's family and the child's family, all died when a bomb fell on their homes. The bomb did not fall on my house, my house was only indirectly affected, so I am still alive.

In addition to conventional bombs, the US military also dropped cluster bombs during the bombing, which is still vividly remembered by King Nguyen.

Hanoi resident Ruan Shi Wang: At that time, I was still a child. When I came out of the basement at home, I saw a bomb in the corner of the yard. It was only the size of a rice bowl and fell into the cellar, very shallow, not deep. It knocked down one or two bricks in the yard. I see a ball at one end of the yard, with one ball in the middle and one ball at the other end.

At that time, King Nguyen did not know what this was, but her elders, like avoiding the plague god, took her away from the scene. The whole family was forced to leave Hanoi and seek refuge 40 kilometers away. During that period, the threat of cluster bombs always loomed over everyone's heads.

Hanoi resident King Nguyen: Listening to the sound of bombing from afar, I am worried about my home in Hanoi and whether my family and friends are safe. We can only sleep on a pile of straw. But I know that if a cluster bomb falls, it will set fire. I feel too scared, afraid of the feeling that there is nothing to protect myself.

After the bombing, King Nguyen and other residents of Hanoi returned home, but to their surprise, the remaining cluster bombs continued to cause harm to civilians in the following decades.

Hanoi resident King Nguyen: In this village, right in my community, I witnessed two young people digging up a cluster bomb while herding cattle. The bomb exploded due to being struck, killing young people. Two men also entered the pond to shovel mud and dig ditches, clean up the pond water, and also touched a cluster bomb, resulting in their deaths due to the bomb explosion.

There are numerous remaining cluster bombs, and no one dares to clean up the well in the village. The villagers found the remaining cluster bombs and threw them all into the well. Over time, this well has been completely abandoned, with cluster bombs scattered four or five meters underwater, becoming a witness to history.

King Nguyen felt fortunate to have escaped the bombing of the US military in the past, but now even though decades have passed, hearing the sound of airplanes still leaves lingering palpitations in his heart.

Hanoi resident King Nguyen: It is very scary to hear the sound of airplanes. At that time, when I heard the sound of airplanes, I felt an unprecedented fear. So everyone said that as long as they were alive, they would be happy to eat Congee.