Chemical Weapons & "Yellow Rain" in Laos
Mike High <mike.high@earthlink.net>
date Feb 16, 2007 10:50 PM
subject [Vsg] Re: Chemical Weapons & "Yellow Rain" in Laos
I was doing some reading on the "yellow rain" a few months ago. As best as
I can reconstruct, the stories from Laos (and Afghanistan) had been
circulating for a while when Haig accused the Soviet Union of sponsoring
chemical warfare in his speech in September 1981. In addition to these
reports, chemical analysis of the yellow residue also found mycotoxins that
were known & studied in Russia, but thought to be foreign to Southeast Asia.
Thus, there was some evidence for the charge; the question is whether it was
sufficient to support a public statement by the Secretary of State. (It is
indeed reminiscent of Secretary Powell's description of Iraqi WMDs, except
that Reagan turned out to be a bit skittish about actually fighting any wars
over his suspicions and preconceptions.)
Haig's accusation may also have been inspired by Sterling Seagrave's book
"Yellow Rain," which was about to be released. A New York Times review of
the book says: "On September 13, partly prompted by the imminent publication
of Mr. Seagrave's book, the United States for the first time flatly charged
Russia with using - or at the very least providing - poison gas in Southeast
Asia. The charges, contained in a speech delivered in Berlin by Secretary of
State Alexander Haig, were backed up in Washington the following day."
("Russian Chemistry," Thomas Powers, October, 1981.)
The evidence concerning the SRV's alleged use of chemical weapons in Laos
continues to receive attention. There's a good update on some of the issues
on this Web page from Jonathon Tucker of the Center for Nonproliferation
Studies:
http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/week/020805.htm
:: Mike High
Great Falls, VA, USA
>
> I would not agree that the charges of chemical weapon use againt Hmong in
> Laos were invented by the Reagan administration, since there were news
> reports in the late 1970s on this subject. Here are some articles written
> at that time:
>
> _Los Angeles Times_, April 7, 1978, "Tribal People Flee Laotian
> Attack, Cross Into Thailand," by George MacArthur, pages 14-15
>
> _San Francisco Chronicle_, Associated Press, June 23, 1978, "A
> Massacre of Meos Reported," page 20
>
> _Agence France Presse_, September 26, 1978, "Poison Gas Being
> Used Against Meo Rebels" by Joel Henry
>
> _The Times_, London, October 6, 1978, "Meos are Being Hounded Out
> of their Mountain Homes," by Neil Kelly
>
> _The Washington Post_, September 17, 1978, "The Allies We
> Abandoned in Laos are Still Fighting and Dying," by Ogden
> Williams
>
> _Asiaweek_, December 1, 1978, "Sowing Death on Phou Bia", pages
> 22-23
>
> _San Francisco Chronicle_, United Press, January 8, 1979, "Report
> of Poison Gas in Laos"
>
> _Chicago Tribune_, April 8, 1979, "Our Forgotten Allies in Laos
> being Massacred," by Ronald Yates, page 6
>
> _Los Angeles Times_, May 16, 1979, "Laotian Refugees Languish in
> Camp," by Peter Arnett
>
> _Chicago Tribune_, May 27, 1979, "Forgotten Guerrilla `Had Enough
> of War'" by Ronald Yates
>
> _Far Eastern Economic Review_, August 24, 1979, "Tracing a Gas
> Leak," by John McBeth, page 12
>
> _Newsweek_, August 27, 1979, "The End of the Hmong," by James
> Pringle, pages 34-35
>
> _The Economist_, September 1, 1979, "After the Boat People, the
> Hill People"
>
> _The Globe and Mail_, September 1, 1979, article by Victoria
> Butler
>
> - Steve Denney
>
> On Fri, 16 Feb 2007, frank.proschan@yahoo.com wrote:
>
>> There is no credible evidence of the supposed use of CBW
>> (chemical-biological warfare/weapons) against Hmong in Laos after 1975.
>> This was an accusation invented from whole cloth by the Reagan
>> administration to justify American resumption of CBW research. The
>> "best" evidence offered of this so-called "yellow rain" has been
>> convincingly refuted, as the pollen-laden excrement of swarming bees, by
>> Harvard's Michael Meselson, an expert on CBW and someone not at all
>> reluctant to point fingers were finger-pointing called for. Notably,
>> after the Soviet collapse, when Soviet archives were opened and
>> previously uncomfirmed incidents of CBW mishaps and industrial accidents
>> within the Soviet empire were revealed, no evidence came to light that
>> would give the slightest credence to the invented charges of Reagan and
>> Weinberger. Like the present administration's WMDs in Saddam-era Iraq, a
>> pure fabrication of the U.S. to justify its own military agenda.
>
> Frank Proschan
Andrew Wells-Dang <andrewwd@gmail.com>
date Feb 18, 2007 4:30 PM
subject Re: [Vsg] Re: Chemical Weapons & "Yellow Rain" in Laos
When I was working with the Fund for Reconciliation and Development I did some archival research on the use and controversies over Agent Orange in Laos and Cambodia (see http://www.ffrd.org/agentorange.htm , about halfway down the page) and that led me to the "yellow rain" question too--in particular, whether the chemicals that refugees from Laos reported seeing might have in fact been defoliants or other chemicals sprayed or dropped by the US prior to 1975, rather than by Communists afterwards. I recall finding some evidence to support this idea, though nothing definitive, and wrote a short essay on the subject which I probably still have lying around if anyone is interested.
As to the original "yellow rain" story, Frank Proschan is right that it was discredited by research that came out later in the 1980s. In addition to Meselson's articles, there is also a book entitled "Yellow Rain" by Grant Evans that takes a more sociological view of how the story spread. Despite this, versions of the story still show up (or did relatively recently) on some right-wing websites as well as anti-Lao Government groups who have not forgotten how they were treated after 1975.
Tai VanTa <taivanta@yahoo.com>
date Feb 22, 2007 11:49 PM
subject Re: [Vsg] Re: Chemical Weapons & "Yellow Rain" in Lao
Dear Group:
1) I have a long email letter in the first attachment for
the group, to discuss the article of Celine Marange on
Criminal Law Reform and other people's opinions on related
issues in the chain of email.
2/ and 3/ Next, I also have two papers as supporting
documents , attached to my email letter.
Please just read 1/ if you do not have time for 2/ and 3/
Thank you.
Tai Van Ta