VIETNAM AFTERMATH

Hillary Clinton Visits Laos

First secretary of state to go there in 57 years.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a stop in Laos Wednesday while traveling through Asia, and was faced with several reminders of the Vietnam War. Her visit was the first by an American secretary of state in 57 years. Clinton was met with evidence of the U.S. military’s lasting effect on the small country at an artificial limb center, where patients are still suffering from the war’s aftermath. One 19-year-old at the center lost his eyesight and his forearms when a dormant bomb that was dropped by the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War exploded three years ago. Clinton also met with members of Laos’s government, which is run by the Communist Party and now a close ally of China’s.