16. Laotian and Vietnamese Militaries Against Laotian Civilians, 1975-1983: 6,504 Casualties
In what has come to be known as the Third Indochina War, an almost undocumented event that began in 1975 and continues to this day with sporadic uprisings, the Laotian and Vietnamese militaries unleashed tons of chemicals against citizens of Laos, part of the area once known as Indochina.
Many refugees, who fled to Thailand, claimed that chemical agents were used on civilian populations in an incident that came to be known as “yellow rain.” An investigation came up inconclusive but found that the Soviet Union, which was aiding the communist regimes of Laos and Vietnam, had probably not engaged in chemical warfare. However, the Vietnamese and Laotian militaries had been involved in at least 261 campaigns of the chemical war, which killed 6,504 people.
