It seems to me that if the North Vietnamese wanted to reveal bombing in Laos and Cambodia, it would have been as simple as filming planes on bombing runs. Did they have a reason for not revealing it? Why was it secret in the first place?
Rob
They were “secret” only in the sense that the US government didn’t acknowledge they were happening (for a while). They were widely commented upon in the secondary press, such as underground newspapers, and once in a while in the major media.
Given the remote locations and the difficulty getting media people in and out safely, only the slimmest accounts could be given. So no comprehensive coverage was available like complete list of every spot bombed.
Yup - they were no secret at all.
A bit like extraordinary rendition now.
There was a Doonesbury strip about it in the '70s, with a Cambodian farmer saying something like “Secret? There was nothing secret about it! I remember turning to my wife and saying, ‘Look, ma, here come the bombs!’” To which the wife adds “It’s true, he did.”
That cartoon was the first thing that popped into my head when I read the title. The farmer’s name was Phred.
The pharse, “Secret bombing,” was probably an invention of the media. Sounds more sinister that way, don’t you know.