05/31/2026
Hi all, it's Vilay here.
**Quick update: the Nam Wan benefit donuts have been such a hit! Thank you all! The month is not yet over, and we will continue to have the Nam Wan donuts tomorrow and probably next week, while supplies last. Shout out to mom & dad for covering the shop with Nicholas while I recover from my knee subluxation 😭🙏🏽**
I've spoken openly about my family's refugee history, but what I haven't spoken about as widely is the reason they fled how that relates to donuts. Spoiler alert: they didn't just fall into donuts AND this will answer the 2nd most frequent question we get: "why do your donuts taste different from others?"
I'll be posting a 2 part series about how all that connects. For the algorithm (and for the sake of your eyeballs), I'll keep these summaries relatively high level. However, sources, articles, and videos will be posted at the end or in the comments for those that want a deeper dive.
💔 TW: last 2 photos are of child UXO victims.
Pt. 1 Understanding the Legacies of War: the American Secret War in Laos
An Essay from Vilay
Growing up, my bedtime stories included both the whimsy of Dr. Zeus and Winnie the Pooh, and real-life stories of escape and hope. For this, I am grateful. Lao people have a rich history of oral story telling and perhaps this is why I’m such a yapper. It’s in my blood!
Both sides of my family escaped Laos at different times. My dad in the mid 60s when he was 6, and my mom in the mid 80s when she was 13. The details of both stories are as harrowing as they are heartbreaking. And realistically, too long to post here.
To keep it brief, I’ll say this: the human spirit is a powerful, resilient force. At our base, we all want a life that is safe for ourselves and the people we love. All else on top is cherry. That being said, I can only imagine the desperation and sheer direness a situation must be for someone to look into the faces of their young children and make the decision to risk death for the *hope* of basic safety.
Knowing my family, one wouldn’t suspect the literal crimes against humanity they’ve witnessed. The gnawing pain of starvation. The terrorizing sound of bullets as they rip through bamboo walls. The feeling of bombs underfoot and their shrapnel turning people red and still. The term “running for your life” has never just been a turn of phrase for them as it has for me. This is my privilege and something intrinsically woven into my personhood. This is why we want to give back and give forward.
Laos remains the most heavily-bombed country per-capita in the history of the world. Between 1964-1973, in an effort to destroy the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the US bombed Laos into oblivion. They called it Operation Barrel Roll. More than 250 million cluster bombs were dropped by American B-52s over 580,000 bombing missions. That's 1 ton of bombs per person living in Laos at the time. It’s also more than all the bombs used in WWII combined.
The bombing averaged out to a pay load every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day, for 9 years.
Each one of the cluster bombs contained 670 tennis ball-sized submunitions aka "bombies". They were built to split in the air, explode on impact, and send shrapnel as wide as 5 football fields. Over 30% did not explode and these are referred to as “UXOs” (unexploded ordinances). There are still tens of millions of bombies in Laos to this day.
On the shakey heels of its own civil war, Laos was officially neutral as signed in two separate Geneva conferences . However, it was used as a covert combat theater in the proxy war between Cold War superpowers. Many Americans didn’t know it at the time, but after instigation from the CIA, Laos became a battlefield. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just active combat and indiscriminate bombing that threatened Lao people, it was also the things that follow war: famine, pillaging, beatings, executions, and things I can’t write without violating Meta’s terms & agreements.
There’s no accurate count, but an estimated 200,000 people were killed during the war, and over 750,000 people, or about a quarter of the country’s population, became refugees during the conflict.
In the 50 years after the war has ended, over 20,000 have been killed and 30,000 have been injured. What is extra nefarious is that because of their size, many children think they’re toy balls. Heartbreakingly, about 75% of these UXO victims have been children.
We feel so grateful for your support of our Nam Wan benefit donuts and generous tips. Proceeds and tips will be donated to helping remove these UXOs, advocacy, and education surrounding them. Our collective hope is to help save lives from this devastating and indiscriminate legacy.
While our family’s origin story may be different than many here in the Valley, it’s not uncommon. We are not “other” and we are not special. We are American, and this is just one family’s story in a sea of countless others. I share this in honor of AAPI month, to bring awareness, and to highlight the richness that comes from various cultures, perspectives, and lived experiences.
A huge thank you to you, our loving Community, for reading, for listening, and for supporting us. Thank you to the kind, the curious, and the compassionate. We all have stories to tell.
Credits, references, and sources:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/21/us-secret-war-remembered-as-secretary-of-defense-lloyd-austin-visits-laos
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/11/21/us-bombs-continue-to-kill-in-laos-50-years-after-vietnam-war
https://www.npr.org/2023/07/11/1186949348/us-cluster-munitions-civilian-casualties-laos
https://unicornriot.ninja/2026/the-american-war-in-laos-still-claiming-victims-50-years-later/
https://www.history.com/articles/laos-most-bombed-country-vietnam-war
https://mag-us.org/whats-happening/celebrating-25-years-working-laos/
Some photos taken from: https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/us-cluster-bombs-still-killing-in-laos/6/
