That's fair context, here is some more: In 2017, there were 14 recorded casualties from mines/unexploded remnants of war (ERW) in Vietnam, while in 2016 there

That's fair context, here is some more: In 2017, there were 14 recorded casualties from mines/unexploded remnants of war (ERW) in Vietnam, while in 2016 there were 1,943 in Afghanistan. However since 1975 there have been 105,073 casualties from mines/ERW in Vietnam, while there have been 29,662 casualties from mines/ERW in Afghanistan since 1978. http://www.the-monitor.org/en-gb/reports/2018/afghanistan/casualties.aspx http://www.the-monitor.org/en-gb/reports/2018/afghanistan/ca... http://www.the-monitor.org/en-gb/reports/2018/vietnam/casualties.aspx http://www.the-monitor.org/en-gb/reports/2018/vietnam/casual... The Soviet-Afghan War was started in 1979 when Alfa Group (the KGB's 'spetsnaz') dressed in Afghani uniforms stormed the Queens Palace in Kabul and murdered the Afghani president Hafizullah Amin. Amin had been in office only three months, and came to power by deposing and ordering the murder of his predecessor Nur Muhammad Taraki. Taraki was a communist and before his demise, had plead with the Soviets for military intervention. Before Taraki's demise he and Amin had worked together and together both are known for murdering thousands of civilians and political opponents. The Vietnam War was sold to the American public in 1964 after two separate attacks on USN ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. However in 2003 Robert McNarmara (who was the Secretary of Defense when this happened) publicly admitted the second attack had never happened. The American public was told there were two distinct attacks on two separate nights, but that wasn't true: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HODxnUrFX6k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HODxnUrFX6k I suppose my point is that both wars were huge unpopular clusterfucks that were started on false pretexts, that neither Afghanistan nor Vietnam were placid before foreign intervention, and that excessive mining caused staggering civilian casualties in both countries for many years after the war. Despite what all the above may suggest, I don't really like historic analogies or equivalencies. However given that the BLU-43 and PFM-1 are nearly identical mines, a comparison seems warranted. The mines in Afghanistan are an ongoing issue while in Vietnam it seems to have petered out, probably because it was that many years earlier. In this context the focus on Afghanistan instead of Vietnam is justifiable.