The psalmist promises this Sunday that the time will come when “justice and peace shall kiss.” The people of Laos, a nation that suffered greatly when caught in the superpower crossfire of the Vietnam War, hope that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s visit this week—the first by a top U.S. official since 1955—signals a new era of peaceful cooperation.

The U.S., looking for closer ties with Laos, may need to ask for some “forgiveness of transgressions,” in the words of the second reading. The U.S. dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on this tiny and impoverished country between 1964 and 1973—about a ton of explosives for each Laotian man, woman, and child, and more bombs per capita than any population in history has had to endure.

Four decades later American weapons are still claiming lives. More than 20,000 people have been killed by unexploded ordnance in post-war Laos, according to its government, with many thousands more maimed, and contamination throughout the country is a major barrier to agricultural development.

Sources: Articles by USA TODAY and the Associated Press