President Barack Obama on Monday became the first sitting US President to step foot in the isolated South-East Asian nation of laos, opening a three-day visit meant to rebuild trust and close a dark chapter in the shared history between the two countries.
Obama exited the main door of Air Force One, clutching a black umbrella in the evening rain in Vientiane, the capital, before the motorcade whisked him away.
Obama is one of several world leaders coming to the country of nearly 7 million people, where the one-party communist state tightly controls public expression.