Word: boun
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...past seven weeks, the major assignment of 29,000 wellarmed, pro-Western troops of the Royal Laotian Army has simply been to clear a 50-mile stretch of road. It runs from the administrative capital of Vientiane, where sits the U.S.-backed government of Premier Prince Boun Oum, to the royal capital of Luangprabang, where King Savang Vatthana lounges under a white parasol taking little interest...
...Communist rebels retreated east from the junction toward their major stronghold, the central Plaine des Jarres. But the royal soldiers were in no hurry either to move into the junction or follow the rebels east. Main reason: Prince Boun Oum and his government, composed of six relatives and numerous friends, had flown south to Paksé in the lush Mekong River valley to celebrate an annual two-day festival at the crumbling temple of Wat Phou. Prince Boun Oum offered flowers and personally supervised the lighting of fragrant sandalwood sticks...
...things, the advisability of returning exiled, neutralist Premier Souvanna Phouma to power. In Peking, Red Chinese Foreign Minister Marshal Chen Yi warned: "If the lawful Laotian government (i.e., the rebels) asked the Chinese government to give aid, I can assure you we would give it." In Paksé, Prince Boun Oum loaded worried Western diplomats on a caravan of elephants and took them on a leisurely tour of surrounding villages, where lithe maidens turned out with bowls of flowers at every stop...
...there was no sign of large-scale troop intervention-though Boun Oum's constantly inventive Information Minister claimed the capture of thousands of chopsticks, adding darkly that "Laotians don't use chopsticks." On their own, the Laotians were getting little fighting done. Rebel Captain Kong Le still sat astride the central Plaine des Jarres, on the receiving end of a steady Soviet airlift of supplies from North Viet Nam. He concentrated on training his five-battalion force, made up of paratroops, villagers and recruits from the army posts he has captured. He claimed to be only a "neutralist...
...Prince Boun Oum's U.S.-supplied army moved north on the road from Vientiane to take the village of Muong Kassy. But immediately after the battle, the battalion commander, Colonel Oudone Sananikone, flew back by helicopter to Vientiane for a civilized French dinner at the Settha Palace Hotel. Both sides seemed interested in saving their skins, and their bargaining points, until the rest of the world got them out of trouble. "We have been frightened long enough," said Minister Nhouy. "Let others worry...