Word: burma
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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They were the remnant of a remnant, holdouts in a battle that both their own nation and their enemies had long since considered over. But for eleven years, thousands of Nationalist Chinese soldiers maintained themselves in the mountainous corner where China, Burma, Laos and Thailand meet, and defied all efforts to dislodge them. When attacked by the Red Chinese, they slipped across the border to sanctuary in Burma. When Burmese troops tried to flush them out, they retreated to China. But last week their luck...
Their odyssey began back in 1949, when crusty old General Li Mi, retreating as the Red Chinese armies advanced into Yunnan province, led some 10,000 of his men across the border to safety in Burma. General Li soon arranged to have supplies (often U.S.-made) flown in from Formosa, launched harassing raids on the Red Chinese across the border. Unfortunately, his troops were equally willing to take on the Burmese, who complained to the U.N. Under pressure, the Nationalist government suspended its aid, and in 1953-54 General Li and some 7,000 guerrillas were flown out to safety...
...processing opium in homemade stills set up in the bush. Occasionally they slipped across the Red Chinese frontier to pillage border villages. The bandits' activities were a troublesome irritant to the Burmese government, which feared that the rebels' raids might provoke Red China into moving into Burma against them in force. Said one Burmese army officer: "We simply have to get rid of those guys...
...even the birds would find it hard to survive." Worried Hong Kong Chinese are shipping more than 100,000 lbs. of food daily to relatives on the mainland. Peking is urgently seeking freight space to import 330,000 tons of wheat from Australia, 350,000 tons of rice from Burma and 120,000 tons of barley from Canada...
...Burma was reportedly offered more than the $85 million, but kept the size of the loan within limits, largely because U Nu could not be certain that Peking would deliver even what was promised. Aid is made contingent upon "the capabilities of the government of the People's Republic of China." If the Communists' promises cannot be fulfilled, the agreement "may be extended by mutual consultation...