Word: lao
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...United States is 18,000 miles away. It is probable that we are unable to win the war, and that the Lao generals will wish that they had followed the lead of the Pathet Lao's Souphanouvong, and chosen a protector closer to home, because defending an "outpost" 18,000 miles distant does not have the immediacy of defending one just across your borders...
Trapped in the Western cultural pattern, and inevitably racist, few Americans are ever able to develop the respect for the Lao-or Asian, for that matter-character and culture which is necessary for cooperation. The American yoke will never fit Laos as comfortably as the Chinese or Vietnamese...
...returning to Vientiane after a week in the royal capital of Luang Prabang, even four years ago constantly threatened by Pathet Lao guerrillas. If I am anxious to get back to Vientiane, where the main amusement is Walt Disney movies dubbed in Thai, rest assured that Luang Prabang must have been dead. It is the rainy season. The only way to get to Vientiane, since there are no passable roads, is to fly-in a DC-3. The only way to get to the airport is to cross the river-on a ferry, since there are no bridges in Laos...
Apparently not . . . I explain my concern to my Lao friends, who look at me rather blankly-politely-and at each other questionably. It gets closer and closer to the time when the plane is scheduled to leave. . . . Finally one of my friends realizes why I am upset, and explains...
...American style and the Lao style are so disparate that no American will believe that a Lao can be trusted to perform well. And as long as there are Americans around to "help out," to give the natives the benefit of their expertise, then Lao casualness will continue to be taken at face value, as a sign of hopeless incompetence...