Word: lao
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This American is not ugly; he alone takes the trouble to learn the Lao language and culture, to discard his racist and culturally biased preconceptions and expectations. The work he does is very often merciful and humanitarian, although in Laos he does not function in an emergency comparable to India's or Pakistan...
However, this American is usually an unwitting tool of America's colonial goals, of its official modernization effort. He goes about his work with no conception of its implications for Lao nationalism. Even when he has no part of it, he cannot undo the damage done by the American war effort nor can he even rectify the image of the American oppressor. And what if he could? He only serves to divert the enthusiasm of the people from their only realistic source of security...
...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...