Word: lao
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VIENTIANE, LAOS (DNSI)-When asked about the bombing a Pathet Lao defector, a former lieutenant, said: "We would move through the forest, in small groups. We had our own methods to hide. But the people had to stay near the villages. For every soldier who was killed, 50 villagers died from the bombing. I never had a man in my company killed or even injured from the bombing...
...comment underscores the essential dilemma of American air power in Laos: though it does extensive damage to the Pathet Lao civilian infrastructure, it is relatively ineffective against military targets...
...directed Armee Clandestine has taken high losses, and according to informed sources is no longer capable of carrying out a sustained offensive. The Royal Lao Army, assigned to static defense of major towns and bases, has found its area of control shrinking steadily...
...this writing the Royal Lao Government controls little more than from ten to twenty per cent of Laos' territory. This consists primarily of small islands of territory around the 12 (of 16) provincial capitals still in RLG hands. Most of the area is supplied by air, and no more than a few hundred miles of roads are considered safe for travel by American or Lao civilian officials. The Pathet Lao control about 60 per cent of Laos. The remainder is a no man's land where small roving bands of communist guerrillas forestall permanent RLG presence...
...military ineffectiveness of air power was illustrated by the well-publicized battle of the Plain of Jars in February 1970. Despite some of the heaviest bombing to date, including the first use of B52s in northern Laos, communist forces retook the Plain in five days. In May 1964, before the beginning of the air war, the Pathet Lao took the Plain in three days...