Word: laos
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Privately, the British do not dispute the desirability of having a totally anti-Communist government in Laos, but they seriously question whether such a government can muster the energy and determination to eliminate the Pathet Lao...
Defeated in Vientiane, the pro-Communist battalion led by Paratroop Captain Kong Le simply retreated 50 miles north into the mountain wilds, picking up support from the Russian-backed Pathet Lao guerrillas along the way. Last week plainly marked Russian Hyushin-14 planes swooped daily over Kong Le's stronghold to drop supplies from neighboring Communist North Viet...
...were plainly designed to alarm the U.S.'s allies, and they succeeded. Both British and French were frankly appalled at the spectacle of the U.S. and Russia shaping up toward another "war by deputy" on the Korean model. The British argued for a cease-fire and a neutralist Laos with a coalition government that would include the pro-Communist Pathet Lao. They even sent a note to Nikita Khrushchev to propose revival of the international control commission (India, Poland, Canada) that was set up to patrol Laos at the end of the Indo-China war. Khrushchev piously declared...
Vital Stake. Seldom had the winds of war blown about such artless heads. But the danger was nonetheless clear and present. Six years of Pathet Lao insurrection had kept the countryside in turmoil, and had thus made Laos a corridor through which North Viet Nam moved men and supplies to support its guerrillas operating in South Viet Nam. This was a stake that the Communists were not prepared to lose. The Russian news agency Tass warned darkly that U.S. "intervention" could lead to "a second Korea." With the Russians supplying one side and the U.S. the other, the possibility...
Over stout objections from the British and French that the only feasible course for apathetic Laos was Kong Le-style neutralism, the U.S. had pushed for and helped secure the victory for General Phoumi. But once ensconced in Vientiane, Phoumi (who is a second cousin and staunch admirer of pro-Western Strongman Sarit Thanarat in neighboring Thailand) showed no more zeal than any of his predecessors for running the Communists to ground. Though he is described as a "strongman," was he strong enough, or determined enough, to battle the Pathet Lao into submission and enforce peace? It seemed doubtful. Perhaps...