Word: laos
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What ever became of the chaos in Laos? Last year at this time the pro-Communist Pathet Lao were strutting lumpily across the Plain of Jars in their dun-colored uniforms, proudly triumphant over the "neutralist" forces of General Kong Le and threatening to overrun the entire country. To be sure, the Pathet Lao are still there-and stronger than ever. According to U.S. officials, the Laotian Reds have been bolstered by 10,000 North Vietnamese troops. But with the monsoon already hampering military operations, they have failed for the first time since 1960 to mount a spring offensive...
Rice & Rifles. The main reason is U.S. escalation of the war in neighboring Viet Nam. U.S. jets, striking out of Thailand, Danang and the Gulf of Tonkin at supply routes from the north, have kept the Pathet Lao pinned down. Since North Viet Nam considers Laos a sideshow anyhow, the Laotian Communists recently have had short shrift in supplies from Hanoi...
What is more, the anti-Communist Laotian armies of Kong Le and rightist General Kouprasith Abhay have finally learned to fight effectively together. A joint operation not only cleared and held the northern sector of the Vien-tiane-Luangprabang road (see map) but has produced more than 300 Pathet Lao defectors as well...
Unlike their Viet Cong comrades in South Viet Nam, the Pathet Lao are a conventional fighting force equipped with trucks and armored cars that bog down in the monsoon mud. Moreover, the Laotian anti-Communists now have effective insurgent bands afield in Red territory. They consist mainly of 6,000 American-supplied Meo tribesmen, tough little primitives skilled in the savage techniques of ambush and night assault. Meo loyalty has been sealed by a U.S. airlift of rice ($6,500,000 worth this year alone), which feeds 160,000 tribesmen. Along with the kernels come rifles, grenades and ammunition...
...Souvanna, a current topic of conversation is the National Assembly elections scheduled for July 18. Under the constitution governing Laos' tripartite regime, the current Assembly mandate expired in April. In the coming elections, some 19,000 government officials, army officers, village headmen and merchants will choose Assembly candidates put up by the three parties. Then King Savang Vatthana will nominate 59 from that list to fill the new Assembly. The Pathet Lao are entitled to present their own candidates, but Red Prince Souphanouvong-the other Deputy Premier-has already denounced the process as illegal. Souphanouvong just might take...