Word: laotians
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...military thinking, the invading Viet Minh Communists "had to pass through" the Plaine des Jarres on their way to conquer Laos. There last week, in a two-mile perimeter around an airstrip, the French were hastily improvising a defense system of barbed wire and entrenchments. Soon Legionnaires and loyal Laotian troops were as securely trussed-up in their "hedgehog" as the ancient Laotians in their old stone jars...
...dead or defected. At week's end the Communists had flowed around the Plaine des Janes, after giving it a blast of mortar fire, and were pouring past it westward. As the three columns began to converge, it became clear that Giap's objective was the ancient Laotian capital of Luang Prabang, seat of King...
...Mekong. Half its people are Thais, living in the lowland valleys; the other half are primitive Khas and Meos. Huge, smiling statues of Buddha dot the landscape, and saffron-robed Buddhist monks are everywhere. Wearing scarlet jackets, gold and silver beads and bracelets and flowers in their hair, the Laotian women are graceful and attractive and given to music, dancing and proverbs. At nightlong parties, they dance the Lap Ton to a harmonious, high-pitched, 17-hole flute called the Ken. It is said that French officers, after a tour of duty in Laos, remain forever afterward vaguely inattentive...
...them with troops and flew them into the Plaine des Jarres at the rate of 50 aircraft a day. At Saigon, soldier clerks and interpreters were sent off to fight in Laos. At week's end there was a strong force of Foreign Legion battalions reinforcing the slim Laotian army. But Communist Giap had chosen his time well: within a few weeks the rainy season begins in Laos, and all but two of its 20 airstrips become unusable. This was why he had waited so patiently at the border, while the French-listening to the peace noises...
...King Sisavang Vong appealed to the U.N. to recognize the invasion of Laos as an act of external aggression, rather than as another phase of the Indo-China war, as the French prefer to regard it. His aim: to head off establishment by Giap of a Communist "Free Laotian Government" headed by Prince Souphranouvong, a distant relative. Meanwhile, the old King complained of rheumatism, and thought he might pay a visit to Paris. It would be a long time before the water was high enough for the fish to eat the ants...