Word: laotians
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...Salon Dore for nearly two hours of further talk. Principal topic: Laos and Southeast Asia. Both men agreed on the need for a certified ceasefire, expressed mutual hopes for a unified, neutralized Laos; but De Gaulle made it clear that no French troops would be committed to preserve Laotian freedom. At this conference, Kennedy shared equally in the conversation time, impressed De Gaulle with his sure knowledge of the subject matter (he used no notes), his occasional sharp turns of phrase. There was no glimmer of possible friction, and Kennedy told an aide later: "You know, we do seem...
...thousand," the moody prince then departed for a rest on the Riviera. Most of the other big names, including Dean Rusk and Andrei Gromyko, had got away even earlier, leaving the podium to Red China's Foreign Minister, Marshal Chen Yi. He warned that the agreed goal of Laotian neutrality applied only to "international" matters-Laos could not join military alliances, but within the country, Communist forces should be perfectly free to harass any government or take it over...
...retreats, the U.S. caved in and agreed to seat not one but two pro-Communist del egations, one from the Pathet Lao guerrillas and the other from ex-Premier Prince Souvanna Phouma (who stayed away, but sent his lissome, sari-clad daughter as a delegate). The pro-Western royal Laotian government, on hearing that it would be outnumbered, boycotted the conference-even though a British diplomat in Laos spent all day on a motor scooter trying to track down the Foreign Affairs Secretary and get him to change his mind...
Thus the conference began with no one speaking for the Laotian government the U.S. had come to defend, while two rebel delegations spoke against it. But the U.S. got little backing from its allies. The French viewed the whole episode through the bifocals of expiring colonialism. They seemed to see the problem of Laos not as any defense of freedom but as a handy lesson to America not to get involved in far-flung parts of the globe. They openly wanted Prince Souvanna back as Premier (as did the British), though he now seems hopelessly committed to the Communists. Souvanna...
...I.C.C.'s last sojourn in Laos lasted four years. Laotians were appalled at the cost-salaries, plus $7 per diem, plus free housing, for more than 100 men-which the Geneva signatories were supposed to meet but never did. resulting in a still unsettled international tangle. The I.C.C. commandeered the best quarters in Vientiane. Some of the Indian commissioners refused to bathe in anything but soda water, presumably on the ground that Laotian water was full of parasites. Headed from 1955-57, as now, by Samarendranath Sen, an urbane Indian career civil servant, the commission rarely investigated government charges...