Word: mekong
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Five hundred U.S. Marines unpacked their gear at Udon in northeastern Thailand, just 45 miles southwest of Vientiane across the Mekong River. They were equipped with 16 helicopters, ready to help fly men and supplies to the fighting front when and if they were ordered into action. In the Laotian capital of Vientiane, the only four helicopters on duty were pocked with bullet holes, and their U.S. civilian pilots, flying under contract to the Laotian government, were badly overworked. Said one, who had spent weeks darting through thunderstorms and skirting mountain peaks and groundfire from the Communist Pathet...
...held portions of Laos with ease. In case of battle, U.S. combat troops would probably not be the first to go into action in Laos. Instead, U.S.-manned helicopters and transports would drop guerrilla forces of Thais, Pakistanis and Filipinos into the fighting sectors while U.S. troops occupied the Mekong River valley towns from Savannakhet through Paksane and Vientiane, up to Luangprabang; this would provide strong defense for the towns while freeing 12,000 Laotian soldiers for action. Meanwhile. U.S. guerrillas would move in and beef up training of the native groups...
...last week Laos' torpid, dusty administrative capital of Vientiane swarmed with crowds-but not in panic. Along the banks of the slow-moving Mekong River there were foot races, boxing and wrestling matches. At night the temple courtyards were filled with slim girls dancing to haunting flute music. A torchlight parade wound through the city, and everyone agreed that the most magnificent floats were those of the Royal Laotian Army...
Peasants & Politicians. Virtually all of northern Laos that remained under government control was the Mekong River valley-and that was fast going. General Phoumi Nosavan and most of the members of Premier Boun Oum's Cabinet flew their wives and children downriver to the relative safety of Phoumi's southern headquarters in Savannakhet. Chinese merchants and those Laotians who could afford it sent their families across the Mekong into Thailand. In the villages surrounding Vientiane, peasants resignedly dug foxholes. Said one: "This war is not our business." The one thing the peasants clearly wanted...
...Vatthana, a rather puritanical fellow, found himself at sharp odds with his father. King Sisavang Vong, who considered polygamy a foundation stone of the Laotian way of life. Once a year it was his father's royal pleasure to take a leisurely 40-day boat ride down the Mekong to Vientiane, picking and choosing from the new crop of maidens in the villages as he passed. The palace swarmed with royalty who were all half or full brothers and sisters of the future King...