Word: mekong
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...skittering quicksilver. The soldiers began fighting each other. Pathet Lao guerrillas encircled Vientiane, the seat of Souvanna's government, under the guise of coming to negotiate; Souvanna's own Captain Kong Le marched out to oppose insurgent General Phoumi in the jungles along the great and languid Mekong River. And when Souvanna fancied that the U.S. was aiding Phoumi to his detriment, he himself applied for Russian aid. Phoumi's American-made 105-mm. howitzers resounded in the jungle and Russian Ilyushin-145 droned overhead bearing gasoline for Souvanna's forces...
...from Marshal Sarit, strongman of the neighboring kingdom of Thailand, whom he calls uncle (actually, he is a first cousin once removed). Vientiane gets all its fuel and most of its food from Thailand, and Sarit has in effect imposed a blockade simply by closing the border across the Mekong River from Vientiane...
With all their other troubles, Laotians last week watched rains raise the muddy Mekong River to near flood stage at their capital city of Vientiane. Resourcefully, U.S. Ambassador Winthrop Brown arranged for twelve planes from Bangkok to fly in 10,000 sandbags and fly out 200 American dependents. He thus was prepared for either flood or civil war-or both...
...time of partition; others are newly infiltrated guerrillas sent down from North Viet Nam through neighboring Laos or Cambodia, or put ashore from small fishing boats in the Gulf of Thailand. Their total strength is now estimated at 3,000 to 5,000 men, concentrated in the swampy Mekong Delta-"a diseased part of the body," one U.S. observer calls it. It is a secret, hushed war of stealth and secrecy, since the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem suppresses all news of new murders or incidents. The Reds' special targets have been civil officials, and in recent months...
...Royal Palace in Luangprabang in the fetal position, for the Buddhist monks say, "As we came into this world, so we shall leave it." The dead King is dressed in his most glittering robes and wears a gem-encrusted conical crown. His gaze is turned toward the wide, murmuring Mekong River where during his long life of 74 years he loved to watch canoe races and fireworks displays, often in the company of some of his 25 wives and 100 children...