Word: mekong
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...meeting with top U.S. aides in Bangkok, Admiral Harry D. Felt, commander of all U.S. forces in the Pacific, discussed contingency plans in the event that the Pathet Lao moves off the Plain of Jars into the Mekong River valley. The U.S. is not committed to put troops into Laos, and the military is not enthusiastic about the prospect of fighting there, for the lack of airfields, railroads and good roads would make it tough to sustain operations. But if the Pathet Lao showed an inclination to sweep all the way south, the U.S. forces in Thailand might well have...
...Reds, North Viet Nam's Ho Chi Minh trail (see map), the supply route which cuts through the Laotian thickets to Communist Viet Cong guerrillas in South Viet Nam, would open up, permitting the Reds to pour arms and men into that embattled land. Control of Laos' Mekong River valley would also give the Communists a highway for subversion of neighboring Cambodia and Thailand, which in turn would increase Red pressure on Burma and Malaya...
Tougher U.S. action could not be ruled out if the Communists showed signs of moving south from the Plaine des Jarres into the Mekong River valley itself. This would strengthen their supply routes to Communist guerrillas fighting in neighboring South Viet Nam, where the U.S. is deeply committed with both men and money. Though the State Department dreaded the thought of any further military involvement in Southeast Asia, officials made it clear that more troops might be brought into the area to safeguard Laotian neutrality...
When word of the murder reached the King's residence on the banks of the Mekong, it failed to dampen the merrymaking. The band played on, the ministers and their ladies continued to sip champagne. Shrugged one guest: "No one had it more coming to him and from more quarters than did Quinim Pholsena.'' Hardworking, dedicated and devious. Quinim lacked the customary Laotian charm and grew up consumed by bitterness and envy. Unlike most other Laotian politicians, he did not belong to a rich or princely family. He made a lot of money as a merchant...
...combat was beginning to tell on the U.S. chopper pilots. Heading back to base after 15 hours of continuous assaults against Red positions one night last week, a U.S. whirlybird suddenly toppled out of formation and, with its red flying lights carving crazy patterns in the darkness over the Mekong River, spun into the ground. When rescue workers reached the copter's twisted wreckage, they found the mangled bodies of seven U.S. crew members. With ten Americans already killed in 1963, one U.S. adviser remarked bitterly: "It looks like this is going to be a hell of a year...