Word: pathet
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Behind the Doors. Before the shooting stopped, the Administration held five National Security Council meetings in ten days. Newspaper headlines suggested that behind those closed doors last week the men of the New Frontier were debating about whether to send U.S. troops to Laos to halt the advancing Pathet Lao guerrillas. Said the Washington Post: KENNEDY, ADVISERS WEIGH INTERVENTION IN LAOS. In fact, nothing of the sort was happening: the NSC did not even consider U.S. military intervention in Laos as a serious alternative. In his inaugural address. President Kennedy had declared that the U.S. would "pay any price...
...Time. On cue from the U.S., pro-Western Premier Boun Oum of Laos eagerly accepted the ceasefire, and even set a day and time for the guns to fall silent. The rampaging Communist-led Pathet Lao agreed to the ceasefire, too, but meanwhile its troops keep right on fighting and advancing. At Vang Vieng, a military headquarters 65 miles north of the capital city of Vientiane, some 400 Pathet Lap launched a dawn attack and chased twice as many government troops 40 miles down the road toward the capital. Among the casualties: three members of a U.S. military mission intended...
...midweek, the U.S. State Department called in Russian Ambassador Mikhail Menshikov and declared that the U.S. viewed the continued fighting with "deep concern." The fighting went right on. Red Prince Souphanouvong, leader of the Pathet Lao, boasted: "Our troops and our people are in the position of a victor!" The tiniest Laotian village could read the future. At Ban Sai, barely eight miles from Vientiane, the local chief, who had been begging for U.S. aid to build a market road, last week turned down an offer of $1,000. "Go away and don't come back," he said...
Typically, the Royal Laotians in Vientiane were undisturbed by Communist victories. Without hindrance, the Pathet Lao set up a machine gun in a nearby village and opened fire on U.S. helicopters approaching the city airport. More excitement was caused by a new Greek stripteaser at a local cabaret and by the notice posted at the Lido nightclub: "Just arrived from Thailand-ten fresh, young girls with medical certificates...
...announced that it would be satisfied with a neutral Laos, unaligned with either bloc. But in letting its eagerness for a cease-fire show too plainly, the U.S. undermined what little morale the Royal Laotian Army had left, and the Russians seized the chance to stall negotiations while the Pathet Lao strengthened their grip until it has become a strangle hold...