Word: pathetically
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
What ever became of the chaos in Laos? Last year at this time the pro-Communist Pathet Lao were strutting lumpily across the Plain of Jars in their dun-colored uniforms, proudly triumphant over the "neutralist" forces of General Kong Le and threatening to overrun the entire country. To be sure, the Pathet Lao are still there-and stronger than ever. According to U.S. officials, the Laotian Reds have been bolstered by 10,000 North Vietnamese troops. But with the monsoon already hampering military operations, they have failed for the first time since 1960 to mount a spring offensive...
Rice & Rifles. The main reason is U.S. escalation of the war in neighboring Viet Nam. U.S. jets, striking out of Thailand, Danang and the Gulf of Tonkin at supply routes from the north, have kept the Pathet Lao pinned down. Since North Viet Nam considers Laos a sideshow anyhow, the Laotian Communists recently have had short shrift in supplies from Hanoi...
Good Haul. The other U.S. pilots were picked up in equally daring operations. An Air Force helicopter based at Nakhon Phanom in northeast Thailand zipped over to Tchepone, a Laotian town overrun by Pathet Lao and Viet Minh regulars, picked up the pilot of a downed U.S. Thunderchief from the jungle. In a night operation inside North Viet Nam, another hovering helicopter used electronic strobe lights and flares to find a U.S. pilot in the jungle and rescue...
...Laotian army, such as it is, is divided into three parts: 1) neutralists, under General Kong Le, 2) Communist Pathet Lao, under Red Prince Souphanouvong, and 3) rightists, whose nominal leader has been General Phoumi Nosavan. Last week, like self-dividing amoebae, the right-wing troops split into warring factions...
...victories against the Viet Cong in four widely separated provinces. More attention, however, was being drawn by a worrisome development to the north. In the past month, despite U.S. air harassment, some 5,000 Communist troops have quietly massed around the southern Laotian town of Tchepone. About half are Pathet Lao from Laos. Even more unsettling, the rest are from North Viet...