Word: pathetically
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...morass of mud during the rainy season, beginning in May. Communications facilities are virtually nonexistent, and jungle trails suffice for railroads. The patchwork of mountains and jungles makes tanks about as useful there as they would be atop Mount Everest; it is guerrilla country, and the shrewd Communist Pathet Lao fighters play it that...
Whether this activity will be enough to cut or stall the Communist offensive is something that General Weller and his chief, Admiral Felt, will have to ponder. Soviet supply lines bring 45 tons of materiel into the Pathet Lao armies every day: Gorky trucks, armored cars, assault rifles, carbines, light and heavy machine guns, 105 howitzers, long-barreled...
...themselves, hoped to forestall a more reckless Chinese intervention that might lead to a general war. Indian diplomats, who are concerned about the Chinese on their borders, liked this explanation, pointing out that Moscow has in fact been competing with Peking for the dominant position in North Viet Nam. Pathet Lao rebels in Laos are being supplied by planes from far-off Russia rather than nearby China...
From Khrushchev's point of view, what must appeal most about Laos is that he can test Western intentions there while remaining free at any time to call the Pathet Lao off and accept the U.S. offer of a neutral Laos. Even such a seeming Soviet retreat would hold strong prospects of future profit. By accepting the Western proposal for a 14-nation peace conference, which would include Red China. Moscow would win the opportunity to impress upon Peking that it was through Soviet efforts that China had won a place at the bargaining table...
...possibility of eventual Communist takeover in Laos would still exist, for under whatever political settlement the peace conference might work out, the Pathet Lao would almost surely win a voice in the Laotian government. Even a cease-fire by itself would leave the Communists in possession of much of northern Laos. And as everyone has learned since World War II, cease-fire lines nowadays have a way of turning into permanent borders...