Word: patheticness
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Since the Geneva accords of 1962 established its tripartite "neutrality," the landlocked, Lilliputian kingdom of Laos has teetered continually on the cliff-edge of chaos. Torn between the demands of the rightist Royal Laotian Army and the intransigent Communist Pathet Lao, which controls nearly half of the country, Neutralist Prince Souvanna Phouma maintains a facade of government simply because he is the only Premier acceptable to both the West and the Communist powers. Last week, when Laotians went to the polls to elect a new National Assembly in the first countrywide elections since 1960, foreign observers from a dozen capitals...
...people) has little of value to fight over. But it is strategically situated at the axis of six other nations with which it shares common borders: Red China, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, and North and South Viet Nam. Through the eastern half of Laos, controlled by the Pathet Lao, stretches the Ho Chi Minh trail, over which the North Vietnamese regularly infiltrate South Viet Nam. More than 75,000 North Vietnamese troops are now on Laotian soil, between 20,000 and 30,000 of them combat troops and the rest antiaircraft units, engineers and construction workers. North Vietnamese troops operating...
...also prefer the status quo to any upset that would enlarge the Southeast Asian war and perhaps bring U.S. troops into Laos. If Souvanna Phouma were to fall, both sides would find it extremely difficult to agree on a successor. An impasse might cause the Red bloc to recognize Pathet Lao Leader Prince Souphanouvong, Souvanna's half brother, as the ruler of Laos-thus almost certainly thrusting Laos directly into open...
Caught in a Vise. Souvanna Phouma did not have to fear the Communists in the elections: the Pathet Lao boycotted them. His strongest opposition came from the rightist south, where portly Prince Boun Oum-his predecessor as Premier until 1962-was attempting a comeback with the aid of southern army commanders and Deputy Premier Leuam Insisiengmay. Souvanna also faced trouble in the north, where Guerrilla Leader Vang Pao had picked his own candidates, afraid that the military rightists led by General Kouprasith Abhay, Souvanna's chief backer, would become too powerful and attempt to bring his anti-Communist...
With the confusion nearly total, the Communist Pathet Lao seized the opportunity to strike. Last week some 200 of the Red troops thrust into the strategic Mekong River town of Ban Lat Hane only 20 miles north of the royal capital of Luangprabang, routing the government forces defending it. Whether it was the opening of a fresh Pathet Lao offensive or merely a hunger strike, no one could say, but hunger undoubtedly played a part. With the rice crops off 35% because of the floods, the Communists will be forced this fall to probe deeper than usual into government territory...