Word: royale
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...veteran of jungle battles against the French, Chinese, North Viet Nam Reds, and the home-grown Communists of the Pathet Lao, was ordered to solve by force a problem that had not yielded to nearly two years of diplomacy. His task: to integrate into the 25,000 man Royal Laotian army two Communist battalions...
...battalions don't respect the agreement, I no longer consider them friends." To the Laotian government and the army, integration meant that the Communist troops would be parceled out in small numbers among the other troops; to the Red commanders, it meant that their battalions would be made royal but remain intact, always ready for action against the government...
Neither side would budge. One Red battalion was encamped in a small valley called Xieng Ngeun, twelve miles from the ancient capital city of Luang Prabang, and the only exit from the valley was guarded by two Royal Laotian battalions and a detachment of paratroopers. The other was stationed on the wide Plaine des Jarres in north Laos, surrounded by four heavily armed loyal battalions. The Royal Laos handed ultimatums to the Reds, giving them the choice of surrendering their arms and being integrated, or being wiped out; food supplies were cut off. At Xieng Ngeun, his hungry...
...paratroops dropped to block the four escape routes to the North Viet Nam border, where Communist Ho Chi Minh was eager to welcome his fleeing comrades from Laos. The stumbling flight of the Reds was halted by armed peasants loyal to the government, who fired on them. The pursuing royal troops closed in, and General Ouane demanded surrender by dawn...
...cultivated land is largely tied up in latifundios, the big farms that have dominated Latin American agriculture ever since the time of Conquistador Hernan Cortes, who got a royal grant of 100,000 Indians and 25,000 square miles of farmland in 1529. In Venezuela, 3% of the land holders own 90% of the land; in Chile, 2% own 52%; just 2% of the people own half of Brazil...