Word: samneua
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...tactics of psychological warfare were working fine last week among the primitive and superstitious northern tribesmen of Laos, in the provinces of Phongsaly and Samneua on the border of Communist North Viet Nam. It was these northern areas, occupied by the Communists until 1957, that the insurgents seemed most determined to conquer. Often, villages were occupied without a fight. In some, families packed hastily and paddled away in dugout canoes, leaving their villages half empty as the terrorists approached. Last week the banks of the Mekong at the royal capital of Luangpra-bang were dotted with bamboo huts built...
Grave Situation. "It's real war here in Samneua," reported Laos' commander in the north, French-trained, 39-year-old Brigadier General Amkha Soukhavong, to a TIME correspondent visiting the general's headquarters in the provincial capital of Samneua town, deep in a mountain valley not far from the fighting. "I've been losing men daily. My head is just about bursting. I've sent telegram after telegram to the Ministry of Defense explaining the gravity of this situation. I've not had any reply yet. I have asked Vientiane repeatedly...
General Amkha was not seeking more troops; as the French learned in 1954, orthodox methods of war do not work in the jungles of Samneua province where there are no roads and where the monsoon has turned the few tiny airstrips into quagmires. What he wants is money, medical supplies, food and weapons to give to villagers in the threatened countryside. "We must win people's hearts, arm them, organize them into guerrillas and send them after the Reds. We have a saying in our country: 'When the hand is pierced by a thorn, use a thorn...
Waiting for October. The tough Laotian army paratroops around Samneua are in good spirits, despite low pay and meager supplies; in recent weeks they have brought in 50 prisoners and killed 200 rebels in difficult jungle warfare. In general, however, Laos' 25,000-man army is poorly trained and must fight piecemeal over large parts of the country. New Communist attacks in four other Laotian provinces last week were obviously designed to spread the defenses even thinner. Some Laotian leaders concede that
...Samneua is doomed. If, as expected, the Communists launch a major new offensive in October's dry weather, they will probably conquer much of northern Laos...