Word: souvanna
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Laos situation is not yet out of hand. The danger is that even modest escalation has a momentum that could provoke a bigger war in Laos than either side wants. It is reasonable that the U.S. would want to keep Prince Souvanna Phouma's government propped up while trying to extricate itself from Viet Nam. But it is debatable whether increased air and ground offensives are necessary. Instead of heating up the war in Laos, Washington might well consider cooling it down. An obvious way would be to decrease air activity, but not below the level needed to preserve...
...oversee training of the Laotian army, and it had almost total control of all U.S. aid to Laos. The money, however, failed to shore up the Vientiane government. A new Geneva accord signed in 1962 called for the establishment of a tripartite government in Vientiane, with Prince Souvanna Phouma's neutralists holding the balance between General Phoumi Nosavan's right-wing forces and Souphanouvong's Pathet Lao. Foreign troops were expressly forbidden...
Politically, the U.S. found itself backing a brace of hopelessly ineffective right-wing leaders. After 1962, U.S. support grudgingly switched to Souvanna, who had previously been ignored if not excoriated for his neutralist views...
...Souvanna, American backing has proved to be no great blessing. Despite total U.S. air supremacy, the Communist forces seem to be able to seize and hold pretty much what they need. The regular Laotian army is famed for its ineffectiveness. The CIA-supported Meos, a guerrilla army of mountain tribesmen, are far superior but are not capable of standing up to North Vietnamese regulars in pitched battle. The U.S. presence, however, is substantial, and the program goes far beyond simply supporting military operations. Aid now runs at more than $250 million a year in a country of only 3 million...
...base for Communist infiltration into Thailand. The Administration worries, also. By overrunning Laos, the Communists would dramatize the fragility of Vietnamization-much more effectively than by another Tet offensive. The casualties from Tet cost Hanoi dearly. It would take little military muscle, though, to smash the government of Prince Souvanna Phouma, and the Pentagon knows it. The Nixon Doctrine, however, commits the President to nonintervention and narrows his options in Laos...