Word: usaid
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About a fifth of the land area of Vientiane is taken up by what is called the USAID compound--the center of operations for the United States Agency for International Dement in Laos. All American aid to Laos--military or otherwise--comes under the title of USAID, due to the 1962 Geneva Agreement which forbids all foreign troops and advisors, instructors, and foreign civilians "connected with the supply of war materials...
...defiance of the Agreement, large numbers of Chinese Nationalist troops supported by the United States remained after 1962, along with Thai and South Vietnamese troops. The CIA, whose active participation in fighting the Communist forces of the Pathet Lao is barely disguised, now goes under the name USAID Annex...
...drag on forever. After 8 p.m. bored Westerners and occasional wealthy Laotians congregate in one of the city's small bars, the most notable of which is White Rose's. With only about ten small tables, White Rose plays host to male refugees from America's involvement in Laos--USAID workers. Air America pilots, correspondents from the American press, eleventh-hour French and U.S. businessmen...
...little if anything to catch the eye. However, due to the huge American presence, Vientiane today smacks of the surreal. On the street passing the Morning Bazaar amid the traditionally sparse traffice of taxis, pedal-rickshaws, and jeeps, today there are American station wagons, driven by American housewives of USAID employees, often with American children jumping around on the back seat. Driving down the main Boulevard paved with U.S. concrete, in their air-conditioned Ford Country Squire, they seem oblivious to the heat, dust, and squalor surrounding them...
...monsoon came while I was in Luang Prabang. One rainy night I went with a young USAID agricultural worker to try out the area's traditional specialty, opium. Laos's opium, which is legal, is reputed to be the best in the world...