Word: vang
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Vietnamese infantryman, and his presence in sizable numbers in supposedly neutral lands. Hanoi's forces long ago took on the burden of the Laos campaign from the ineffectual, home-grown Pathet Lao. Neither the frangible Laotian regulars nor the lightly armed, CIA-backed Meo guerrillas of Laotian General Vang Pao have been able to withstand them. In Cambodia, it was North Viet Nam's freewheeling use of Cambodian territory that finally precipitated Sihanouk's ouster. With the U.S. withdrawal under way, Sihanouk grew increasingly alarmed that the presence of so many North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers...
...next five years, the strategically located Plain of Jars remained in Communist hands; most of the fighting in that period occurred around the periphery of the plain, and the Communists went no farther south. Last fall Vang Pao's CIA-backed army, aided by heavy U.S. air support, succeeded in driving the Communist forces from the plain. Five weeks ago, reinforced North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao troops reoccupied the plain-and this time they decided to go farther. After pausing to resupply, the Communists moved southeast. Late last week government forces abandoned Sam Thong to the Communists, and North...
EXCEPT for occasional Communist patrols that stole to within a few tantalizing miles of Luangprabang and Vientiane, there was little military movement in Laos last week. Exhausted after their defeat by Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese troops on the Plain of Jars, General Vang Pao's U.S.-supported Meo guerrillas retired into their mountains to rest and regroup. Almost nothing stirred on the ground in northern Laos, except for some 20,000 Meo, many of them families of Pao's warriors, who began "walking out" of their hillside enclaves towards the Thai border and relative safety from...
...Communist attack. There was good reason for their pessimism. Hanoi has 50,000 troops in Laos, some 16,000 around the Plain, and the Pathet Lao have another 50,000: the government, by contrast, has a total of 63,000 regulars and another 10,000 Meo guerrillas under General Vang...
Despite U.S. denials, it is common knowledge that the Central Intelligence Agency has for years supported Vang Pao's Meo guerrilla forces, and that Thailand-based American jets fly daily strikes against Communist positions in Laos. The net effect, however, has been simply to maintain the status quo; at week's end, in fact, both sides held positions similar to what they held a year ago. In Vientiane, more than 100 miles from the battlefield, news of the defeat had little impact. The capital was absorbed in celebrating an important Buddhist holiday-and high-ranking officials concentrated...