Word: xiengkhouang
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...strip as "indefensible," and the garrison fled south across uncharted mountains, carrying their wounded on their backs and harried all the way by the Viet Minh. Supplied by air with food and water, and with Benzedrine to keep them from falling asleep and being ambushed, the French reached Xiengkhouang (pronounced sing kwong), a market town in north Laos. But the Communists, with an estimated force of 40,000 men, kept pressing forward, with long lines of Russian-made Molotov trucks following up with supplies. Xiengkhouang's 1,500 civilians were ordered to evacuate. Chinese opium traders, pony-riding...
...French planned to make a stand near Xiengkhouang, on the vast limestone Plaine des Jarres north of Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Commandeering every available plane, including civil airliners, French General Raoul Salan packed them with troops and flew them into the Plaine des Jarres at the rate of 50 aircraft a day. At Saigon, soldier clerks and interpreters were sent off to fight in Laos. At week's end there was a strong force of Foreign Legion battalions reinforcing the slim Laotian army. But Communist Giap had chosen his time well: within a few weeks the rainy season...