SOVIET DRAFT MESSAGE ON LAOS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00472A000400010023-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 30, 2012
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: January 22, 1965
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Releas
e 2012/08/22
CIA-RDP79T00472A000400010023-2
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/22
CIA-RDP79T00472A000400010023-2
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/22 :CIA-RDP79T00472A000400010023-2
OCI No. 0339/65
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Office of Current Intelligence
22 January 1965
Soviet Draft Message on Laos
1. The 19 January Soviet note, in the form of
a draft message from the Geneva cocha3.rmen to the US
and the three Laotian factions, provides further evi-
dence of Moscow's concern that recently publicized
US air strikes in Laos may call forth Pathet Lao and
North Vietnamese counteractions which could lead to
a dangerous military escalation. For the first time
since the Soviets threatened to renounce their co-
chairman responsibilities for Laos last July, Moscow
has resorted to the draft message device as a means
of focusing international attention on Laos. Fol-
lowing previous practice, the Soviets published their
draft without waiting for a British response.
2. In addition to expressing support for 3ou-
phannouvong's routine call on 17 December for a new
Geneva conference, the Soviet draft urges the lead-
ers of all three Laotian "political forces" to re-
frain from actions which would aggravate the situa-
tion and complicate the tripartite Lao negotiations
in Paris. This could be interpreted as an oblique
warning to the Pathet-Lao and North Vietnamese to
avoid moves which might provoke greater US interven-
tion in Laos.
3. Moscow's attempts to inhibit the actions
of both sides in the Laos conflict may have been
prompted by a belief that the North Vietnamese and
Chinese are developing a public justification for
renewed offensive action in Laos, possibly coordi-
nated with increased military pressures in South
Vietnam. Propaganda and official statements over
the past month have at least implied that Hanoi and
Peiping would regard US air strikes against "liberated
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/22 :CIA-RDP79T00472A000400010023-2
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/22 :CIA-RDP79T00472A000400010023-2
~? ' ~ - (,~~V1V h l 1J~1V 1 ~l 1iL -
areas" in Laos as a move to "extend the war to all
of Indochina." The North Vietnamese foreign minister's
26 December reply to Souphannouvong, for example,
hinted that Hanoi might openly disregard the Geneva
Accords to help the Laotians resist US war-expansion
moves. He asserted that although North Vietnam has
always observed the Geneva agreements, it is "re-
solved not to let the US scrap those agreements."
Chinese Communist Foreign Minister Chen I's 31 De-
cember message to the Pathet Lao leader charged that
the US was responsible for "collusion" between Saigon
and Vientiane in launching "joint military operations"
in Laos. He warned that China "will stand by the Lao-
tian people and give them all-out support and assist-
ance." Peiping's People's Daily comment of 1? January
on the shooting down o~ffie~wo US fighter-bombers
asserted that the air strikes are part of a US plan
to extend the war and declared that "what is happen-
ing in South Vietnam will be repeated in other parts
of Indochina" if the US insists on expanding its ag-
gression.
4. Moscow's-more vigorous public support for
Hanoi was evident in Gromyko's letters to the North
Vietnamese and Chinese foreign ministers supporting
their recent protests against US actions in "involy-
ing troops of its South Korean puppets in the aggres-
sive war against the South Vietnamese people."
Gromyko stated that the USSR, "as before, will render
every support and assistance" to the people of Vietnam.
CONFIDENTIAL
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Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/22 :CIA-RDP79T00472A000400010023-2
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/22 :CIA-RDP79T00472A000400010023-2