LAOS-TYPE SETTLEMENT NOT FOR VIETNAM [Washington Star, Mar 25 1964]

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000300260003-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2004
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: March 25, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/10/13: CIA-RDP8f 20626{}U0`1
/.1 7 A
WASHINGTON STAR MAR Z5 1964-
1--TAR
EAST. REPORT
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ers LIu16 the capital for a,! Suc
and P EIi,I)INAND IiUHN This is the third of several reports on new headquarters further north "success." Lan rocks along
Special to The Star the Indo-China area of Southeast a year ago. They say they are{
VIENTIANE, Lao s.-"Well, Asia by Mr. and Mrs. Kuhn, dis- afraid for their personal safety!jwith little government, less
the Communists haven't taken tinguished foreign correspondents here, and they have a point. security and still less intcrna-
ho are on their eighth tour of tional cmtirol. Its people never
it over yet, remarked the the For East. One of their leaders, the For.
i I
l
t
f
h
h
y
ey can sa
e
et
er
Western diplomat. Using the eign Minister, fell in the door-,knew w
firm their fields fish their
measuring rod of cold warlwatch an attempt to govern by wij of buhis Vientiane llet in his head adyear11 ,
streams, hew their wood and
'
politics, he was saying, in of a coalition with Communists, an ago. carry their crops to market; i
feet, "'Laos is a howling sue- attempt..that is brave but fore- The Government goes through, Coalition with Communists i;
cess." doomed in the long run, what
The country has remained the powers in Geneva wished on the motions of governing with a g a i n proving unworkable
wide open to all the political the country' in 1962 was the only two thirds. of the troika. j international control of this t .
winds that blow: winds from troika formula, the same idea But the Communists who take'is again, shown to be a olile
the anti-Communist West, from which the Russians once, tried no part in the decisions reject . b i `
North them all as illegal. :charade.
Russia and China and Fto foist on' the United Nations Under the Geneva accord, the The Communist-led Pathctl
Viet Nam, from India and other secretariat. The three political
fit, o n-aligned" quarters. All factions in Laos Communists troika formula applied also to Lao forces keep clear of the,
work on this little country with I neutralists and , anti-Commu- the three political armies, then Mekong valley, for fear that
embassies, agents, and endless;nists, which had been fighting harassing one another and the they will again bring American
talk about the prospects of the one another, were told to bur countryside. Each army was to Marines to Thailand just across
Laos experiment. There is not a their differences, sit down to reduce itself. to 10,000 men; they the river. The right-wing army
single one of them except, per- gether, and work for the peace would then integrate and to- keeps clear of the easternmost
gether e co look after the security of part of Laos which borders Viet
haps, North Viet Nam which and welfare of the country and th
actively wants the Geneva-built I its two or three million people. the country. Nam, knowing from bitter ex-
mechanism to break down, l Each faction in the coalition The anti-Communist force,' perience that the so-called I3o
Like .an old jalopy held to-was to hold a veto over the whose leader is a working Chi Minh Trail running along
gether with paper clips and other two, that border is a sacred preserve
string, the thing wheezes along., member of the Government, of the North Viet Namese and
stria today numbers between 50,00'0;
Noboriy thought it could run for I Communists Leave their Viet Cong underlings.
and 60,000. The. Communist-led; These are the built-in restraints
as long as two years, as it has.. Today the - cabinet table in Pathet Lao 'force reinforced by
Almost everyone accepts it for' . and vetoes that operate in Laos,
Vientiane is set for three, but permanent cadres, and occa-
want of a better one and for these, rather than the ones laid
o havsional se, is estimated at 18,090.
.
'success? more than a year. All but amen. The neutralist' army ofI The Laos, experience holds
Here in the capital. you can ; couple of minor, Communist some 10,00'0 is commanded ; h3,! implications and lessons for
_ I other parts of So :theast Asia.
t h e popular ex-paratrooperi One hears suggestions that it
Kong Le, who has broken with' might be applied in South Viet
Itl:c Pathet Lao but has still ant; Nam. There would he an official
merged his men with the-right- withdrawal of out;rle forces, a
wing forces. Each'of the three; coalition government, and in-
armics' has staked' out a %?rough? ternatioual supervision. Perhaps
claim to territory. ' But' the I nothing better was possible in
Communists repeatedly nibble the Laos of 1962. But if anyonel
at the others' preserves, trying~;n Paris or Washington thinks al
It keep them off balance. It is 1 Laos-type settlement" would
hardly a formula for security or
peace. 11064 let peace
him come hererto Laos,
i and judge for himself.
Restraining Effect
Tomorrow: Aid staff in Laos I
To watch over the Geneva I alert and proud.
accord, and to investigate andl
report. any violations, the pow-
ers at Geneva installed still a
third troika. Tho International!
Control Commission using field
teams of Canadian, Indian and
Polish officers, has been a very'
I model of discord, delay and:
paralysis. The best one can say
for the Commission is that its'
units stationed in various parts
of Laos may have had a re-
straining effect, on violence."v,.,,,
Approved For Release 2004/10/13 CIA-RDP88-01315R000300260003-1