CIA SEEKS MEN FOR LAOTIAN WAR, MCCLOSKEY SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R000600160001-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 170
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 8, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: September 29, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

STATINTL
Approved For Release 20111-1409;i0:i d4ALRDP80-01601R0006
29 SEP 1971
CIA Seeks len ?
For Laotian War,
McClosicej Says
Washington Zurcau of The Syn,,.
.: Washington --- Representa-
tive Paul N. McCloskey (R.,
Calif.) yesterday accused the
Central Intelligence Agency of
-recruiting American mercinar-
ies to fight in Laos.
The accusation was based on
information from an electrical
engineer who reported he was
i told at an Oakland (Calif.) em-
ployment agency that such. jobs
were available at $1,000 a week.
Not Verified
Mr. McCloskey, a. critic of the
administration's war policies
who with challenge Pre.sident
Nixon. In. the New Hampshire
-
primary, admitted he personally.
had pot checked out the charge.
Independent inquiry suggested
the incident indeed took place,
but the employment - agency
president said he doubted
whet* his '.Oakland . office
manager, since ' fired, would
have mentioned either merce-
naries or the, CIA..
Clarence C. Bothell, of Lafay-
ette, Calif., the, engineer, insist-
ed that he did..
Contacted at his borne, Mr.
Holben recalled visiting the
Oakland office of Overseas Serv-
ices in April or May and being
told he could earn $1,C00 a week
working for Air America, an os-
tensibly private airline operated
1 - -
by the CIA, handling logistical
Support for guerrilla operations
in Laps.
, Worked At Laboratory .
Until June 30, Mr. Holden was
employed at the Lawrence Ra-
diation Laboratory in Livermore
which is rain by the University
of California.
- Discouraged by the interview-
er's comment that "I might
come back in a box," Mr.. Hol-
ben Said he never asked for de-
tailed job specifications but "got
the picture . of running around
1 with a: gun .slung over your
shoulder.-".'
Richard Lester, president of /
the Los Angeles-based Overseas
Services, said it was "unlikely
any office manager would even
know what Air America does for
a living."
. He said the company places
about 1,000 -persons a year in
jobs in 134 countries. It has
filled slots for Air America, he
added, but only pilots and tavi
ationl technicians, not troops.
"McCloskey is blowing
smoke," Mr. Lester added.
Almost An Aside
Mr. McCloskey's charge was
made at a breakfast meeting
with reporters yesterday during
which he Criticized the adminis-
tration for "concealment and
deception" in its relations with
Congress.
At one point, almost as an
aside, he observed that "we
caught the CIA in Oakland re-
cruiting mercenaries to fight
in Laos."
He seemed surprised when the.
reporters pressed him for de-
correding he had not fol-
lowed through on the allegation
because "it's so consistent with
their [the CIA's] procediires."
It developed the information
had been sent not to Mr. Mc-
Closkey but to Representative
Jerome R. Waldie (D., Calif.) in
a letter dated July 11 from a
constituent who knew Mr. Bob.
ben.
A spokesman for Mr. Waldie
said as far as the congressman?
was concerned, the letter con-
tamed "unverified information"'
and that he had turned it. over to
Mr. ,MeCloskey for .checking.
State Dept. declassification & release instructions on file
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Y.OJE TinES
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/1
C,I,A, kaairiED
BY. REP, tril)(1140TaY
Rooniits U.S, Mercenaries
for Laos, lie Says
3.A.mEs Id. UGfth'I
York 7inics
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28?
,Representative Paul N. McClos-
key Jr. of California said today
,.Viat the Central Intelligence
Agency, was recruiting Ameri-
cans to become combat mer-
cenaries in Laos.
"We caught the C.I.A. a
couple of months ago recruitht
people in Oakland," he said;
Officials of the intelligencc.
agency privately dismissed the
charge.
Mr. McCloskey, a candidate
for ,the Republican Presidential
nomination, made the allege-
Ii to reporters during a
1.)1!6al-cfast meeting .at which he
rsssertei1 that the Nixon Ad-:
ministration habitually engaged
in "concealment and &cep-.
The charge was based on the
account: of a job seekingen-
gineer from California who told
of being offered "S1,000 a
week. and, a box to come hbrue,
Ini'? when he answered a news-
paper advertisement for over-
seas Work. Mr. McCloskey cof-i
?ceded that he had not made.
an attempt to verify the alle-
gation since learning ? of it in
The engineer,
. .
Clarence C;
V Holben of Lafayette, Calif., said
in a telephone interview today
that he went last April to the
Oakland branch of Oveiseas
Services, a Los Angeles-based
job placement company, after
finding that he was to be laid
off by the Atomic Energy Con-i
mission's radiation laboratory
In Livermore. ?
Decided to Stay Home
He said that. the .branch
an'anager had told him he could
make "real money" if he would
sign on. with ..Air America, a
flight charter compauy that
works for the Intelligence
Agency in Southeast Asia. Mr.
Holbert said he was told that
if he took the job he would
actually be working for the
C.I.A. He added he turned
down the chance because, "at
47 I can't visualize myself run-
ning around with grenades and
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? According to Mr. 1I011)&11, the
job was only one .of several
suggested by Overseas Services,
_whose Oakland representative
pointed out a number of places
on a map and said, "we've even
placed people at the [United
States] Embassy in Moscow." ,
At the Oakland office of
Overseas Services today, the
present manager, Kenneth Mc.,
Donald, said it was "news to
me" and that he had "never,/
soca anything for the C.I.A."
Rut Mr. McDonaldiwho took
over the office only-two weeks
ago, said he could not discount .
the possibility that Mr. Ifolhen's
account was correct. He said
that he himself ()nee had sought
a job as a pilot with Air Ames- 7
iCa with the understanding that
"they have some 'divisions that
get a little -rough once in g
while." He said he was rejected
because he wears glasses.
"I don't know what's wrong
with McCloskey,". Mr. McDon-
ald added. "People -aro shoot-
ing at other people all over the
world."
lie said his predecessor in
the. Oakland office, whom Lc
identified as Grant Lryan, was ,/
recently dismis ,ed and could.
not be located. Richard Lestdr,?
president of Overseas Services,.
said be did not know where to?
find Mr. Dryan. ,
Mr. Lester said that his'com-- ?
pany had 'helped to place, hun-
dreds of pilots and technicians
with Air America, one of 1,000
or more American companies
to which his concern submits
resumes for job applicants.
"But 'never a mercenary," he
said.
- officials of the C.I.A. declined
to speak for the record, but one
official COnirilenied privately of
Mr. Holt:en and his account:
"What would we .dei with mer-
cenaries in Laos? All the fight-
ing there is done by Meo tribes-
men. Is he Meo tribesman?"
Mr. Holben's account was
first related to Representative .
Jerome R. Waldie, Democrat of
.California, by a constituent ac-
quainted with the engineer. Mr.
Waldie passed it on to Mr. Mc- ?
Closkey.
? Mr. Holhen said that neither
Congressman had got in touch
with him. He added that report-
ers were lucky to find him to-
day because he was leaving
California tonight for a new job
? running a sporting-goods
store in Lake Havasu City, Ariz.
?
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C r 0
II(' 1'0'171,
Lly THOMAS bIAKLOWE
r, 1'4p
t H 1.1
Llf
()
ij I
Special to The Billictitz
Vientiane, Laos I.ast 'here. A-lot of the older kids
rpring, two t;nlerican teen-. ? arc using speed and heroin."
aged dependents of, foreign aid The hard drug problem in
'Laos has its roots in the so-
en:V.oyes v,:erc-caught mailing
20 kilograms of pure heroin-, called 'fertile triangle" which
tlgoeigh the Army Post Office borders Burma and Thailand.
More than half the \wild's
The drugs were,destine,d for Poppy crop is harvesied there
Saigon, to be picked up by ? each year. ?
other dependents for use or -Bniblein in nail:111ex
4;s:a result, no one under 18. The poppies are harvested
primarily by Mco tribesmen.
years of vie is now 'allowed
.toro.ail anything larter than Sonic of me opium is report-
ed to find its way to the se-
r letter through the Vientiaiie cret Central Iptelltgene,
APO. Dependents over can . Agency base at Long
be prosecuted if co.ught mail-
ing drugs. where it is said to be trans-
Several days later, the or ported via planes of the MA-
O an embassy official ad_ subsicii2ed Air Amenea
to
. ?
.Mitted confidentially that "1 Banglwl-nail.'lan, hong 1"c'r'Z'
was all ready to mail 10 and even San,Fravicisco. ?
pounds of hr.A?oin :to the Americans in Laos are not.
States." .' ? ? the only ones hit with the
"I had it all packed and a spreading drug problem. In
? buyer waiting at the other -Thailand, at least one Ameri-
cod," he said: "But it is just can student at the Bangkok .
too ?risky now. -The APO is International School died from
checking every. package." .an oyerdose er narcotics dur-
Heroin and other drugs are ? jug the past school year, and
not onlydeeply entrenched in 14 others were expelled for
the American military, but -in. T..61113 usage.
. ?
much of the /110 CO "Those. were only the con
-
community in Southeast Asia. slant violators," explained one
studtlit. "Yon know, the kids
Centered in Compound who go into the bathrooms
Among those who will prob- and shoot up between class-
ably relurn to the United os."
'States with a habit are Amen- The psychiatric wardat
canteen-aged dependents of Banghok's 5th field hospital
civilian and military officials. has grown accustomed to
Aerican dependents.
Many use at K-M6, com-. m
pound outside of Vientiane for Little Girls, Teo
'American officials and their "There's almost always a
-families. At the K-MO high 13- or 11-year-old kid in there
school.. one ninth-grader ?said:
for smack," a MeCliC s'aid.
"Almost everyone past the -
`1 hey usually bring them in
sixth grade smokes grass
?? ? -? - - ? at nicht and give them a urine
test in the morning."
A hospital psycholcrAst said:
?-?
?
"It hurts when or 13
year-old girl is brought in with
an overdose. I've seen' little
girls with needle marks- on
their arms. Their parents
often cry and -.want to know
why." ?
To support their habits, or -
just to make money, some
kids sell drugs. 'They ration-
alize that "somebody will do ?
it, why not me?" .
Shortly after last Christmas,.
ft he 17-year-old. son of a U. S.
foreign aid employe was shot
to death in a Bangkok alley.
"He lied not," according to
one of his former associates, -
'paid his. Thai supplier the 1'0'
amount for the last -shipment
(of heroin) he received."
? Approved For Release 2001/09/10 : CIA-RDP80-01601R000600160001-1
Approved For Release 200.1:8191.107.:CCIA-ftlpP80-01601
8 SEP 1071
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STATINTL
1-.111 (7...,f
11
? t:41
1
By PAUI, 'HOPE tends to withdraw all U.S. tnops tied the Man as Clarence C. Ho'', I
SIztr.Sta;f Virifer . from Vietnam or to discontinue ben of Lafayette, Calif.
/ rim Paul N. McCloskey Jr., all American bombing in Sonth- no letter, dated July 11, said
e'llar;-..;ed today that the, Central ca,t....z,ia.- . in part:
Intelligence Agency is recruiting He made the ch . ar.ge .ogaint "Do you h110\.., that ,Air
American mercenaries to fight the CI.,', while discussing Nixeifs
in .I..tOS.; ? - t . P?'"eY with :a g1117 ?I rcrt)ort?,1*' i ,encenaries to it in Laos at
, McCloSkey, a canddate ier
"We caught the CIA in 0:-LI-- :Igo Der week for eaeb-meree..
:t h 0 ReP"1-):Ican PrCsidCrItial land recruiting meree;mries to nary? .
'nomination,. .also accused the fig:it in Los,,,
Nixon administration of practie. "I just. learned about ,this a
? . ,
- Pressed to e:::1-)7Oin that, ho co;.mle of ki ee .s.S. c. ,o . A. 11,1u,,c1 ,,:.
mo "CDAc,...cih -ient , i-21 " ??-,/ ? ,
tian" d clailn,d chat ,,treth in Salo ho Lad i c v. ci 1,------ 2,1I,o 3.5 an engineer and one of
gove,:nment" is a. major issue in 11.011, "I ,?"Ilst"ent" ? a!1 un". the many 1011,Iterni ?I-L1P1Ucs
en-11)103'0o e1 150 ellgilK:er of the rad lab at Livermore
his caranaign.
The C'' 'I con,zi.ssn.lari who was offe.reci $1,00 a weeil to y;11,.,-, were ?Iaid off Jul:7 1. -
"inht in Lao-
indicated, however, that if he "In looking for mil-Aurae:it he .
does "PoorlY" in. the nation's Wilail his Cf.-rico PI'oductt--"d die' ans\vereci an ad of -zn employ- ?
first primary in Nev; Ha;rmsbire letter, it turned out to be.one_to ment ,:,geney, overseas ser-
Milreli 7, Le will drop out of the 1Thr- ..,J cr 0 rn e R., V,Talola, icets, itriI;f) Harrison :_:,t., Oakland,
.race.
D-Caiii., wIth whom 7qcCloshey and they offered hlm. the em-
He said it v..0..lid be ,,ebsurd,, recently . made a visit to South- plume-cit as a nt.Jercomiry in
to ask people to give him finial-Laos paying '$1,000 per week-
Second-I:Iona 'Report
era', Support if he does not malie plus the box to bring hin-i bacl:.'
an acceptable shc,wing there. -. The let-ter was' not from the (Z. . . Today I telephoned hira
englileer. WhOM the CIA rep,rt- foe vm:ifieation; raid tol.d. him I
Donts-.6,1;out Nixon ediy had tHed to recruit. but would like to i.W.orm you. Even
?
MC o-\ indicated he wo.Lild tii'm another Californibi who ji ough he is SC ICC a eon-:
be hard-put to suoriort President was Vel,:ying the incideni; toWii1R..servative. Republican, he had
Nixon as the Republican norni- dle? been a .strong dove . for four or
nee. He said there is little evi- The letter writer, Do.nald H. live ye.ars i .. . .
dence to indicate that. Nixon in- Fibush of Walnut Creek, -icienti- "I hope that you and/or Me-
Closkey, at your instigation, will
verily, this information and use
it to the fullest (:!-itent."
? Investigation Sought
- ' McCloskey said he has "asked
a field ? representative to go
over" and investigate the mat-
ter but 'that he hasn't done it
yet. . . .
. .
"This is the first time I've
ever heard of hiring mercenar-
ies by ad," McCloskey said.
"It draws attention to the fact
that Congress says there shall
be no American ground combat
troops in Laos. It raises the
question of whether the CIA .con
recruit an army (and) at what
point does an army of irregulars
become an American army .. .
lAt what. stage does the 'CIA get
.1 authorized to fight a private.
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STATINTL
ApproViadiSiviRelettseti2QQ110WiAn: g!?kt-T.,P13.?97Alc?,91B
SUN
(11 ? 164,62 . . ,
E ? 1E19,871
S ? 323,624
c;r1) 27 Ica
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iV
lake-it-or-leave-it basis.!appropriations bilis areinee.cled
Floating. Around
Inc 'bit] to extend the draft lannually, for these ac,encies and Other foreign policy proposalsgave Senate liberals similar, such bilis are outside, the ydr... ,ave aramd o"4,1es-i
though weaker, strategic pasi- Feign Relations Committees laririt could eventually find a:
juf isdietion.
At least .30 senators were will- I Euclget A.pproval
Ing to suspend the draft and to mr. Embright has noted. thm
hold the bill as hostage for alone reason that the Armed 1)01 '1 a nine-month deadline fluenee ? with the Pentagon is
for total U.S. Withdrawal from :that they must approve its
Indoehina. ?
strong anti-war national policy, liees Committees Ivield such in
tibill l d ? .. ,..a y.
They held up the draft The committee is also likely to Congress and to place a cod-
.
. for 21/2 months after the selec- to tighten provisions in the for. in on U.S. expenditures in Laos.
-, live- service law expired, but ein aid law that Po ides for While the e li)".posals are net
Sellat0I'S Likely To-use Mil! finallY lost the fighi.
' in Inc face
? - an automatic funds cit off if the dire.c,tly related to foreign an
? ; of intensive pressure pnt on by the Senate does not usually balki!
executive branch refuses to
'For -Policy Aniancirounts 0 1
; ,le adritilliStratiOn, whith as-:
home in the foreign aid bill.
They include legislation to. re,
strict the President's war-mak-
ing powers, to require publieti-i
tion orthe;eatal :CIA budget, tol
ban the CIA from engaging in
military operations, to make.
CIA intelligence data available
? at attaching riders to bilis sim-
provide certain information,
I Serted that the ii lie WaS jeo-. At present, 11';:e! President ?
., can
-- -----?-----
ply because they are unrelated
CENE ()ISM to the subject matter.
ii-T parchzing nationR1 security. , ?
waiye the requirtiinent by sum
, wasnington I? ui cau CI The.Sun ' . It is:doubtful that the zidirthliS-1 ply Statinz his teasons for not
'Washington ? When Congress fration can exert as much pres-L providing the cquested in-
sult M.! draft HI to tic, triiite sure in behalf of foreign airkformation. . ?
House last week Senate Cloves President Nixon, himself, de.. Last month, Mr. Nixon with.
..
lost what seemed to be an ideal emphasized foreign aid when 11i." held R five-year plan on min-
vehicle for . foreign policy: included in his latest economic tary aid from the Foreign Re-
amendments, but an even bet-: recovery package a 10 pc:r cent lations Committee on the
ter one is on its way: foreign, cut in the program. ground that it was a tentative,
? aid, ,. Public , opinion polls have internal document,
. i
i The Senate Foreign Eelations? shown that this cut in foreign aid Other Provisions ,--
? Commitico has the foreign aid was the most popular of the There are numerous ?the:,
bill bottled up for. the moment step: taken by the President. provisions for .presidential clic-
because of a fight with the ad, Thus there is. not likely -o t b
? ,--c cretion that are likely to comic.
ministration over inforrmdion, anY beet] Ii from (IejaYing unchn: itt-ick.
but . Senator 3. Williarn Fill- :-a.ction on a foreign aid bill. , For example, the Prosideid
bright (D., Ark.), the chairnian, Those. contemplRting orna- ;can now shift up to 10 per cat
has said the panel v.ill repert rucas frii. the 'f?1?Cigil raid bill of the?funds in any onc categoiyi
out,. a bill eyeintually. include the MeGov.erndlAfield ,of forei,,im aid to another, ,ati1,cii
"Christinas Tree" MU! , forces, who favor cutting0-- ri
he has special authority to ti-fe
Men it dues come out, how-1 funds for the Vietnam war at a up to $250 million to kelp a,
CCI time, even though the ;country Abate is.. "important to
ever, i the expeclation is that::
, net lc has already rejected the the seieurity of the 'United
- tbere will be a mirallir (!f "llech:iii funds cut-off approach on sever-i!Steics" and is . "a victim of.
ers" in it, possibly even P.11, oi omis:lons. 1 -
amendment to cut off .funds for , active Communist or CM-Mill- . ?
the war in Nictriani. In any; Senator Mike .A1,-.1iisilcId? (D. nist-eiiupported a,ggression."
committee sC'llrces aes Said h0. intended tO reintroduce
? knowledge that the foreign ald,. acctiediv, to committee SOLIIITS,'
DI). amendment to force a reduc- jallo,,ve,:t--, the administration -to
bill v,'ill be a "Christmas tree,' ,,..ou
?, . ti in the U.S. L.00p level in!, give mititz:0-, ....7,i(nr1 ,I.R.s.
IgnaniNited with aimendimi,,,:s,
Europe. He failed in his atternpti:canow,a, l'iec.p2nig the le:-.S.
year to
'IP affect forei0 PChicY all(' `!--)! to - attach such a rider
increaSe congressional influence, ? , - , . ? ,- to titelcommit;nent to tho defense of
in the field. - . . I draft Dull, DK in view of Inc in- 'mac:Ana withoui specific con-
j creasing deterioration of the i gres??0 rwthot ;,,eltn. .
:The administration consider ?
? s::U.S. econainic position in the 1 The -"arrinittee is also expect-
the fereigri aid bill vital, Ilaruc!'i world, Mr. 111ansfield has ludic- led to e,,d?nse .the Huse action
ularly the portions affectin
Southeast Asia. Inc R3 billioi2:, ,i7 .i.
ated he will. try again. - iof cutUn,,,i off military aid to. .
authorization bill contains 85133, leavin,? his
, 11. bile tlie-- ma jOf ity leader is i: Greece cind Pakistan, but will
options open, the .4robahtv
million for Vietnam and 8 0 remove the escape
million for Cambodia, Laos i2iili ini),,oespti_a?1,1.)Vi?1.13 'vehicle for a 1'
clause ftiat allows continued aid_
-Thailand in economic supportingi `"! t amendment seems to ito Greece if the President de-
assistance. It contains an a,. be be the foreign aid bill. ? cides that the ,national security,
i: Besides the majorik; leader, : '
,tional $N0 million in military,: . 'of the United States requires ite.:.
pid fc,r camhodia (military zy if Senator Fulbright, the chairman
ease, Mont.), the majority lea(lcr, has' These provisions, in the law,,
..1C;
.STATINTL
ito Vietnam, Laos and Thailand!, ?
of the Foreign tOlations Com-
is cOntained in the Defense!,miLtee, also has .his irons in the
Ibudget. ; .1 fire.
Ili But there is growing opposlj For example, lie will try in
!ion to foreign aid in Gonc-crests committee to amend the foreign
I
r-rwould not be adverse to SeeillrA partment budget as well as that.
! tharization for the State De-
aid bill to require annual an-
and many members?including!
both liberals and conservatives!
!le! entire' program l terminatell for the United States Informa-
-
Thus the SenateMore ?loaded
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pan the Louse- could presOn
ithe House and the administra-
51
VET& YORK TITS
Approved For Release-.-2000/09,0011,erKtIRDP80-01601
N kit,44 4%),
? By ITERBERT 1'I1TGANG
s The uncontested nonele.ction rICX
Sunday for the South Vietnames
presidency has its counterpart in cre
ative fantasy for over 200,000 Amer-
icans there: from the Delta to the DMZ
.and beyond they are shooting and be
ing shot at in an unofficially undo
dared nonsvar.
?. The 'biggest public relations triumph
..of the Administration thus far is plant-
ing the impression that, like Pan Am's
.commercial, President Nixon is mol:-
log the going great. He told Congress
and the country this month about
"our success in winding down the
war" but, skeptical Senators and Viet-
nam-watchers say, he has only suc-
ceeded in winding down persistent
Opposition to the war.
This year the casualties and body
counts have dropped sharply but the
going is slow, costly, still perilous
and pegged to politics. Senator Mans-
field's original amendment to the
'draft-extension law calling for a nine-
month troop withdrawal deadline was
tveakened into phrasing that is. open-
ended. The only "date certain" for
.withdrawal there is considered to be
the '72 election here.
It was not Mao but Confucius who
said that the best way to leave is
simply by .going through the door.
But the revived fury of United States
aerial strikes in the last fortnight in
dicates that our exit is through the
bomb bays. . \
? The air war is very costly in-human
aha financial terms. A year ago about
5,000 American planes (1,000 fixed-
wing and 4,000 helicopters) were
operating over Indochina. There are
still 3,500 American planes (500.
fixed-wing, 3,000 helicopters) in action
today. One and at times two aircraft
carriers are in coastal waters. Piano.
losses by hostile fire and accidents
have been heavy: more than 3,300
fixed-wing and more than 4,500 heli-
copters in the war up* to now.
Nor has the theater of combat been
narrowed in this twilight time of dis-
engagement. Five states are still di-
rectly involved., Thailand remains the
base of operations for 33-52 missions;
Laos and Cambodia are regularly in- .
terdicted to hinder the enemy's sup-
ply system; North Vietnam above the
demilitarized zone is photographed by
reconnaissance- planes and struck by
fighter-bombers on "protective reac-
tion" missions; South Vietnam is one
big free-fire zone when required to
bail out Saigon's soldiers.
-In -the semantic acrobatics of the
Vietnam war,' "protective rwtctics12." 1
strikes against 8-PPEAMACI4TAIrrml
meats and missile and fuel sites have
'i?cen stressed. But far more dangerous
t ?the future are the actions behifid
e two less-familiar phrases: "pre-en-11)1.1\re
- attack" against troop infiltration on
the trails and "ancillary effect" bomb-
ing?meaning, in support of South
- Vietnamese forces. When ARVN troops
- retreated from a Cambodian town a
few months ago, under heavy United
States air cover, Gen. Creighton
Abrams remarked, "Dammit, they've
got to learn they can't. do it all with
air. If they don't, it's all been in vain."
In this withdrasval phase of Viet-
namization, American troops are sup-
posed to be' in a defensive posture.
On-the-ground combat responsibilities
now belong, to the ARVN; it is their
turn to search-and-destroy and cany
the fight. But an Air Force colonel
explains, "Consistent with this con-
cept we support ARVN ground opera-
tions with air and artillery. Both
B-52's and tactical fighter- bombers
have been involved." In these opera-
,tions the American Air Force's role is
restricted to "air logistical support and
close air support,"
STATINTL
$45,000. MiiltiPlied, this . comes to
more than $35 million a month.
Many moribund national programs
--for education, housing, employment,
parklands-----could sevived by the
hundreds of millions of dollars now
falling out of the bomb bays on South-
east
Asia. Perhaps a more meaningful
local measure, even though Federal
funds are not diyectly involved, is to
compare just the financial costs of the
B-52 bombings with what it would take
to reopen the main branch of the
New York Public: Library evenings
($350,000), Saturdays ($350,000) and
Sundays and holidays ($200,000) for a
-full year.,
A few nonflying days, not to men-
tion peace, would do it.
Herbert Mitgang is a member of the,
editOriat board of The Times.
?
' Translated into what has taken .
place this month ,alone, the clear im-
plication of these terms seems to be
that American "advisers" and fliers
are very much part of offensive
actions. They have been engaged in a
two-front war in 'September: carrying
South Vietnamese infantrymen into
battle deep in the Mekong Delta 145
miles southwest a Saigon and backing
them up with helicopter gunships;
bombing in the southern panhandle
of Laos in direct support of Royal Lao
forces and C.I.A.-trained guerrilla bat-
talions. These activities hardly accord
with the periodic announcements from
Washington about "winding down the
war" through Vietnamization;
It is difficult to predict what Amer-
ican casualties will be in the next
twelvemonth of nonwar if no settle-
ment is achieved in the Paris talks
(and the Administration shows no
eagerness to advance the prospect of
a settlement there). The present rate
of fewer. than 100 killed a month is
an encouraging drop but it could go
up or down, depending not on Amer-.
ican-originated actions but on the sup-
port given to sustain the governments.
of dint states. The United States has
become their hostages militarily.
The probability at this point iS that
the Air Force activity will be kept at
a steady level. Two years ago there
were 1,800 sorties (one aircraft on
one mission) a month; currently the
nonthly rate is 1 000. It has_galLe un
easaZiKlii0 biecIA-RPFARN1
n Southeast Asia today?for fuel and
bombs alone-Hs between $35,000 and
601R000600160001-1
I'Lt,,s1IINGTOIT POST}
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27 SEP 1:3.1
?
C-1 ri 0 ,rp
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- .
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-
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fipeele.1 to The Washtn; ton Poet
? VIENTIANI,!:, Sept. 26
bombing in most of Laos'
.4 no- longer subject to prior,
approval by the U.S. embassy
In Vientiane, according to
American government sources.
Instead, final say in the:
choice of most targets has
been shifted to, the U.S. Air.
Force's tactical headquarters ?
at Worn, Thailand, these
source say.- The- principal ex-
ceptions are major populated
areas of Laos and targets adja-
e.d.nt .to China, according to
the sources.
-In, most-other cases, the em-
bassy reviews the targets only
after bombing, . they say, by
checking "aftev-action" reports
from U.dorn. ?
, The sources Say that this ap-
pears to be a major bombing-
' policy shift in Laos, although.
embassy spokesmen in Vienti:
ane deny knowledge of such a
shift in targeting methods or
policy. There has been no pub-
lic announcement of any shift
in policy in recent weeks.
Deports that there has been
a - major change in bombing
policy in Laos follow contin-
ued reports of bitter disputes
at higher echelons over tar;
get-selection methods and de-
lays in decisions affecting op-
erations in this country.
? Tactical and operation quar-
ters of the American corn;
?mud, including the U.S. Air
Force and the Central Intelli-
gence Agency, have long con-
tended that they need greater
decision-making authority for
.quick -and decisive response to
targets of opportunity which,
they say, under the -previous
system often managed to slip
away.
,Previous practice . was out-
.
?
?
ilined in the Moose-Lowenstein
report released by- the Sy-
mington Senate subcommittee
on U.S.. Security Acrreemenis
and Commitments Abroad on
Aug. 3. That report, Widely re-
garded as authoritative, out-
lined earlier changes. in 1.1.S.:
operations in Laos, ineluding:
ho mbing, .
Acebrding to the report, al-
though there were prevail-
dated targets in Laos, or
"free-fire zones," most targets
required prior approval from
the U.S. embassy here after
being proposed by a commit-
tee meeting at Udorn Airbase,
Thailand.
? Under the old method, the
list of targets was previewed
by a junior foreign service of-
ficer and a U.S. Air Force sec-
geant in Vietiane under ad-
visement of a member of the
embassy's air attache office,
usually the same office NV110
attended the committee ?rneet?
. _ .
ings at Lidorn.
The "botching officer," as
he came to be known,: could
delete targets .proposed for
bombing or, in special cases,
pass the decision upward in
the embassy for higher ap-
proval.
Thee Udorn targeting com-
mittee is composed of repre-
sentatives from the ambassa-
? dor's office in Vientiane, mil
itary attaches from Vientiane,
the Central Intelligence
Agency and U.S. Air Fore
headqUarters in Saigon and
? Udorn
Sources say that the Udorn
targeting committee remains
functional, but that it is no
longer required to submit al
ktrgetseto Vientiane for prev
alidation since, it now has an
thority to bomb in-most cases,
No ? area-size limitation o
Lads .requiringe specific aP
! proval firr7beMbing is LnoWn,
but reliable estimates- place it
at perhaps less than 20 per
cent of the country's area. ?
"After-action" reports are
now reviewed daily and map--
plotted by the bombing offi-
cer, according to the govern-
ment sources. He sets aside
those he finds "suspicious," re-
viewing the questionable tar-
gets weekly and requesting ae-
rial photographs of those still
believed questionable..
Photographs are routinely
provided, the sources say, al-
though there is no means tJf
checking tbier authenticity.
The "sdurces also say --th-at
every U.S. oveeflight Of Lao-
tian territory. is reported to
the 'embassy in Vientiane, in-
cluding, those cvee the Ho Chi
Minh 'Trail. Embassy spokes-
men have censistel:tiy denied
in the-past that such informa-
tion is available to them, di-
-
reeling newsmen's questions
to Saigon.
IntroduCtion of forward air
guides" zes- an important cle-
ment in b o mit b-targ-eting ?
guides lead airplanes to tar-
gets from the ground --- is
seen hero as an adjunct to any
justification for the reported
new system.
Having a man on the ground
directly ohsc... -,ing a 'target and
evaluating its military.c;ignifi-
eance theoretically makes the
rules of engagement - more-
foolproof. ?
As reported by MooSe-Low-
ensteln, however; the majority
of forward air guides are of
Thai origin with the remain-
der professional Lao soldiers.
Both groups; according to
Westerners who have talked
With them, seem unclear in
their attitudes toward the dis-
tinctions between military and
civilian targets.
. ,
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naziluno Evans ar.W LobcrtIVovak
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L 013 ?u,' J,)
? :
.VIENTIANE, Laos?Dark
apprehension inside the
Royal Lao government over
this country's future stems
from the questioned credi-
bility of the Nixon doctrine
In protecting small Asian
states from Communist ag-
gression.
The facts are brutally sim-
ple: This sinal / kingdom can
maintain its sovereignty
against invading North Viet-
namese troops only with
continued U.S. military aid.
But that aid is being re-
duced under Washington's
budgetary pressures. Far
worse, Lao officials live in
daily dread that the U.S.
Congress--if not this year,.
then next--will effectively
end military icl here and
thereby throttle resistance
to the invaders.
.Apprehension in Laos,
ethen, tends to confirm the
Worst suspicions about the
Nixon doctrine .when first
enunciated in 1900: That it
.is not really a system for
helping Asian countries
wishing to defend them-
:selves but is a cosmetic cov-
ering American withdrawal
from Asia. Fear grows in
this _capital that -Laos may
lose its independence as the
-price of American disillu-
sionment over mistakes in
iVietnam.
. CERTAINLY, Laos fully
Meets. Nixon doctrine speci-
fications. The problem is not
Ineffective. Communist Pa-
thet Lao guerrillas but four
divisions of North Vietnam-
ese regulars. To resist them, ?
Laos receives from Washing-
ton neither American troops
nor the lavish multi-billion-
dollar spending still main-
tained in Vietnam but a
lean, dedicated cadre of pro-
fessional military advisers /
from the U.S. Central Intel-
ligence Agency and a $375
million- ceiling on annual.
aid.
There is no realistic diplo-
matic alternative. Hanoi's
Pathet Lao puppets will not
even admit the existence of
North Vietnamese troops in
Laos, making negotiations
impossible, in truth, Hanoi
properly views Laos as part
of the overall Indochina
Var. chat means a peaceful
settlement here shott of ca-
pitulation by the Vientiane
.-government is impossible
without a settlement in Viet-
nam itself.
Given such bleak diplo-
matic prospects, There is
doubt how long Laos can
hang on with American aid.
Defense Minister Sisouk. ne
Chamassak told us frankly
he questions whether resist-
ance can last even two or
three more years because of
the attrition ? of Lao . man-
Power.
But American aid is stead-
ily diminishing. Whereas the
war in Vietnam is still
fought essentially 'without
dollar . ceilings, this is a
-Pine:II-penny struggle where
every military operation has
a budget limit,
THE RESULT: Lao troops
are badly outgunned. Only
.40 per cent of Lao guerrilla
forces,- the country's most
effective. units, have 51-16
automatic rifles. Sorties by
U.S. Air Force jets- have
been drastically reduced.
Only two new T-20 propel-
lcr-driven bolnbers arrive
for the Royal Lao air force
each month, an inadequate
replacement rate. Washing-
ton refuses to supply tanks
against Soviet armor in-
creasingly used by North Vi-
etnamese units. Nor are any
armored personnel carriers
or SI-CO machine guns sup-
plied.
Congressional reductions
of this threadbare level
could stifle resistance to the
North Vietnamese. In partic-
ular, a congressional pro-
posal to ban ILS? payment
of salaries for some 5,500
volunteer troops from Thai-
land would be fatal. Its own
Manpower base depleted,
Laos could not have stir-
? vived in 1971 without Thai
army units.
The fact that American
liberals are outraged by
5,500 invited Thai troops
and ignore 57,000 invading
North Vietnamese is part of
the topsy-turvy reasoning
which rightfully baffles the
Lao government. Similarly,
shamefully erroneous re-
ports of systematic. Ameri-
can bombing of Lao villages
caused an uproar in Wash-
ington, which ignores certifi-
able devastation of villages
by Communist mortars.
SELF-IMPOSED bombing
restrictions were 'dramatized
during the recent recapture
of Paksong from the North
Vietnamese. Hovering over
the battle in a helicopter
some 21/2 hours, we watched
U.S. and Lao bombers care-
fully exclude the town from
attack even though Lao
troops were being butchered
by North Vietnamese mor-
tars intentionally set up in
the center of Paksong.
- Facing uncertain support
from 'Washington, high' Lao.
officials desperately place
their hopes--almost surely ?
unfounded?on President
Nixon's visit to Peking
somehow resolving the Viet-
nam war and, with it, the
agony of Laos.
Therefore, the future of
Laos depends upon Ameri-
can help, whether it be mili-
tary or diplomatic. Ngon
? Sananikone,? .Minister of
Public Works a nd Trans-
port, puts it poignantly. "Wc.
are a small country depend-
-cut upon the great powers
for our fate,' he told us.
"We chose to put our fate in
the hands of the United
States." In Vientiane, offi-
cials now fear that choice.
may have bean tragically in
error for this country's fu.-
-Lure.
Pt11-61ichnr.I.TIa II Syndicate.
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25 Sept 11
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D11,111Tilf ,ori. ChirP,A
It is a topsy-turvy World when Premier Chou En-lai
rebukes James Reston for having ;said the President
lacks coinage: "Deciding to come to China at this
.time is. something which even the. opposition party?
says others dare not do. So on this point he has some
t 'mirage." How much courage it will take has yet to
?
be fully determined. The new China policy was round-
ly rejected by the AFL-CIO executive council, 2.4 to '4
with two abstentions, while the American Legion has
given it grudging approval oi . the express _condition
.that no conce'ssions are made by our side.
Anyone 1.N'ho rejects ? political acts because of the
possible motives behind them had better avoid politics
? altogether.. No doubt the'
..President was fully aware of
ihe domestic gains in his announcement, although we
can hardlY bilievc that he thought they could out-
weigh the gut ,issue: 'the domestic economy. More. to
the point is Chou's remark: -Nobody thought the old
'China lobby amounted to much anymore. But the
White !louse needed no Geiger counter to. alert it to
'hostile right-wing reaction. The Vice-President's
celebrated midnight remarks last April against the first
flush of. ':ping-pong diploMacy". provided the
modern instant communications counterpart to Paul
Revere's ride. Immediately after the 'trip announce-
ment
in July, twelve conservatives, hyaded by William
F. ? Buckley., announced suspension of -."support"
for NixOn, and a few weeks ago delegates representing
62,000 Young Americans . for Freedom voted to dump
? Nixon, in' ' part because the trip will threaten "the
?national 'sovereignty of the United. States.". The.
antics of .the Rev. Carl McIntyre with. his Taiwan
table tennis team raise little more than smiles from
sophisticated infighters. Bit in Middle America con-
'fusion and concern can become bitter hatred if proper-
ly' aroused. Toward this ? end various reactionary
revivalists of the early 1950's .witchhun.t are once again
on. the conspiracy trail. This .time they can move
against the background Of an admitted' betrayer of
secrets, Daniel Ellsberg, as compared with the earlier
accused but unproven "traitor," Alger Hiss.
Recently a Detroit FM statioi . carried four lio:urs of
.7telephone -interviews with a young American scholar
on China. The moderator claimed no other program
had evoked so many responses. The. angry callers
'seemech.av.,,akened. from a 20-years' sleep, so _obsessed
were _they by the' McCarran hearings, the Institute of
Pacific Relations, and alleged Communist affiliations
of such personages as Professor John K.. Fairbank
- and Henry. Kissinger. But these long:dormant memo-
ries .did not spontaneously spring to life; they are
cultivated. Visitors to San Clemente ..heard first-hand
of the "hate Henry" campaign that is being waged
in many localities in "an effort to embarrass the PreSis
dent's trip through his emissary.
Mr. 'Nixon neecApppygtoiFusRoe-eaceupakto
date the ignorance and -ear trim: can ye exp ottec
against China. In this regard he faces a much tougher
fight than did President' Roosevelt in moving to recog
nize the Soviet Union in 1933. American business had
built Russian factories. American journalists and
tourists had traveled throughout that country. A posi-
tive subliminal image of 'Russia had established aes-
thetic and humanistic tres through intimate. familiarity
with Tchaikowsky and Rachmaninoff, Dostoevsky
and Tolstoy. The savagery of civil war and foreign
intervention against. the new Soviet state had been.
followed with the Hoover relief missions..
No such counterforce exists on the China question.
"rho bitter heritage of two .wars, Korea and Vietnam,
fuses in American perceptions as .the product of Chi-
nese Communist ?aggression. Total isolation from the
mainland for 2.0 years combines with the most remote
and random newsreel images of the previous decades,
broken only by the familiar figures of. a sturdy. little
generalissimo and his striking Wellesley-educated wife.
New verSions of old tales fuel opposition fires. On
the day Senator. Proxmire's Joint Economic Cornrnit-
tee heard three prominent profes!io.ys attack secret sub-
version against the mainland conducted jointly by the
Chinese. Nationalists and the. CIA, 5enator Eastland
released a study by _Professor Richard Walker which
estimated that between .34 and '60 million Chinese
died over the past 50 Years as a result of Communist
activity. Wal.ker included all the intermittent civil wars .
or 1927-49 as Well as wholly. unsubstantiated .and
unverifiable figures from every kind, of source, includ-
ing Radio Moscow. Another hate-China theme focuses
on drugs. A few days after' the Eastland report came
-a headline-grabbing story from Saig.ons According to
an-. alleged "high-level 'clefeCtor" out of North
Vietnam, poppy fields in that country are so large it
rakes a harvesting tractor one whole day to cover a
single planting. The produce is secretly 'processed in
China, he said, and smuggled out through Hong Kong.
Interestingly the defector admitted he had -not revealed
this information when .first interviewed a year ago,
claiming it had not seemed ? important then.. Its im-
portance now was obvious since only the previous
week, two detailed accounts one by the Associated
Press Pulitizer prize winner, Peter Arnett, and another
in The New York 'Times, had traced the Asian drug
traffic to specific villages on the Burma-Thai border.
From there it moves over land and air. routes to South
Vietnam, with the certain' knowledge if not connivance
of Thai and .South Vietnamese officials. No matter
that the Tor Eastern Economic Review states unequivo-,
cally that Hong Kong is not a conduit for drugs from
mainland. China, or' that the US Narcotics Bureau lays
no charge - against the People's Republic of China,
such as it does against Turkey, Iran and a host of
oilier countries.
- We. see no evidence of an all-out US campaign at
: CUA-RER86-011:6131R000.600516,0001ar1d thereby hi dc
? -Continnoa
ta
Ct
-
11] 996%TATI NT!: ARMIffikf9A-1CIP.eRPORN51-0.--:/C*713PR?41?94gq9P6 2.7 b6r ;?3, 1971 _
? Cf. Curran, Barbara, Unavailability of Law- President has not made a final cecision
per's Services for Low Income Persoas, 4 On whether or not to exclude these four
Val.U.L.R. 308 (Sp. '09). countries from the cut in foreign aid.
Jerome J, Shestack, a practicing lawy m er
in Philadelphia, is immediate past Chairman There is still time for Members -of Con-
of the American Bar Association Section of. gress to contact the President and urge
Individuiil Rights and Responsibilities, a
laird not to further feed the already fatted
member of the National Advisory Committee cows who hai,e not cracked down on their
. to tile Legal Services Program of the Office merchants of death.
of Economic Opportunity, and a Member of It is about time we stop bringing gifts'
f
the Executive Committee of the National to OUr allies when they are murdering
Legal Aicl and Defender Association. American Eervicemen. . ?
, 3D She-stack, Jerome J., "The'RIght to Legal
Services," The* Rights of America70: What Four articles follow:
[From the New York Times, Sept. 10, 1971]
They Are; What They Sholtirl Sc (Doreen ed.,
. , Pampheori, 1971) at page 126. FOUR INDOCHINESE COUNTRIES AriE REPORTED
EXEMPT FROM NIXON'S Ourazt To CUT FOR-
EIGN AID BY 10 PERCENT .
-
--- . (By Tad Szn1c)
' WHY ARE WE PAYING OUR FRIENDS WAsurNoTol-e.?South Vietnam and three
TO CONTINUE KILLING OUR .CHIL- other Southeast Asian countries are being
DREN? ... . quietly exempted from the 10 per cent cut
in foreign OCCMOMIC aid ordered by President
Nixon last month, authoritative Achninistra-
HON. CHARLES B. Ri?NGEL tion officials said today.
' OF NEW YORK The Administration has made no public
announcement that economic assistanCe
IN THE HOUSE. OF REPRESENTATIVES
planned for Southeast Asia for the fr.:Eal year
? Thursday, September 23, 1971 1972, which began July 1, is to remain intact
Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, the press despite the cut in the foreign-aid program.
. -
has recently reported that President'
Official spokesmen have insist-ed for the last
r
iotavoivr,:eeks that no decision has been made.
. Nixon may exempt South Vietnam, Cam- ? ct economic aid, designed to conmic-
bodia, Laos, and Thailand from his an- ment United States military assistance, .has
? .nounced 10-percent cut in economic aid. been set for V./35.5-million this year for
Official figures 'reveal that between 5.7 South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thai-
and 14 percent of our servicemen return- land. -
The largest slice Is to go to South Vietnam
ing from. duty in Southeast Asia are drug
dependent.- ? ? - . with $565-million, which is an increase of
about $100-million over economic aid given
The United Nations Commission on
in-the previbus fiscal year. ?
Narcotic Drugs has reported that at least Saigon Ofualcis noted that in announcing his new
80 percent of the World's opium is pro- -
economic policy on Aug. 15, Mr. Nixon con-
? duced in Southeast Asia. Two of those fined himself to the statement that "I have
four countries?Laos and Thailand--are? ordered a 10 per cent cut in foreign economic'
part of the "fertile triangle" which raises aid."
? more than half of the poppy-plants grown- The Administration's request to Congress
.in the world.- . . . for foreign assistance in fiscal 1972, prepared
The Criminal Investigation Division of before the new Nixon economic policy,,
was
'dent ordere the
the U.S. Army has allegedly .compiled re-
Sm.31-t3-obnilllyii.ceBotillto-ntaiLe aPicrle'I' a
vhich ccounts- for
' ports linking top South Vie tnainese lead- $2.00-billion of the total. The 'balance, $1.21-
efs to the heroin t;?ade. Lt. Gen. Ngo Dzu, billion, is earmarked for military grants and
Military.CoMmander Of South Vietnam's foreign military credit sales.
central highlands, and other military Inasmuch as Mr. Nixon did not elaborate
? and naval personnel and Government on how the economic aid reduction should be
Officials are leading figures in the nar- ' administered, the interpretation now being
'cotics. traffic that preys upon American placed on his order is that the cuts should
be applied selectively, according to officials.
servicemen in Southeast Asia. This means, they said, that the Adminis-
There have also been reports that the tration is free to cut aid for some countries
Central Intelligence Agency is supplying but not for others RS long as the economic
- arms, transportation, and funds to drug- assistance package Is reduced 10 per cent.
producing hill tribes in Laos and north- Officials concerned with United States poi-
eastern Thailand. icy in 'Southeast Asia indicated in private
The governments of these four coun- conversations that economic assistance to the
tries have failed to take decisive action ? four "criticar Southeast Asia countries could
e d we
to stop tile not b reduce hil that arHgoes on.
e production, processing, and They said that the White ouse took the
transport of illicit drugs for our GI's. 'View that cuts could undermine the econom-
While. we continue to expend billions of les in the four countries and hurt. the con-
dollars and thousands of American lives duct of the War. . -
- to defend and support these friendly Therefore, oincials- said, aid programs in
governments, they continue to kill our the region are proceeding on the assump-
servicemen. tion that no cuts will be. made unless
'
-Congress decides otherwise.
These are the governments that Presi- Foreign-aid legislation was approved by
dent Nixon may exempt from his cut in the House of Repiesenisa.tives last month and
economic assistance. These are the ac- is now before Senate committees.
COMPliCeS to murder whom the President -- Oat:dais suggested that the Administration
may reward. - preferred not to publicize the reported cx-
The adniinistriition has even requested emptions to avoid protests from other /m-
all increase ill economic aid to South tions, .
Vietnam of between $150 to $100 million.
Another reason may be concern over opin-
ion' bore. President N,guyen Van Thien has
The governmait may get even come under ahic criticism for his
fatter if President Nixon has his way. decision to run unopposed in the Oct, 3 Pres-
-. My most -recent -inquiry to the Agency idential elections and there has been talk in
for International Development' in the congress of reviewing the American assist-
Deportment of State indicates that -the :Ince to South Vietnam.
_
.
wn nlsvrau()11 OUUOVC.,, 110,10 01
increased economic aid to South Vietnam 1.
vital at a time when American forces or
withdrawing and last year's economic re-
forms are beginning to produce results.
Testifying before a _Senate subcommitte
on Wednesday, Secretary. of State William P.
Rogers asked for approval for the. full ,;565-
million for South Vietnam is needed to off-
set the economic impact of the reclucti&arin_
RVI INTL
United States military expenditures Pb
troops are withdrawn."
Economic assistance to South Vietnam
ranges .from the financing Of essential im-
ports to agricultural land reform to pro-
grams for education, and health. But it also
includes support for the South Vietnamese
police in counterinsurgency and other activi-
ties.
[Prom the Washington Post, Sept. 9, 1971]
HEROIN Paomprroiv
(By Jack Anderson)
WAsniNc-roN.?At the same time that the
U.S. command is striving mightily to stop
CI drug addiction in Vietnam, a top South -
Vietnamese general has been using U.S. mili-
tary equipment to hustle heroin. This is
documented in a number of intelligence re-
ports., all highly classified, which have, now
reached Washington from Saigon. The reports
nail Lt. Gen. Ngo Dzu, military commander
of South Vietnam's central highlands, as one
of the chief lia?oin traffickers in Southeast
Asia. -
The Incriminating details, including dates
and places of heroin transactions, have been
reported by the Army's Criminal Ihvestiga-
tion Division, U.S. Public Safety Directorate,
and Rural Devoropment Support Team In
South Vietnam. ?
Dzu's accomplices are. also na-fned, includ-
ing a former South Vietnamese Senator, a
Chinese businessman from Cholon, the South
Vietnamese provost marshal in Qui Nhon,
and several South Vietnamese navy officers.
Dem was first named a heroin dealer by
Rep. Robert Steele (It-Conn.), in testimony
last July before a House Foreign Affairs sub-
committee.. The Congressman told of his
fact-finding mission to Indochina where, he
said, widespread corruption arriong officials
had blocked efforts to halt the heroin traffic.
'The day after Ste:do's testimony, South
Vietnam's President Thietf went through the
motions of ordering a narcotics Investigation.
It's doubtful, however, that Dzu will ever be
tried and convicted.
One of Dan's molt vigorous defenders was
his senior American advisor, John Paul Vann,
who assured the press: "There's no informa-
tion available to me that in any shape, man-
ner, or fashion would substantiate the
charges Congressman Steele has made."
The incriminating intelligence reports
would indicate that Vann either was woe-
fully incompetent or, worse, was helping Dzit
to cover up Isis dope-smuggling operations.
The first intelligence report linking Dzu to
the heroin trade was filed on January 6,
1971, by the CID. Citing highly sensitive
sources, the CID charged that the narcotics
traffic in the Central High]ands had in-
creased tremendously. since Dzu had taken
-command of the region in September, 1970.
The CID's sources asserted that Dzu not only
protected the key traffickers who kicked back
part of their profits to him -but also took
a direct part in the smuggling through his
father Ngo ' rirt
E 10-012
122,52?=7
.>1
Who really runs the United States??
'certainly big business does not , make ultimate
decisions any more than does big labor, .
The Supreme. court judges after the fact and has
,some influence. . .
Congress passes laws and appropriates money, but
;piton it has no idea what is going on.
The President urges Congress to pass laws and the -
:public to back him, and he signs bills into law.
In the area of foreign policy at least it would appear
that real policy is made by the Central Intelligence ? j
'Agency (cops, here goes another item on our dossier);
At a secret hearing of the Senate Armed Forces:
Committee recently it was revealed that for nine
Years the CIA has been secretly training guerrilla .;
trpops in Laos.
. "The .irregular forces in Laos today ... number
'.about 30,000 men," according to U.S. Ambassador G.
Murtrie Godley. They have been trained by CIA,
.agents, who presumably tell them what to do and
whom to fight.
Funny thing, we always thought Laos mas an in-
dependent nentral country. And come to think of it, ,
?
we thought the President made foreign policy with the
advice and consent of -Congress.
o'
r;yr r. 6-7q [1.7.
IJ it .
())
.,
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1 5 SEP 1971
'Essential' in .Laos
.,/
. Testimony given in July before.
the Senate Armed Services Corn-.
!mittcc, and now made public, lifts
a bit more the veil that has long
obscured the extent and character
of American military involvement
in Laos. Among our activities
there; we learn,. is the sponsorship
of a force of some 30,000 guerrillas,
equipped, trained and paid by the
Central Intelligence Agency.
They are described as -indispen-
sable to the carrying out of .Ameri-
can policy. U. Alexis Johnson, Un-..
der Secretary of State for. Political
Affairs, said at the hearings . that
"the absence of such support for
the Lao government would undoubt-
edly lead to Military and political
.collapse," and would free substan-
tial North Vietnamese. forces for
use against "South Vietnam. It was
said further that the guerrillas were
an essential part of the Nixon ad-
ministration's. policy of the i"Viet-
namization" of the war in Indo-
china.
Perhaps ,this was What Defense
Secretary Laird had in mind when
he told the committee that to halve
the $407 million bvdget for expendi-
tures in Laos, as proposed by Sen-
ator Symington, would amount to
an abandonment of the guerrilla
effort.
, We are reminded again that the
war to Indochina, though indeed
diminishing in terms of American
ground troops in action, and Amer-
ican infantrymen killed, is still a
'war. We are also reminded again'
that American plans, so far as
they can be discerned, foresee a
.0ontinned war with continued
Arnerican participation, whether by
proxy or not; and that "Vietnami-
zation" has many aspects .not
al-
ways mentioned by those who Use
it as a simple slogan, suggesting'
an easy, conclusion to the Ameri-
can -role in this tragic conflict.
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01 /-k I IIN I L
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
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(3? la ria (SA 7T ?
..0"A) .Lt.LP V Ej
o
t:!
oPM-MOK1 in Lf.:103 reparrSd-=
Washington
Administration officials say the United
States is supporting 30,000 Thai troops in,
.special guerrilla units in Laos, which are /
equi.dpeci and trained by the Central Intel-
ligence Agency,
The testimony before Senate Armed Serv-
ices Committee hearings in July was made
public Monday. .
Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird
said that to halve this year's i07 million
budget for, the U.S expenditures in Laos '
would amount to abandoning the program.
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t7.1STIT'Grin' (iT
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i 11
I ri
:0 5) ? ,, i ?; A 11 ...,1:\\ 01
" 1 .1 0.11 '" ' l''' / v.:2J vA
o o
1.(1. 7
JjLs-) 0
By HENRY S. BRADSIIER have. been pegc,,cl at about 100.
Star Staff Writer
'But the Department of Do-
: PHNOM PENH, Cambodia-- fenSe wanted to put more'peo-r
:It was taking the loftiest, most pie here to supervise the dolly-
detached possible view, cry and utilization of military
The; American ambassador, aid, which is scheduled to be
Emory C. Swank, expressed Nverth $200 million this fiscal
regret the other day over the year.
unsuccessful attempt by Coin- The Pentagon wanted 200
munist terrorists to blow to people here. Swank, and ap-
bits himself, his chauffeur, his parently the State Depart-
security guard rind his car. ment, wants to hoop the awn-
The reason for the regret: it her of Americans down. They
gives Cambodia a bad name compromised on? 50 "Military
snd makes the situation here equipment .deHery team"
look shakier than it really is personnel, licaded by Brig.
now. Gen. Theodore C. Mctaxis.
Swank's sophisticated rem- Questions Raised
tion to the 'murder attempt
was part of the American el-
?fort to create both the appear-
ances' and the- substance. of
stability and security in Cam-
bodia, despite the presence of
some CO,C00 Communist troops
the country.
The United States has ac-
cepted almost total responsi-
bility for keeping Cambodia
:going under Communist mili-
The MEDT people took over
a job that had been done on a
tougher schedule by the small
office of Jonathan F. Ladd, the
embassy comrsellor for politi-
c a I -in ilit y affairs and
Swank's right-hand man on all
, things military.
"fhe combination of Ladd's
Green Beret background and
Swank's own record?he was
the No. 2 man in the U.S.
Jary pressure. Embassy in Laos when the
?
vast American clandestine op-
.
'Every Assurance' eration there was growing in
s U. S. weapons, Military the mid-160s?reaturally rais-
Araining arranged by the Unit.- es questions about just what
'ed States in other countries, the United States is doing in
and tactical air support pro- Cambodia besides the public
vided by U.S. or American- programs for arms and eco-
sponsored air forces have nomic
'enablca Cambodia to resist Nothing else, embassy offi-
:North Vietnamese and Viet cials insist.
Cong forces, while _American There was a. clandestine pro-
-economic aid has kept the gram of training about 1,500
.,'.country running. Cambodian soldiers at a secret
The foreign Minister, Noun camp of the U.S. Central Intel
Wick, said after a recent visit Eger:cc Agency in southern
to Washington that "we got Laos. The soldiers were sup-
every assurance that U. S. aid posed to operate as guerrillas
:will continue for Cambodia. in the Communist-controlled
The embassy staff was at northeastern part. of Cambo-
i one recent point supposed to dia.
S,f.--'.1 11
'''A
1?,-9 li , ?,-i LI ..-_,;:l
1 -v. . r I:. -
1 , .,,,: ,
\ I
[ 1 Q),) il
But the program has, now
ended with recriminations and
few guerrillas have been de-
ployed.
Cambodia is trying to orga-
r&e some sort of "pacifica-
tion" program for areas in
which Communist guerrillas
are active. So far there is little
more than touring propaganda
teems to give the govermnent
message.
? "Pacification" was a fertile
field for CIA activities in
South Vietnam. But, as one
senior American commented,
"Our results in pacifying Viet-
nam don't .exactly qualify us
as experts, even if we were to
bring in people to help here.
We're not going to, and it's up
to the Cambodians to tackle
that problem.!'
Big Difference
With Americans in. Cambo-
dia barred by Washington
from training or advisimib the
army, the training that has
made a big difference in the
army's growing abilities was
arranged with U.S. money to
be conducted in South Vietnam
and Thailand.
There has also been a very
secret program for Indonesia
to train some Cambodian sol-
diers in fighting guerrilas. Of-
ficials here insist the money
for this has not come from
U.S.. aid to Cambodia.
There is; however, ample
precedent for the United
States to make iittlircct .pay-
ments for such help. It cannot
be established here whether
the recently- increased U.S.
military aid program for Indo-
nesia is financing the training
for Cambodians.
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? Approved For ReleaseagOyplaj 9koirLFIJDP80-01601R000600
14 SEP 1971
A
/Iv\
,
-Z47-1 12? ? '
0 tf:
tz.)
Fietiro Fpr Ahvo Vstimple,?
? -- - - UI IO
Troops CEilled Backbone of Anti-Red 3attie
? WASHINGTON The wish to become intimately The ambassador said
in ?the internal that CIA operations in
Central Intelligence Ai ii- InvolVed
cy is ,. .o. political -ma na
chitions or Laos were :under his con
equipping traiilin"' -
' political military. actions and that he knew .of
anl airing abciat, 2,0,000 in that country." no other case where mill-
Thai troops fighting as ? Godley- said tile CIA be- itary operations abroad
regular forces in Laos, it -gan covertly assisting Lao \\fere under tile direction
.irregular forces in - 1062 of. an ambassador with the
,was disclo ?
sed Irroliclay.
,he figure was given by .and '63 when it became ap- Defense Department hay-
J.1 parent ?the North Vietnina- ing no operational con-trol
M ,
G. Mcurtrie Godley, U.S. were not going to re-
e officials were sup-
ese arn Th Nix's bassador in Vientiane,
sped the Geneva ac(7.Ord porting President on
s
request for $107 million
in secret testimony to a
closed session of the Sen- barring 'outside military for Laotian operations in
,ate Armed Services Com- interference in Laotian af-,tiie financial
year which
Mitten on July 22.fairs. ? o ? began July 1.
A censorecUranscript of . The Undersecretary of Johnson ? said ? "the 24
the hearing was made ?.
state for political affairs, U. .sence of such sdPP05t
?
public Monday.
would undoubtedly lead to
Th 30 000 was far
,Alexis. Johnson, re.iterated military aral political col-
ine ,
excess of the previopsly he Administration's con- lapse in Laos."
published unofficial . esti- tention to the committee
mates of 4,500 to 5,000 U.S. that ?. American financing ?
trained Thai troops oper- of the Thais did not violate
.ating in LAGS. the ?congressional ban on
Godley told the commit- U.S. payment to third.
Ice the CIA-financed guer- country troops in Laos.
rilla units "have been the ? The United States con-
backbone of the military sidered such Thai forces
effort in Laos" to repel the as local forces because
North Vietnamese forces, they WI severed their
.."The irregubir forces in connections with the Thai
Laos today . . . number armed forces and wire
Un-
about 30,000 men," he said. der the control of the. Lao-
'These forces are orga- flan -government, he said.
nizcd into SCU (special Sen. Stuart Symington /
guerrilla unit) battalions (D-Mo.), who helped push
and these battalions now through the payment ban,
comprise about 330 to 360 ? described Johnson's logic
men each." Pi labeling the Thai troops
:Vientiane Avoided
as local as "reaching pret-
?
ty far out. -
Godley said the guerrilla "If there are Thai merc.e-
units operated every- navies in Laos, it is the
where in Laos except the ?
opinion of our lawyers
area around the capital, that ? chat is against the
Vientiane. law," he said. . .
'?? "The reason that no per-
sonnel have been recruit-
Nixon Doctrine
' ed in the Vientiane area Godley said the .CIA ac-
was that there were in the -tion :in :Laos was .consis-_
1060s a series of coups," he tent with the Nixon Doc-
said.
trine of reducing direct
- ?
'Military personnel . American military pr
played a rather prominent sence abroad while assis-
role in these actions, and ting local forces in other
the United States did not ways to battle outside ag-
gression. -
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A A A
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17E11 YORK TIMES
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NEW REPORT -TELLS
OF C.I.A.'S LAOS ROLE
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13
(UPI)?A transcript of secret
Senate testimony described to-
ddy the Central. Intelligence
,Agency's role in secretly train-
lag and supporting 30,000 guer-
rilla troops in Laos since 1902.
The material was contained
in published closed-door hear-
lags before the Senate Armed
Services Committee.
G. McMurtrie Godley,
States Ambasador to L United
Laos, told
i
he committee that the guerrilla
units financed by the Central
Intelligence Agency, "have
been the backbone of the mili-
tary effort in Laos" to repel the
North Vietnamese forces.
"The" irregular forces in Laos
today . .. number about 30,000
men," he said. "These forces
are organized into S.G.U. [Spe-
and these battalions now com-I
cial Guerilla Unit] batallions
prise about 330 to 360 men,
each."
Last month a 23-page report
was made public detailing the
involvement of the C.I.A. in the
Laotian war. That report was
prepared for the Senate Foreign
Relations subcommittee on for-
eign commitments by James G.
Lowenstein and Richard M.
Moose, two former Foreign
Service officers.
Mr. Godley said that the
guerrilla units operated every-
where in Laos except in the
area around the capital, Vien-
tiane.
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--\PHILADFLPHIA, PA.
INQUIRER
? - 463,503
- 867,4810
SEP 1 4 1J7,1
r
Washington Dateline
?. Trained Guerillas
r08, Senators Told
A transcript of secret Senate testimony disclosed Mon-
ay that the Central Intelligence Agency has been secretly
training and supporting 30,000
guerilla troops in Laos since 1962.
The figure was disclosed for the -
first time ..in published closed-door
hearings before the Senate Armed
Services Committee.
G. Murtbie Godley, U. S. Am-
bassador to Laos, told the commit-
tee the CIA-financed guerilla units
"have been the backbone of the
military effort in Laos" td repel the
North Vietnamese forces.
"The irregular forces in Laos
Murtrie Godley today . . . number about 30,000
G.men," he said. "These forces are
l'to 360 111012 each,"
Ilinit) battalions and these battalions nosy comprise about 330
organized into Sal- (special guerilla
- GOdley said the CIA began covertly assisting Lao
ll'regular forces in 1962 and 1963, yhen it became apparent
the North Vietnamese were not going to respect the Geneva
accords barring outside military interference in the Laotian
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$490 MILLION A YEAR AND 30,000 GLYEa LLAS
((PD ? The war in Laos has grown to a $490
million-a-year operation that includes a 30,003-
i man Secret guerrilla army run by the CIA.
Defense Secretary Melvin Laird gave these
?
figures to the Senate Armed Services Commit-
tee July 22. A heavily-censored record of his
? testimony wwas released yesterday.
Mr. Laird said the $4'90 million does not coy-
er U.S. bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trait thru
Laos into South Vietnam. The funds cover only
operations in direct Support of Laos, including
CIA training and equipping of Lao and Thai
irregulars, tactical air operations against
North Vietnam, economic aid and military as-
sistance to goVernment forces,
/ MILITARY ACTIVITIES
G. McMortrie. Godley, the U.S. ambassador
.Laos who supervises all military activies
and runs the CIA operations, saki the 30,001
guerrillas and an undisclosed number of Thai
irregulars are "the backbone of the military
effort in Laos."
Undersecretary of State U. Alexis Johnson
said that never before has the United State;
conducted military operations under the direc-
tion of an ambassador with the State Depart-
ment having no operational control.
?
The number of CIA men in the. area re-
mained classified, but Mr. Godley he did
not see how a similar number of regular U.S.
military men could accomplish the same job
with the same number of people.
"They have, for example, in Laos men who
speak the language, who know the terrain like
the palms of their hands and who do what I
consider to be an outstanding .job."
,Mr. Godley said some of the CIA agents
were former military men "hut in no case has
there been any what we call sheep-dipping.
There has been no instance of a man seconded
by our military forces to serve with the CIA in
Laos." -
...He said the guerrilla units operated every-
where in Laos except in the capital area. r
"The reason that no personnel has been re-
cruited in the Vientiane area was that there
were in the 1959s a series of coups," he said.
`Military personnel played a rather prominent
role, and the United States did not wish to
become intimately invoiced in internal politi-
cal machinations."
Mr. Godley said the CIA began assisting Lao
? irregulars in 1962 -and 1963, when it became
apparent that the North Vietnamese were not
going to respect. the Geneva Accords barring
outside military interference, -
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ViliSi-IINGTOld POST
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C j7/ 'if ? 0 P,
TI _
. _ (:(); Tql7) C; /I
_ 11 Li) (.;/ O17 ,IU
?
0 kJ
iL. .
has about three more regiments in southern Laos than it had
before the operation.
The report said the War in Lu os was run in most respects
by the United States Embassy at Vientiane, the capital of
Laos. It said American officals at the embassy spent an
-hour and a half a day at an operations.mceting, during which /
they are briefed on the \yar by Army and air. attaches and
the CIA station chief.
"The United States continues to train, arm and feed the
Lao army ? and air force and to train, advise, pay, support,
and, to a great extent, organize the irregular military forces
under the direction of the CIA," Low6nstein and Moose said. ,
Combat elements of the irregular forces are now about
as large as tbose of the Royal Lao Army, it was said. Cost
of ?the irregulars has been increasing every year, the report .
noted, and the irregulars "have become the cutting edge. of
the military, leaving the Royal Lao. Army as a force pri-
marilydevoted. to static defense."
Moose ? and Lowenstein were not permitt.c7d to say how
many irregular volunteers from Thailand were in Laos at
the -time of their visit., They were told the Thai volunteers
were recruited for service in LEIOS from outside the regular
Thai army. The costs of the "lhaI? troops are channeled
through the CIA, it was said.
The report said two Laotian air force planes in January
1970 bombed the road being built in Northern Laos by
Communist China. Subsequently, it was reported, there has ;
been a heavy build-up of Chinese antiaircraft along the road.
?The area is off limits to United States aircraft.
Symington has sought for some time to bring into public
view the facts about American involvement in Laos, an elon-
gated country of about 3,000,000 persons west of Vietnam,
south of China, and north of Cambodia. The Ho Chi Minh
Trail into Vietnam runs through Laos. ?
It is encouraging, Symington said in a statement today,
that the American Government has agreed now that much of
what it has been doing in Laos may be made public. Ile said
he regretted that some details and facts still were being
withheld.
."Let us hope that . .. the staff report on Laos will help
the American public decide,?" he- said; "whether it is either
wise or desirable for the United States to continue to do
what we have been doing in Laos, at ever-increasing cost to
this nation in dollars, and to the Lao people in lives and
territory."
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3 AOC 1971
noon IOUR It
?
r r7
.1 ti Vzyt?
{RD ? Red China has quietly built up its
military presence in neighboring Laos to a ?
force of 14,000 to 20,000 men. . ?
A report prepared for the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee disclosed yesterday that
the Chinese have installed 395 radar-guided
anti-aircraft guns along a road they are build-
ing deep into the interior of northern Laos.
Some of the guns can hit planes 68,000 feet
high.
The significance of the buildup is not known
but. American officials regard it as virtual ex-
tension of China's southern borders into a
neighboring state, the report said.
The report not only detailed China's role in
Laos, but was the first officially sanctioned
account of day-to-day CIA activities in direct-
ing Thai and Royal Laotian commando forces
against the communists.
Also, it was the first time the CIA was will-
ing to acknowledge its role, The beavily-cen-
sored report had been classified secret.
Two committee consultants, James Lowen-
stein and Richard Moose, prepared the 23-page
'document after a two-week trip to Laos last
spring.
They said the overall situation in Laos was
growing steadily worse and-that U.S. aid was
the only thing preventing a complete route by
,Ie-orth.Vietnamese and communist Pathet Lao
forces in the country.
CIA expenditures for the past fiscal year,
not counting its support for an estimated 4,800
Thai irregulars, was put at .'s;6"1 million.
The report said: "The CIA supervises and
pays for the training of these :irregulars in
Thailaid and provides their salary, allowances
(including death benefits) and operational
costs.in Laos."
An exact breakdown of the war's cost was
not given, but some senators have said it runs
more than $1 billion -a year plus the cost of
U.S. bombing. runs cr,,er the Hc Chi Minh trail
leading into South Vietnam.
The road the Chinese started in the early
1960s now stretches 45 miles across the north-
ern tip of Laos within 20 miles of Thai.
It is virtually a Chinese garrison ,with all the
earmarks of permanence, according to the re-
port.
Altho the road is off-limits for American
bombers, Royal Laotian planes flying too close
to it have been fired at.
,
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Approved For Releatiatfi701101A5A-RDP80-01601
-8 At1C-'A 1071
. .
?
By Laurence Stern
Post Sts.-If
Tile Central Intelligence
'Agency spent. about $70 mil-
lion to operate an army of ii--
'rho most effective military
force in Laos is not the Royal
Lao Army, but the force
3:-.n.own previously as the
regular forces numbering Armee Clandessille ? ? ? and
'more than :30,000 mon in Laos n'Y'Y T' the liGS ? ? ? The. Eci-:
during rkeoi wii, a senafe units are part of the irregular
Foreig,n Relations Committee. force 5 ',,Th eh '-nle, trnined,
equipped, supported, advised,
staff report disclosed yestei?-
? day. . and th a groat extent, organiad
The report portrayed a far by th,r:. CIA," the report asy
broader picture of clandestine erts?
"The. PIG units have become
American involvement in the
i Lao guerrilla arinicS, now the cutting ed,7,0 of the Lao
known as the RGs (after the military forces, as one. U.S. of-
French bataillons Luerriers), fic,i,-;!.ilepnts it."_ ... . , . Amendment to the 1071 d.c.-
than had previonsly surfaced t kflf i7eguly mut:, saYs til.e fense authorization find pro-
:3 a - ITPOrt, do most of. the curement bills. lt prohibits
i,nbliely in Vi ashirwton. day-to-day patrolling, ambush- Anicl?ican financing of third
The 22-page document, pro- log aud attacking throughout country forces in .Camhodia
pared by Comhtittee staff the counti -y." They are .and Laos and was designed to
-1 Mendyers Jamel G. Lowell- "closely" Eupervirsed and fed prevent further escalatirr .1 of
stein and Richard Al. Moose, and paid by the CIA.. Unlike the U.S. role in. the Lido-
was released yesterday by the. Illoyal Lao Anny, the Sen- clitnese war.
Stuart Symington (1)-72,1(.'.), ate documentE.J..ky!3, the ms Most references to Thal
chairman of the subcommittee are guaranteed evacuation by troops in Lo 3 were sanitized
on Unit ecu
ed States Srity An A11 (1'lea helicopters (It from the staff report. Foreign
Agreements and Commit- CiAii-.4Tiinied. airline) nl.l Relations Comroittc_:r;.? SOP.Pecs,
ritent; Abroad, medical care--in some cases licr,vever, indicated that the
There bas been a wide- provided in a U.S. field hosni- United States may liar? spent
spread conception, as a result tal at the Loyal Thai Air as much as $35 million to il-
ia Symington subcommittee Force base in -Worn, Thai-
hearings and newspaper arti- imid.
des two years ago, that the - It took five wee3,,,_, ,of tic2?.
principal CIA-trained guerrilla ilation with the Nixon edminis-
? force in Laos was concen- tration to release tile sanitized
trated in the Plain of Jars version of the report. The doe-
tinder the leadership of Meo ument is shot thi?ough with
Gen. Yang Pao.
the word "deleted," 'which sig-
But the new report, based nines omissions of facts and
on interviews with American numbers insisted upon by ex-
military and diplomatic off1.- ccutive agencies.
elals in Laos, asserts that 13(11 But the first tilllr' the CIA
"irregular" forces are opera t.-, permitted itself to be referred
lug in all but one of the five l to by name in a publtshed doe-
military regions of Laos. Only I
- ? ument of the Subcommittee
38 per cent of the irregulars
1110 Ansel-icon people 1ms beer
partially lifted," he added,
protested, however, the admin-
istration's continued refusal to
declassify much of the infer.
mation hearing on U.S. sup-
port of Thai military forces in
Laos.
Members oil the :Foreign Re-
lations COMMittee have taken
the position that the Thal
units which him, been ac-
knowledged by the adrninistrci-
tion to be fighting in Laos arc
in violation of the Pulirright
during its three-year review of
are under. Vang Pao 's com-
'U.S. nnh,atry commitments.
mand in the setiond military Although specific CIA expen- fewer than e.l,000 Thai "yolun-
region, which encompasses the (Mures were stricken from tears" in Laos.
Plain of .Tars. the report, they could be sins- "The Thai irregular pro-
The JIG irregulars, says the ply computed - by subtracting gram developed during the
Senate report, are playing a published figures listed for past year and Was designed by
far more important role in the the Defense Department and the CIA specifically:l.erii-i the
Laotian War than ' the Royal AID from the overall totals lines of tha irregular program
Lao Army. They have taken given in the subcommittee re.- hi Laos," the report said. "The
heavier casualties and ac- port.- : CIA supervises and - pays for
counted for higher enemy kills ? In a statement announcing the training of these irre.gu-
than the regular Lau army release of the Laos report, lace in Thailand and provides
forces. Symington said he found it. their salary, allowances (ill-
In.
.111 nf38 to eztrly 1071 pe- "an eneourrOhlg sign that the ? elucmig pc ,it i benefits), 0...
rIod, filr example, to. LCs Executive Drench has finally operational costs In Laos." .
agr eed that much of what.the in objecti?g to the adminis-
United Slates government has tration's secrecy Polley on the
brien doing in Laos may now Thai irreghlers, Symington
be mad? public. . ' said, "i no stated reason for
e,. joi, t,4- ?-,? Ir?.4.ci? i .iku",,! 7;jihq,.:01-4...LaAn,,-.1
111,!?,s?111.071_trirtitiM11,4 : tVIRMYiri iTklY-A,141M) WO
In Laos officially hidden from as to avoid making public
..._ .
nenc:i a Thal "irregular" mili-
tary presence in Laos.
Tho tdministration has re-
Imed to discloso bow much it
Is spending, for how many
Thai troops in the Laotian
war. Symington and other For-
eign Relations Committee
members, however, have cited
publicly a figure of e1,800 Thai
irregulars in LAOS. This would
indicate. an approximate
spending level of roughly
$7000 per Thai per year. A
State Department spokesman
said last week that thero tra
pertediy surIcred C,020 Lined,
end eceounted for 22,'/26
enemy deaths, according to of-
ficial figures. The RAM.j.ki),
Army in the same perirKlirsT.
3,064 and reported an enemy
' kill of 0,522..
vhat the govinmments of Thai-
land and Laos do not q-
uake puhlic. rineirog
taxpayers of this country are
paying the bills, why should
the recipient foreign pmts.!
merits have the right to cliel
tote what our cit.-110w; can and
cannot. be told about the way
in winch public funds are
being, spent?"-
Thal forces were introduced
into Laos in significant num-
bers early last year when
Nortls Vietnamese and T'athot
Lao forces swept across the
Plain of Jars and nearly cap-
tured tim strategic CIA cons-
mand posts of Long Chang/
and Sam Thong.
"At the time of our visit to
Long Chong on April 23," raid
the Lowenstein-Moose report,
were (deleted) Thai-
there, at the nearby base of
Sam Thong, and at Dill 1663
near Sans Thong. (There uses
also a small. Thai team of (de-
leted) men at Nam Yu in Mili-
tary Region 1.)''
"We were told that the de-
tails of the funding were not
known in Vientiane, as all of
.this bookkeeping ? is done in
.v,?'-ishington," the staff report
,3aid. The adroluisztratioks con-
tends that the Thai forces are
volunteers, recruited ? in their
homelands..
The staff report iVkeg
grins view of Ma military pros-
pects ahead, for the Royal Lao-
tion. government of 1:-relator
souvanna ourna. It notes
that since the Laotian "incur-
sions" by South Vietnamese
forces last spring, "more Lao
,territory has come ? under
enemy control, and there are
about three regiments more of
North Vietnamese forces in
southern Laos than there were
before the Lam Son opera-
tion."
Despite the reported claiin
of destruction of North Viet- I
namese Pathet Lao supply]
true:Its 12;301 damaged and
destroyed in 1070 -----the report
says "there figures arc not
taken seriously by most U.S.
officials, even Air -Force offi-
ffirs ..." ?
The report also listed--for
the first time with tacit ?fit-
160001a-clknowledgeroent--the
number of U.S. Air Force sor-
_ _
INTL
STATINTL IA I IN IL
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i I c'
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By GEORGE SI11.1.1:01AN,
States govcrillilent. has been!Lnos. But the VaSt Ltill: was- to
Star Stall Wi-iler doing in Laos may:now
--.-A previously classified Senate public,? be ini'-"do I pay . for the Thal Irregulars -- a
figure deleted from ti.'
report 'released today indicates But he hit the continual an.-. report.
the IJnited -States secretly spent willingness of the ztOrninis!rationl ' SL1? Millfr'n MIP-1
-about $130 million in the last "to .a e h a 0 iv 1 ed p e certain; Therefore; a conclusion, prro-
1
- fiscal year on "iregular" troops truths"--mainly the compoition!duced from the _report, sources
I under CIA contril in the Laos and command on-angements for close to the
the Thai troops in Laos. Senate committee
and -public statements by Rog-
The money, aCCOrdilig to the On June I, oym-inston cc at ' crs,- is that the U.S. a. it ithei-it
stall' report of a Senate Foreipn ed the whole Uncensored ri.ep0lit,3') ,rnitilw,' ca the activilles (1f
Relation subcoinmittec, support- to an executive session of the the irreJttnarS in Laos ? Lao
Cd 30,000 Lao irregulars 0p Sena , ? ?._,, ii,:. ?. ?, . ....? r and Thailrreg,ulars.
mg in four of the five military ,1? 1 ,. I h I ;
regions of Laos, plus Thai irreo-- ''' c'eue-'-e- u.''''',1,ici 101'eese LII:S is Also for the first time, the
ulars operating mainly in the '1``),,, al)P,,.''r 'a L111:?' C"g:eSiiblill report produces official figures
strategic Plain of Jars in North' 'cC(I:C' Li"C''.1.1)W. to document ?the steeply 'rising
costs or the Lees war since J.953.
1,30S. Most Exact Eigures
.? Tin, tixact number of the To-hi 1 . For the fiscal year 1072 which
forces, is deleted frOM the report ."' ' began July 1, the overt military .
,h., ',tow._ it:cola, the
. by administration censors. But assistance- program alone is to
23-page repert today manages to
. sem J. \,,,illiron 3.,, uibri,ht.,.chair.. -give the il!OS C-NIC't figures -to cost $252.1 million.
date 031 the cosi of the. secret
man of the Foreign?Relations
operation, but overall to1als still Chinese Double
Committee, after reading the tin-
are- obtained only by-pitting-to- The report also finds that
censored report, on June 8 put
Ple number of Thais t 00.
gether biis mid pieces of what Cliiiiesc. participation in Laos,
a 4,8
1 'the administration has allowed along the road from the Chinese.
- Long Negotiations through censorship. border into north central Laos,
. "They ersion made public today; . For instance, a hey passage has more than doubled in two
...
folio Is five Weelc8 of intensive Hisfs a total- of $234.2 million as years. rUp from 6,000 men,. toe
-negoitations between the authors the fetal U.S.. expenditure in Chinese force is now estionted
Of the report, James G. LVven- Laos in the fiscal year ending by U.S. intelligence at between ,
stein and Richare M. Moose, and Jen? l3D ?exclusive 'if t'cirii?bing R1,000 and 20,0A ill0a.
three representatives cf the ex- nests. That -P84.2 million. the Since November 1970 th,e re-
ecutive branch?one each from report says, is mnue up of "an port says, the Chinese, besides
the State Department, Defense estimated $102.2 million in mili-?. improving previous road_ con-
Department, and Central Intelli- tarY assistance, $52 million in struction, have installed eight
genet; Agency.
the AID program (economic) small-arms firing ranges usu-
t is. the first time that CIA and $(deleted)- spent by CIA ex- ally associated with ground gar-
activities in Laos have been con- elusive of the Thai irregular ris9ns, plus antiaircraft . guns,
finned and given some detail costs." raising the total to 305.
-publicly. ' By school-boy mathematics ? The report says that, despite,
. --The report states that the Lao uncontested by administration the huge expenditures of Amer-
irreE,ulars?caded BG units after. representatives ? that makes ican money and Lao and Thai
,their French nae, bataillons the CIA budget for irregulars $70 manpower, "most observers in
T,uerriers?"are part of the ir- million. - ? Laos say that from the military
.r.e g a l a r forces which arc,point of view the. situation there
- trained, equipped, supported, Rogers Estimate . is growing steadily worse and
. -advised, and, to a great extent,
\/ organized by the CIA.." In addition, Secretary of State the initiEitive seems clearly to .
William P. Rogers said June 15 be in the hands of the enemy." i
.... These forces, the report con-, that the total U.S. expenditures
linues, have become the "cutp-7 in Laos in fiscal 1071 ? exclu-
..ing edge" of the Lao military sive of bombing ? was $350 mil-
fOrces, far n-iore active and effi- lion, not $281.2 million,
'cent than the 60,000-man Royal That maims an additional $55.8
Lao Amry. million spent. ?
'Encouraging Sign Committee sources say part of
! - . that $05.8 million went for addi-
. - Sen. Stuart Symington, 'chair- lionel and unexpected expend-
pian of the security subcommit- Lures after the staff was ill,
tee which sent Lowenstein and
Moose to Laos for 12 days, April
22 to May 4, said it was "an
enNur"gIng slAVii?04-dicek Release 2001/09/10 : CIA-RDP80-01601R000600160001-1
tive branch has windy agreed
that 'much of what the -United
OII-kIIINIL
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Approved For Release 2101/Qat192. gi.-MRDP80-016.01R00060
WINNING? HEARTS AND MINDS
c
j_jr,
il1Y tiAi,?:.)
From the beginning, the core of the tragedy in Southeast Asia
bar been the inability of Western political leaders, and par-
ticularly American political leaders, to grasp the nature .of
insurgency in areas formerly under colonial rule, or the limita-
tions of counterinsurgency to - quell it. Accordin.gly, The
Nation is devoting almost this entire issue to Eqbal Ahmad's
essay on the subject. In somewhat dillerent form it will be a
chapter in Ids forthcoming Reaction 'and Revolution in the
Third World (Pantheon). Mr. Ahmad is a Fellow of the Ad/al
Stevenson Institute in Chicago.
To write on counterinsurgency one must first explain
what the so-called "insurgencies" really are. In the United
States that may be difficult because for the most part the
social scientists who write on revolutionary warfare have
been proponents of counterinsurgency. As a result, the
biases of incumbents are built into the structure, images
and la.riguage of contemporary Western, especially Amer-
ican, literature on the. subject. We have come to accept
ideologically contrived concepts and words as objective
descriptions.
One. could take innumerable examples?terrorism, sub-
versioh, pacification, urbanization, protective reaction,
defensive interdiction, etc.?and expose the realities be-
hind these words and phrases. The term counterinsurgency
. is itself an excellent. example. Like all coinages in .this
area, it is value-laden and misleading. In fact, counterin-
surgency is not at all directed against insurgency, which
Webster defines as "a revolt against a government, not
reaching the proportions of an organized revolution; and
not recognized as belligerency." The truth is, the Congress
and the country.would be in uproar if the government were
to claim that U.S. counterinsurgency capabilities could
conceivably be available to its clients for putting down
"revolts not reaching the proportions of an organized
revolution." The truth is. the opposite: counterinsurgency
is a multifaceted assault against organized revolutions.
, The euphemism is not used by accident, nor from igno-
rance. It serves to conceal the reality of a foreign policy
dedicated to combating revolutions abroad; it helps to
relegate revolutionaries to the status of outlaws. The
reduction of a revolution to mere insurgency is also an im-
plicit denial of its legitimacy. In this article, counterin-
surgency and counterrevolution are used interchangeably.
Analytically, counterinsurgency may be discussed in
terms of two primary models--the conventional-estab-
lishment and the liberal-reformist; and two ancillary
-models?the punitive-militarist and the technological-at-
tritive. I term these latter ancillary because they develop
after the fact?from actual involvement in. counterrevolu-
tion, and from interplay between the conventional and
liberal institutions and individuals so involved. The
c7:1
STATINTL
scope of their application at given times, and in term
of the agencies and individuals favoring them, are oper-
ationally integrated in the field. 1 outline them here:
Although monolithic in its goal of suppressing revolu-
tions; the theory and practice of counterinsurgency reflects
the pluralism of the Western societies to which most of its
practitioners and all of its theoreticians belong. A pluralis-
tic, bargaining political culture induces an institutionali2ed
.compulsion to compromise. Within a defined boundary,
there ,can be something for everyone. Hence, the actual
strategy and tactics of counterinsurgency reflect compro- ?
mise, no one blueprint being applied in its original, un-.
adulterated form. This give-and-take contributes to a most
fateful phenomenon of counterrevolutionary involvement:.
groups and individuals continue to feel that their particu-
lar prescriptions were never administered in full dosage
and at the right intervals. They show a. tendency toward
self-justification, a craving to continue with and improve
their formulas for success. Severe critics of specific "blun-
ders" and "miscalculations," they still persist in seeing
"light at the end of the tunnel." I shall return to this in
discussing the Doctrine of Permanent Counterinsurgency.
Ea2 1.71;ank,z; '117.,pavcIt?
We might view the conventional-establishment approach
as constituting the common denominator of the assump-
tions and objectives shared by all incumbents; viz., an
a priori hostility toward revolution, the view that its ori-
gins are conspiratorial, a managerial attitude toward it as.
a problem, and a - technocratic-military. approach to its
solution.. in strategy and tactics, this approach prefers con-
ventional ground and air operations, requiring large de-
ployments of troops, search-and-destroy missions (also
called "mop-up operations"), the tactics of "encirclement"
and "attrition"?which involve, on the one hand, large
military fortifications (bases, enclaves) connected by "mo-
bile" battalions (in Vietnam, helicopter-borne troops and
air cavalry); and; on the other hand, massive displacement
of civilian population and the creation of free-fire zones.
The conventionalists also evince deep .longings for set
battles, and would multiply the occasions by forcing, sur-
prising or luring the guerrillas into conventional show-
downs. The results of these pressures arc bombings (e.g.,
North Vietnam) or invasion of enemy "sanctuaries" across
the frontiers of 'conflict (e.g., Cambodia) and the tactic
of offering an occasional bait in the hope of luring the
enemy to .a concentrated attack (e.g., Dienbienphu, Kite.
Sanh).
If the conventional-establishment attitudes constitute
the lowest common denominator of counterreVolution, the
liberal-reformists are the chief exponents of its doetrine,.
and the most sophisticated programmers of its practice.
models, though O rov ldF_o
PRiUtit il?o/10 ._44ky:cok_ttevikab86dtp166fil1fically associated
Approved For Release 2001/19ria:
,
Some Ties
to re-establish itself and -Con-
gress as a whole as a branch
of the Government co-equal with
the Presidency.'
The most direct challenge
- last week ?land one that could
? ' produce a stormy_ confrontation
? came from the Senate For-
eign Relations Committee, which
discovered a little-noticed pro-
vision in the 1961 Foreign Aid
' Act. Basically the provision
'
? Ila I e, ?. states ,,I. 1 ' ,. gram will be cut off if, within
that a foreign aid pro-
. . , :35 days, the Executive Branch
' has not supplied a foreign aid
i - I slept sounder then ever I
document requested by a Con-
remember to have done in my
gressional committee ---1- or, al-
Iiic ? ? ? when I al""kellecl' ? ' ? ternatively, if the President has
./ attempted to rise, lillt WaS not
not invoked Executive privilege
'able to stir: for, as I "hoppened
to keep the document from Con.
'to lie on my bock, I found my
.arms and legs were. strongly fas- gross.
By a unanimous vote the corn.
:ltened on eoch side to the ground.
mittec decided to levoke the
'?From a Voyage to Lilliput in
provision to require the Defense
"Gulliver's Trevels " Department to turn over a live-
WASHINGTON ? With a year military assistance plan
'maze of legislative strings, the which it has, refo:zed to supply
Congress last week dramatically to the committee. In perhaps
accelerated efforts to ensnare a the clearest test of the Execu-
latter-dair Gulliver named Rich- tivc Branch's right to withhold
ard Nixon. Those leading the information since the Eisenhow-
attack, however, had an even er Administration tussled - with
larger target in mind: the ever- Senator Joseph McCarthy, the.
increasing power of the install- Pentagon was thus faced with
tion of the Presidencyltself. a choice of turning over the
Thus, the Senate Foreign Re- document or facing. a suspen-
lations Committee threatened to sion of its billion dollar mill-
cut off funds for the military tary aid program to more than
.aid program unless the - Ex- 40 ntttions.
ecutive Branch .produced a Pen- The President could invoke
tagon document. Committee Executive privilege, but that
rooms. rang. with complaints_ of would sot a precedent and un-
excessive secrecy by the Exec- dercut all the lesser reasons that
utive Branch and proposals to the Executive Branch has been
force the Administration to sup, using for withholding informa-
ply Congress with information. tion from Congress----that it
And a bill to limit the warmak- would not be in the national th-
ing powers of the Presidency terest to release such infoirna-
)(Tan ? moving' with unexpected tion or that the data were merely
speed and support- through the "internal working documents."
egislative machinery. - A- Senate Judiciary subcom-
- Through all the noise and ac, mittee, mcnrwhile, began hear-
tivity, which seemed to be ig- ings on legislation, offered by
riored but Was certainly not un-
, Senator J. W. Fulbright, chair-
heard . by the Gulliver in the
roan of the Foreign Relations
White house, ran a 'deep con- Committee, that would compel
stitutiorial power struggle be- Government officials to appear
tween the Presidency and the
before Congressional committees
"Congress. Ever since the Nixon
and testify unless the President
Administration took office, and
. . . invoked Executive privilege.
-
that pretty well summed up the
frustration in the Senate over
Executive Branch secrecy.
_ In ar less punitive manner,
Senator John Sherman Cooper
of Kentucky came forward with
a proposal that Congressional
'committees, like the Executive
Branch, should be furnished
with information by the Central
fore .the ?Senate..Foreign. Rela-
tions . Committee, .Professor Al-
exander M. Bickel of Yale -Law
School said: "In matters of war
? and peace,. a. succession of Pres-
Adents --well intentioned and
patriotic, 1.6 be sure ? have in-
'eed come close to .canceling
the ? effectiveness of Congress;
The result is a dangerous cons
Intelligence Agency, - again on tradiction of the - principles of
the premise that if- Congress is democratic government, which
to help set foreign policy then I believe ought to be set right."
it must he informed. Senator's / They were welcome, well-
Clifford P. Case of New JerseyYhee.ded words to members of the
-and Stuart- Symington of Mis- Foreign Relations Committee as
?souri, meanwhile, were pressing they set about last week to
amendments that would pre- consider legislation defining and
vent: the President from using un- Tstricting the war powers ?of
disclosed C.I.A. funds to fight the Presidency. What is expect--
a secret war in Laos. ed ? to 'emerge is an amalgam
On the theory that the Senate of proposals offered by such on-
should give advice as. well as likely paint/ors .in a challenge to
consent, Senator Vance Hartke the Presidency as conservative
advanced with a double-bar- Senator John Stennis of Missis-
reled resolution. One part would sippi and liberal Jacob K. Jav-
call for Senate confirmation of its of New York. Basically their
the new United States r'epresen- proposal is. that the President
tative to the Vietnam peace talks could undertake emergency mil
-
in .Paris. The other -would offer itary actions, such as repelling .
the advice of the Senate that an attack on United States
in the negotiations the -United forces, but could not continue
States should agree to -total military 1,;ostilities for. more than
troop withdrawal in nine months a month ,4piehout obtaining Con-
if agreement was reached on gressional- consent.
timely release of American pris- / Even Sentaor Hugh Scott,
oilers of war. V who as _Republican leader has
.The latter pa-rt was a va.ria- stood as the Administration's
tion on the Senate-approved spokesman against Congrossiop-
troop withdrawal-.amendment of al intrusions on Presidential pre-
Senator Mike Mansfield, the ma- rog,atives, joined in the drive for
jority leader, that was still ty- war powers legislation. "The
log up legislation extending the time has come," he said, "when
Craft. On Friday, House and Sen- Congress will not be denied the
.r .- ,.--N.nferees reached -agreeroentt right to participate, in accord-
csaidne.reaebniyl vprNe-taoniler he force
f
s:ctihattwoftodrdcorot- ance with the Constitution, in
the whole enormous business of
the Mansfield ? amendment but how wars are begun." Earlier in
w that, would retain the concept at
the month, Representative Ger-.
. atilile troops
y a "date
n
President shotdllad- withdraw aid R. Ford, who as house.
Republican leader. has been a
subject to the release -of Ameri- conservative champion of -the
can P.O.W.'s. ' - - ' . Administration, had endorsed
All these various legislative war powers legislation.. When
strings, even if they should be the Republican leaders start talks'
tied down, ' wOuld. not funda- ing that way it was proof that
mentally change the balance of Congressional. resentment ' and
power. At most they 'might make frustration over the secrecy and
the Congress-better informed in powers assumed .by the White
giving advice and thus more
able to serve as a counterba House v.-ere - running deep.
l-
. Evert' the long passive Nouse
even e e _c, in .. Closing 3 S "When the Government operates mice to the Presidency Un- Foreign Affairs Committee was
of. the Johnson 'Administration,
in secrecy, its citizens are not doubtedly the most important getting into the act. It included .
a 'Senate frustrated at not be -
informed and their ignorance string, therefore, was one that in the Forerern Aid Authoriza- '
log included in foreign policy de-
breeds oppression said Sena- Sentttors, Republicans and Dem- tion Bill amendine,irts that would;
cisions and at being excluded
-from policy information Appwittl frtif RAA601Aitdrrec?c0A-fkbP&CP0116.131R000600e14004)141itary and economic:
subcommittee. cowman, at cin the President's warmaking aid to Greece until .consitution-
in ' an assertive mood, ?-seeking Ile re --
the outset of the hearings, and powers. . . al clemoclacy is restored in that
Br testimony _last week be- . -
??
Approved For Release 2001/09/10 : CIA-RDP80-01601W9A9160001-1
CHICAGO , ILL,
SUN-TIMES
5;66,103 ?
S - 709,123,r,
Ptjt 13
0 ?.?
S ti GT ON ? Sen. A dial
' E. Stevenson III (D-411.) sail
; Friday that the State Depart-.
311 C n t has advised China
against adn-Litting any senators
or congressmen pcior to Pl:CS1-.'
dent Nixon's visit, He felt
"sure" Peking would comply.
? Stevenson indicated support
for the State Department
and saicl he had passed the .
word to Peking that he did not
think it would be "appro-
priate" for him to visit China
pkilafter Mr. Nixon's trip.
i- The senator applied for .a
visa a few hours helm o the
IZTesident made his surprise.
July 15 arniouncementAliat he
plans to go to China before
next May,
talk
Stevenson calledra-171'M con-
ferencd to make a formal an-
nouncement of his plans to
take a?25-day trip to Asia and
.1 B e Soviet Union starting
Wainesday.
His Asian stops will he Hong
Kong, Thailand, South Viet-
nam and Japan.
Stevenson said he intends to
concentrate on political and.
economic, rather than mili-
tary, problems. However, he
said he will discuss the -.War in
Laos with officials of the Con-
Ira/ Intelligence Agency at the
CIA. headquarters at Udorn in
..nort.b.c.i.rn Thailand.
in Saigon, he-said he hopes
' to see President Nguyen Van
Thieu, Vice President Nguyen
Cao Hy and Gen. During Van.
(Big) Ming, who, with My, is
- threatening to ehal1eni;3 Thieu
+.7 c7.,
,
I V.;
?
in next October's presidential
'A special interest'
Stevenson said he has
"special interest" in the politi-
cal scene in South Vietnam
since he fears, after an in-
vestment of 0,0(l0 American
lives and $2,00 billion, the U.S.
involvement will end in what is -
"perceived to be a crooked
election (with) a U.S.-dictated
outcome."
- Stevenson said he intends to
enter the Soviet Union from
the east, stopping in Siberia at
Ithabarvsk and Irkutsk before
going en to Moscow and Lenin-
grad. it..te expressed the hope of
arranging a meeting with
Prime Minister Alexei N. Kos-
ygin and other high Soviet offi-
cials.
He is ? scheduled to return
directly from 'Russia to Chi?
cago on Aug. n, He will ho ac-
companied by Thomas Wag-
ner, his administrative assis-
tant, and John Lewis, director
of the Center for East Asian
Studies at Stanford Univer-
sity.
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M 41,151
CITIZEN-TIMES
- 67,768
JUL 3 0 197t
Do you know that the United
States has a secret army gnawing
away in Asia?
,That it may not be disbanded
when the troops are brought home
from Vietnam?
A ? Southeast Asian ?expert told a
congressional committee this week
that the Central Intelligence 'Agency
-I has built clandestine armies number-
ing 100,000 in Laos, Thailand, and
.Cambodia.'
Fred Br.anrman, a former member
of the International Volunteer Serv-
ices, plied it "the CIA's foreign Ie-
glen" and and said it . includes native
.? tribesmen, Thais, Nationalist Chinese,
end other Asians.
- Their job is to harass the ,popu-
' lation and troops in Communist-con-
trolled areas of Indochina, except
North Vietnam. Presumably, Branf-
man said, they would continue their
.dighting with 'Americ,an supplies and
money after American forces are
? withdrawn.
? The troops are: paid by the CIA,
7 which itself operates On a "secret"
budget. ??
. It was the 'first direct word .of
what- the agency 'is doing in Alsia;
? Earlier it had been disclosed that
Thai .troops, paid by the CIA, were
.operating in Laos, hut not so exten-
sively.
The report places ?the Indochina:
operation in a. new light. Is accom-
;-unodation with Hanoi possible so long
as this force, secretly organized, re-
mains active under the CIA aegis? -
Branfrpan said the CIA exercises
trunctional control of military opera-
lions in Laos and other Southeast
. .
6Th -1
ji_ o 6,
Tri) 611
-0
-v fri), -1?1
? ?
.Asian countries outside of Vietnam.
In Laos, he added, it is conducting
"a campaign of terrorism" in Com-
anunistrheld areas.
There was no immediate- indica-
tion whether Congress. will explore
-the matter further. The CIA seems
to be one of the federal "untouch-
ables."
But if Branfinalfs story is true?.
and there is no reason to doubt it?
somebody better- pin it down. The
CIA may have acquired more power
than it can safely administer.
STATINTL ?
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77 1Ai - r-
/
?Z)4 1 1 77)
cij 0 lUi 0
By DONA ROTITBERG
Associaw Prns.VirE-:r
WASHINGTON ? Day by
day and leak by leak, the se-
cret war in Laos is becoming
more and 1110fe difficult to
hide.
Successive. administra-
tions, Democratic and Rep-uh-
lican, havt: refused to discuss
the extent of U.S. involve-
ment in Laos a small,
landlocked and officially nen-
' tral country whose borders
. touch China, North and
South Vietnam, Cambodia,
',.Thailand and Burma.
? The question is not w-heth-
or the United States provides
military and economic aid to
the neutralist government of
Laos, but whether Americans
are actually engaged in fight-
ing between forces support-
ing that government and
Communist insurgents.
?
THE OFFICIAL response,.
as enunciated by President
Nixon when asked during a
Sept.- 26, 3909, news confer-
ence about American in-
volvement in the war, is:
'There are no American com-
bat forces in Laos."
Pressed by a Senate sub-
committee on the same ques-
tion, William. II. Sullivan, a
deputy assistant secretary of
state and a former U.S. am-
bassador to Laos, replied the
next month:
"Are Were any .people with
Military training in civilian
clothes? There are people
who have had military train-
0
if 7" 17 if")'-/,'" 77'' ",???`.1
; ,
(-1 (:1-,C, a (9 C.1
0/ ?
STATINTL
Mg and people who have had
paramilitary training who arc
in civilian clothes. My defini-
tion of troops are people who
are members of the armed
forces of the United States of
Amei lea. I assume that is
what the senator had in
mind
A year later, an Associated
Press dispatch from Saigon
quoted a military source as
saying casualties for U.S.
Special Forces t.-coops in Laos
were 1 or 2 killed and 3 to ID
wounded each month.
Asked abut the figures, a
U.S. command spokesman in
Saigon said, 'lThere are no
U.S. combat troops in Laos."
Slowly, over a long series
of hearings, the Senate For-
eign Relations Committee
has disclosed some of the
U.S. involvement in Laos.
'Other information has come
from such sources as the
Pentagon papers, present and
former government officials,
and field dispatches.
,n1CiNC-1TI-J.F. disclosures:
There . are 4,800 'Thai
'troops led by a Thai general
and supported entirely by
U.S. funds fighting in Laos
despite an act of Congress
prohibiting support of merce-
naries in Labs.
O Cambodian. troop s,
trained by the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency . have
been fighting -in Laos. Forty
Cambodians were killed and
fin undiselosd number
wounded in recent heavy
fighting for the 13olovens Pla-
teau.
0 Current budget figures
show the United. states
spending 890 million for mili-
tary and 852 million for eco-
nomic aid to Laos. The cor-
rect figure, congressional
sources claim, is ncatly 8500
million, roost of which is
channeled through the CIA.
0 Congressional sources
estimate 82 billion is being
spent each year bombing that
part of the Ito Chi ? Minh
Trail, principal Communist
supply route from Norch to
South Vietnam, that runs
through Laos.
0 Since 1.904, the United
States also has conducted
bombing raids in support of
the Royal I,aotian Army.
While the number of sorties,/
is classified, Sen. Stuart,
Symington (D., Mo.) has said
"a handful" in 1904 in-
creased a hundredfold in
1965,, then nearly doubled
again in 1956..
,
0 As of Jan. 27, 1971, ac-
cording to the State Depart.
ment, there were 1,034
Americans in Laos, including
395 employes of -the Agency
for International Develop-
ment, 244 with the military
attache's office, and 300 em-
ployed by Air America and
Continental .Air Services In-
ternational, two air lines sup-
orted.by the CIA.
0 Sive 1981, the CIA has
had an undisclosed number
c.,f agents working principally
with I'.-Teo tribesmen in north-
ern .Laos and more recently
with the Thai force.
When John F. Kennedy be-
came president. in 1961, Laos
was the United States' most
prcsSing problem in South-
east Asia.
In President Dwight D. 11-
sehhowor's view "the fail of
Laos to communism could
? mean the subsequent fall --
like a tumbling row of domi-
noes --- of its still-free neigh-
bors, Cambodia, and South
Vietnam and,. in all probabil-
ty, Thailand and Burma. "Such
a chain of events 1,vould open
the way to Communist seiz-
ure of all of Southeast Asia."
l',IENIIOWETZ supported
the pro-Western government
of Premier noun Gum. With
Bonn Gum's army taking a
beating from the pro-Com-
munist Pathet Lao and their
N or t 11 Vietnamese allies,
American advisers were sent
into Laos to try to shore up
the faltering Laotian Army.
Kennedy sought instead to
defuse the situation through
formation of a Laotian coati?tion govrn-nment led by neu-
tralist Sonvanna Phouma.
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r T ?
t ea, i (I-16S
(
"
Tr
C-' iff T to' 1??') ? 4'-'/: 1. r-4'r., L/ f ,)ri, ' I1,, /?(I gt - d:/-.lt.i;_ 0 ,TrL
4,0.,?--'.-r F
t.).
. .
,
a Senator C..a..s..:e.. , s_a,i_d. that t _ Score-
Lird Refuted
1
tary Laird's statement might be
1"semantically in accord" with world forces in actions designed
t the Stale Department letter, to provide military support and
since technically the Military assistance to the governments
I Assistance Program (now called of Cambodia and Laos."
Ey GENE OiSiiJ
:Washi nttl on Purcau of Thc-Sun
Washington? -The State De-
partment has acknowledged that,,
International Security Assist
Thai ''volunteers'' fi';'?h"tY? iii ance) is a different program
Senator Case also repeated his tpint for raids into Cambodia by
charge that U.S.. support for Khmer Serei rebels during the
Thai troops in Laos violated the reign of the former head of
amendment attached to the Mill- i
tary Appropria.tions . Act last Prince Norodom Siltan-
year forbidding the use of Do-; ny deal involving southern
fense Department funds to sui).;
Laos is impassible without the
aperoval of Prince Bonn Ourn,
whose . word is law in gover-
ment-held portions of the pan-
handie.The Winer Laotian pre-
mier is known to have flown to;
(JA - Deal . Phnom Penh lust year when the;
training program was being es-
t!abiLM!2d.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia tin-- -
More than 40 Cambodian sol-
diers are said to have died fight-
ing in Laos as the result of a /
bizarro deal involving the Unit-
cd States Central intelligence
Agency, Cambodia's premier,
Lon No!, and Pririe. Bonn Oum,
one time right-wing rernier of
Laos._ .
The Cambodian soldiers were
part of a contingent sent to a
secret camp to be trained by the
CIA, reliable sources say. In-
stead of returning to Cambodia
they were thrown into the recent
battle for the. Bol ens Plateau
and engaged in some of the
heaviest fighting. ?
Besides the 40 or more killed
an unspecified number were
wounded, the sources say. These
losses, together with disame-
inents and Ivrangling on 'both
sides,- have ended the CIA train-
port "Vietnamese or other free
Laos are being financed through; from one called ',military As-
the U.S. Military Assistance -;! Isistance Service-Funded."
Program, contrary to assur-
; The former is funded through
ances by Melvin n. Laird, See" the ?.Foreign Assistance Act,
while the latter is included in
rotary of Defense, that the pro-
gram was not used for that pur-
pose.
? The manner in which the Thai
the Defense Department budget.
i Senator Case's office also-
. noted,- however, that according
forces are financed was di's- ?to the. original and unofficial
--closed in a letter dated July 1,5 transcripts of the hearing, See-
front the State Department la rotary Laird said flatly that
'Senator Clifford P. Case (11.? El"there is no program in our do-
N.J.), who charged the achninis-;1
tpartment which finances such a
(ration yesterday \vith 'glaring
program''of Thai forces in
Laos.
This remark was changed by
inconsistency" in its accounts to
Congress.
. Mr. Case noted that he, specifi- i the Defense Department, in the
cally asked Mr. Laird, when the; -usual screening process, so that
secretary appeared before the Otte official transcripts read;
Senate Foreign Relations com- H ',mere is an such program in
mittce. June 14, whether the Siil- ilour department's request for In-
itary Assistance Program in 1, lunation al Security Assist-
Laos was used to finance regu- ! ?anec,
lar or irregular Thai troops in The State Department, letter
that country. ? t represents another advance in
!:tccordinf,r to transcripts of the i effort led by Senator Case to
hearing, Si. Laird replied: 'obtain more fluorination about . p.v,
pronam for Carlbodia;ns nt
"Thai mereenarie-" ' ' '' ; ; ' ' ' ''''
"The Military Assistance Pro- the USe Of ' .' ?-' least temporarily.
gram will riot fund that program in ; Laos who Mr Case still
Despite official silence, the I
?... No, the Military Assistance, maintainsi, 9 ? ' b ? .g. IT ?tedl?
, r;,.,, em- su))el v following story has been pieced;
Program is not used for that thrc'lla 1 ' lc '11!"
The administration, in accord-together:
purpose and will not be used for mice with long standing policy,
hat purpose."
if
never has acknowledged CIA in-
In a letter to Senator Case, volvemcnt. In June a State De--
David M. Abshirc, assistant sec- pertinent spokesman ;;c1.;no \vi-
rotary of state for congressional edged the, presence of "Thai vol-
relations, said that "Thai volun- unteers" in Laos, but did not by North Vietnarnese and. Viat E
teers" are operating in irregular reveal how they were financed. ? Coup forces.
guerrilla units under the MD- i
mand of the Laotian armed i "Tile U?S? ? ? ? is Paying" ! Use of Laos for training pre-;
. . In his statement yesterday, 1;sumably enabled CIA operatives1
forces.
,i , , ? 1 ? . , .1,, I\Ir. Case noted that he said in a ! to circumvent the Cooper,'
Church amendment banning
'U.S. military advisers, training;
teams or combat soldiers Loral
Cambodian soil.
U:32 By Rebels
In addition, the CIA had an
isolated ready-made .training-
center at Eakorn --Sin -camp,
about 25 miles north of Pakese,
This was used as a jumping-off,
.. . . , ._ ...,
The Cambodians takenn
hand by the CIA were originally;
trained to serve as members of;
spy teams to infiltrate into Cam-i
bodian provinces that are held,
0111 .y ...
speech last May lie hail learned
"Support for these irregulars ; from "government sources"
is supplied under the. Lao mill- there are 4,000 to 6,000 Thai
WY aid program, which, as you troops in Laos and "the U.S.
know, is funded throng' the DP- government. throto.1 CIA, is
paying for them.'?
"I sinnd by that statement,"
he said yesterday, "and I am
glad we now have abetter idea
partment of Defense budget as
.`Military Assistance, Service-
:Funded' (MASF'1," the letter
:said, adding, "under current. ap-
jprctprialions legislation, .such of where the money is coming
mods. can be used to sitianrt front."
ibocal forces in
.. ?
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I/0S J2iGJis TT'
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29 JUL 1971
ro o
r
1771
F'
",?/LJ
?
11- ?
11 ? PI
ii E 11
Secret Program Reportedly Suspended
,...After Wrangling, 40 Deaths in Battle
PHNOM PENH, Cambo-
dia 0---More than 40 Cam-
bodkin ._soldiers have died
fighting in Laos after be-
ing trained there by the
U.S. Central Intelligence
Agency in a secret camp,
reliable sources say.
The Cambodians were
thrown into the recent
battle for the 13olovens
Plateau and engaged in
some of the heaviest fight-
ing.
Gesides the .10 or more
d, an unspecified
number were wounded,
the sources say. .These los-
ses, together with .disa-
greements and wrangling
on both sides, have ended
the CIA training program
.for Cambodians, at least
?temporarily. '
Official circles here are
reluctant to discuss Cam-
I) a cli a s involvement in
Laos. Such use of Cambo-
dian tronos challenges the
much-violated 1062 Gene-
va agreements on neutrali-
ty: for Laos. And hard-
pressed ? Cambodia is not
anxious to give an im-
pression of having spare
soldiers.
:Despite official silence,
the following story has
ben pieced together:
'rhe Cambodians were
;orig:nally trained by the
CIA to serve as members
of . soy teams to infiltrate
Cambodian provinces held
by North Vietnamese and
Viet Cong forces.
L A 0 S.
BOLO VE NS
PLATEAU
"
SOIYIP:?
V1F,'FNAM
0 25 50
MILE4>
CA:v.0300A.
CIA CAMP ? Mop lo-
cates Nalcorn Sin, iden-
tified as CIA camp for
training Cambodians.
Times map
Use of Laos for training
pre.sumably enabled CIA
operatives to circumvent
the Cooper-Church
amendment banning U.S.
military .advisers, training
teams or combat soldiers
on Cambodian soil.
?In addition, the CIA had
a ready - made training
center at Nakorn Sip
camp, about 25 miles
north of 'Pakse. The camp
is almost entirely isolated
with access by air. North
Vietnamese units have
tried to hit the camp with
mortars but missed.,
After the 11nloverts bat-
tle, the Cambodians 'com-
plained that they had been
given the hardest fighting
to do because they were
thought to be better sol-
diers than the Lao. This
action soured the Cambo-
dians on the CIA program,
, informants say.
-Disillusionment was not
one-sided, however. ?The
_U.S. training team was re-
ported to have been an-
gered by lack of co-opera-
tion from the Cambodian
co-ordinating officer _Lt.
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NEW YORK, N.Y.
i POST
- EVENING - 623,245
WEEKEND - 354,797
JUL 29 1971
The Mictr Thoit. Isn
Add another to the list of those
who are tired of being lied to.
. Sen. Clifford Case (R-N. J.) is
shocked by "a glaring inconsistency"
between fact and fiction in regard to
Labs. In fiction, as dosed out last month
to the Senate Foreign Relations Com-
rnittee by Defense Secretary Laird, we
aren't ? bankrolling Thai irregulars in
Laos. In fact, we are?and indeed some
4000 to '6000 such troops, according.
to a letter Sen. Case has received from
the State Dept. The money goes
through the CIA, which is perhaps why
It is learned abilfrfrom the State Dept.
it is, says Sen. Case, the right of
the public and of Congress to: get the
whole story of the secret war in Laos:
"After all, the U. S. taxpayer is
financing activities in Laos to the tune ?
of at least $350 million annually, not
to mention the estimated $2 billion cost
for the air war over that country. The
North Vietnamese and their allies cer-
tainly know we are fighting them in '
Laos, so why can't the American peo-
ple who are paying ,for it have the ?
sane information? . . .
"I would welcome an Administra-
tion White Paper which gives all the
details on Laos: What it costs? Who
is . fighting? What - agreements have
been made with foreign, governments;
and of course most importantly, When ?
will it all end?"
Amen. ?
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?.?
- By SAUL FIZIEDMAN
? Observcr V ire1 Duu
WASHINGTON--The Central
Intelligence ALincy has built
clandestine. armies numbering
100,000 in Laos, Thailand, and
? Cambodia, an expert on South-
east Asia told a congressional
panel Tuesday.
"It's the CLA's foreign le,
glen," said Trod Branfman, a
former member of the Inter-
national Volunteer Services
and ft freclance reoorter in
Laos.
- The armies, controlled and
paid for by the CIA, Bran!-
man said, i n ci a ii e native
tribesmen, Thais, Nationalist
Chinese and other Asians.
Their job is to hara,:s the pop-
ulation sad troops in COMMUll?
ist-controlled areas of Indo-
china, except North Vietnam.
Presumably they would contin-?
tie their fighting with Ameri-
can supplies and money alter
American forces are with-
. - drawn, he said.
Branfinan's charges were
'I- ?LAI.
the closest thing to hard ncr.-tis,
at the openin,f, of a three-day
seminar on the Pentagon Pap-
sponsored by 17 mol'abets
of f'ongres The generally re-
petitive asetission showed that ?
the leak of the?enttagon Pap-
ers themselves is a difficult
set to follo-:y.
Bradman, talking shout the
CIA's role in Southeast Asia,
said it "exercises functional
control of military operations
in Laos" and other Southeast
Asian countries outside of ?
Vietnam. In E.'107 it is con-
ducting a carnpoign of "terror.:
ism" in Con?nunist-held areas,
Ngo vinh Long, a South Vi-
etnamese now studying at ?
Harvard, said the Toni-at-on
Papers .discise- that American
war pt.:quiet's had no under-
sta:tdittrz, of the VietltaMse
pr:111)10, their aspirations, prob-
lems and nationalism.
?For them the Vietnamese,
didn't exist except as Com-!
munists or antl-Cornmanists,';'?
he said.
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dui,
11
1'71
C
f?-??'?7",
iirneand'.L.:ffort Spent- \ilas ').Adicrous;
. ProfesorI cUsCnitd Panel Disaissioil
BY J. FOLEY
?,iins sio;i Y;ritcr
Chomsky said he saw
nothing wrong with the
system itself 'but blamed
.'. -WASHINGTON An -Russo s,itid that by his. :the absolute failure to
author of The Pentagon own "very conservative ?make it work."
rapers said Tuesday
estimates," the United Bran [man disagreed, de-
it
States had been respond- daring that the problem
was 'ludicrous" to have hie for the death of from was with the system. Ile
SPent, ;::0 much time ad ef- 500,000 to I million Per-, said that proliferating
fort studying U.S.-Viet- sons in Vietnam. technology since the end
h
am policy- decisions when Three of the four Viet- of World War II has con--
o few of the policy-mak-
namese on the panel urged centrated too much power
ers ever read the 47-vol-
s
Congress to set a date foe in the Executive branch of
um e document.
'Withdrawal of all U.S. governmen
troops from the country.
. Dr. Melvin Curlew, for-
They were Tran Van
melt- employed by the
Rand Corp. and now a Dinh, deputy ambassador
to the United States Our-
professor at UC Riverside,.
made the remark at. the ing the administration of
President Ngo Dinh
Opening session of a three-
Diem; David Truong, son
.d ay panel discussion,
of the candidate who ran
sponsored by 17 congress-
men, on the significance of against President Nguyen
the still-classified papers. Van Thieu in the 1967
Gurtov said that, as fa e election in South Vietnam;
.as he knew, former .De- and Ngo Vinh Long, a
fense Secretary Robert S. Vietnamese scholar.
McNamara, who ordered Saigon Collapse Seem
the study, not one of
The fourth, Gen. Nguyen
the very few Who looked
;
at any ,of the 7,000-page .:hanh Thi, urged U.S.
withdrawal. Tie also con-
study, which covered 23
ceded that ? the Saigon
years ? of U.S. relations
2
lvith Vietnam. Nor does he .overnment would ;-?p
col-
believe McNamara's sue-
when the United
cessor, Clark Clifford States left, , ever
i
read it, Curtov said. Much of t. he dscussion
The Southeast Asia -
centered on the role of the
ex
pert, who said he studied Central In
the 19.15-1054 period, said Agency, particularly in.
he already was against Laos.
U.S. participation in the Fred Branfman, a cu-
war when he came to
respondent for Dispatch
N
-Washington in 1967 ? to News Service who was or-
dered out of Laos for re-
- help write the document.
porting on Laotian refu-
- "The Pentagon Paper
gees from bombings, said
experience just reinforced
my position on the war," the CIA pays 100,000
Gurtov said. ? )
Asians now fighting in
. ?
? Laos., Cambodia and South
People an Issue Vietnam,
? Anthony J. Russo, a for- Prof. Noarn C7hornsky, or
.mer Rand ;employe now the Massachusetts Insti-
. appealing. a contempt of Lute of Technology, who
court citation for refusing has written several books
to answer grand jury on Vietnam, answered the
questions about the doe- formal question posed by
urnent's release, said one Rep. .John Dow (1)-.N..),
of the most important chairman of the congres-
issues not treated in the sionai group:
Pentagon papers was the ''What's wrong with the
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selves,. war?"
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,,1
Ci r1
fri) ro
Ma../ 1;
. 13y SAUL FlalT,MIAN
WASHINGTO,N --?? The
Central Intelligence Agency
has built clandestine armies
numbering 100,000 in Laos,
Thailand, and Cambodia, an
expert on Southeast Asia
told a congressional panel
Tuesday.
"It's the CIA's foreign le-
? V gion," said Fred Branfman, a
former member of the Inter-
national Volunteer Services
and a free-lance reporter in
Laos.
The armies, controlled and
p a I for by the CIA;
i;ranfean said,. include na-
tive ? 'tribesmen, Thais, Na-
tionalist.Chihese ?and other
-
Asian. Their job is to he-
r a s sa the population and
troops1 in Communist-con-
troled areas of Indochina, ex-
cept North Vietnam. Presum-
ably . they would continue
their fighting with American
supplies and -money after
American forces are with-
*drawn, he said.
? BRANFNIAN'S charges
Were the closest thing to
hard news at the opening of
a three-day seminar on the
Pentagon papers, sponsored
by 17 members of Congress.
The generally repetitive dis-
cussion showed that the leak
of the Pentagon papers them-
selves is-a difficult act to fol-
low.
Re. John Dow (D., N.Y.),
chairman of the three-day
event, said that Daniel Ells-
berg would join the group
today. Ellsberg, one, of the
authors of the . 47-volume
study, has acknowledged
passin-g portions of the docu-
N.-fr. C.:
,?e
hoodc, prm.c.,7
meat to the press, for which
he has been indicted by a
federal grand' jury.
Only one author of the
Pentagon papers, Melvin
Gurtov of Santa. Monica, ap-
peared at the conference
Tuesday. But he added little
to what is already Inicv,?11.
GUnTO V, 'WHO last
month was forced to resign
as a 'researcher at the Rand
Corp. because of his anti-war
sentiment and his association
with Ellsberg, told the panel
that almost no-one IA
govern-
rtrent had read the Pentagon
papers, including, the man
who commissioned t h
former Secretary of Defense
Robert S. McNamara, until
they were published in the
press.
? He noted, in response to' a
question,, that the Pentagon
analysts of the CIA, but not
study shows the intelligence
the field operatives, "in a
good light."
? ?
? The CIA analysks, he said,
4
1/ Li
nD ? 71
rir-
fl
/7
fH .(1 L'
questioned basic assump-
tions, like the theory 'that if
Vietnam fell to the Commu-
nists the rest of Southeast
4a would- fall like domi-
noes. They also criticized the
effectiVeness of American
bombing, Gum toy said.
"But when their reports,
like others, challenged basic
assumptions," Gurtov said,
"they were ignored."
Branfman, talking about
the CIA's role -in Southeast
Asia, said it "exercises func-
tional control of military op-
eratiorts in Laos" and other
Southeast Asian countries
outside of Vietnam. in Laos
it is conducting a campaign
of "terrorism" in Communiat
held areas.
NGO VINH Long, a South
VietnaineSe now studying at
Harvard, said the Pentagon .
papers disclose that Ameri-
can war planners hart no Un-
derstanding of the Vietnam-
ese pople, their aspirations,
problems, and-nationalism.
"For there the Vietnamese
didn't exist except .as Com-
munists or anti-Commu-
nists," he said.
., And he' suggested that ad-
ministrative overtures to
mainland China in hopes it
would help impose a settle-
ment of the 1,;;ar on North
Vietnam indicates that the
United States still does- not
understand that any sottl.e??-
ment "must coma with the
Vietnamese people,"
which: he meant the Commu-
nists and the Saigon regime.
Tran Van -Dinh, former
South Vietnamese ambassa-
?
? . _
STATINTL
dor to the United States,
traced American involvement
in ? his country from May
_1854, whorl Marines landed
there to free an imprisoned
French missionary. ?
"I DON'T plead for Ameri-
cans to understand the Viet-
namese," -he said. "Ameri-
cans ?shouId understand'
America first. In 1945, when
we thought we won our inde-
pendence by defeating the
Japanese, we believed in this
country and that it would
help US. Ho Chi iNlioh had
faith in Arn'erica. But we
didn't understand about your
Indian wars, and the supprea-
sion of the ievolts in the
Philippines.
"In the past years we have
been trying to find out what
America is all about, and so
far we don't know."
Others at the conference
included Anthony Russo, a
former Rand employe now
facing contempt charges for
refusing to testify about the
leak of the Pentagon papers;
Noam Chomaky, a linguist
whose hooks on American
policies helped convert Mo-
berg, and David Truong,
whose father ran second in
the South Vietnamese presi-
dential elections in 1CM and
subsequently was impris-
oned. ?
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Approved For Release 200120b/116[...61/A-1RDP80-01601R00
By 1;;;;-E2NRY RAti
. Sptclat to ti h Nov 'ice,: 'flint:I
TACHIEEK, Burma, July
A
border-officer smiled Few Low Shacks
at 'the happy click-clack as But the Thais said the
two wooden balls dangling . only generally known aspect
'.' ,
of the --illicit trade, he',ide.
on the ends of a string he the fact. that it goes on, ?-\.vas
held, knocked -against eacli a few low shacks in Tachi-
other. l r
ek, just below the Bumese
.
?
Army -barracks: -Ther,e Thais
??Meanwhile,- the unofficial
1,,
.KATE
I' LI
.
H.NI:715fti
(Limp:at:3
?
' border traffic and smuggling
continued to flow steadily
across the bridge ? on the
Macsal River between this
town and Maesai in Thailand-
Burmese and Thai officers
guard the border with a tol-
erant eye and a gentle hand.
The customs and border
officials in this area o.r int-
' penetrable jungle bet porous
borders shrug off the petty
.ailtiggling across the haidge
,nht because they know
around them pro-
of the world's
largts smuggling opera-
tions, and they ;know they
are powerless against it. So
why not let the little smug-
glers go?
Tribesmen Crow the Poppy
. On the mountainsides all
-around----in Burma, l'hailand
and Laos--primitive hill
The Ecw Yo' T5iiw._ Jzil .2
people of many tribes grow
the PoPPlos that Prc'duce Tand Burmese addicts meet
:about one -half the world's to smoke their pipes.
illegal opium. Less primitive This is a fair international
people buy it, rocess it and x
.echange, they said, because
' start it on its way toward many people from Burma
the consumer. . cross daily to visit the Maesai
The Central Intelligence brothel. There are 510 opium
Agency study that provided ci,ns in- maesai, mo Thais
this estimate also concluded said hopefully, and ?.o broth-
that Tachilek was probably ?els in Taehilek.
the most important trans- Those N'lif.11 yellow or
shipment point in the area. .1
?
orown faces cross the border
/ reported, the center Tachilek is also, the C.I.A. bridge with a nonchalance
\
that is particularly surprising
of the 21 known opi for 14 um re.- because Burma stringe.ntly
fineries ? in. the thi-border limits access to foreigners,
.. area.,even tourists. But a pale out-
Knowledgeable. soUrc.es in :,
swer appearing unexpectedly
s the -provincial capital of on this sideof the river was
'Chiangrai and in Maesai said, allowed no further than the
;that in the last 18- months- control post. There officers
:significant quantities of 96.- apologetically drew the line
.. per-cent-pure, white No. 4
? heroin had become. available andd ? ,1,;(,,1--?ro,las.,-'-2a)-,scr.i?r2:11:1e2)3fon,-,
to local addicts . used to -' it'.1;1';'e.'1,..-''''
smoking. the less_ .pptclit pur-. .1-le returned ii ii two
'pie- heroin. /,? tightly furled umbrellas in
The (->bschvat-i"- ' len" the 'elegant style favored by
credence to reports that the ,Iritish guards officers, ac.
mounting demand for. No. 4 '
cuircd on the market. place
--regarded in Asia as a lox- for /7 ,thrd. baht (2,3.0.) cich,
ury for the Western market
only?among; American sol- Coeds Are Japanese
- 'diens ? in Vietnam had ? . .i he Burmese customs nian,..
. Prompted opium traders to offering no objection, assess-
do the refining closer to the jilt!. the smuggled goods with
,
Vi?rtt:.7:trt?-:;
us
C
'2 5--)-,"'t
r
e. ts.,14 ?
as - Japanese --merchandise'
smuggled into Burma from
Laos, across a border that is
officially closed.
Burmese ? border officials
are fully aware of the opium
traffic?in fact, one said,
"some Thais come to smoke
U
it, rrt here in front of us"
??but they said the opium
crossed the border upstream
and downstream from here.
Except for 31.0w, at the height
of the monsoon rains, tile
river is shallow enough to
be forded on foot in ntany
Place's. ?
Burmese regime exer-
cises even less control than
the Thai and Laotian govern-
ments over these mountains,
covered ict the richest and
deepest greens. Their popula-
tions consist of resnote hill
.tribes and mutually antagon-
istic bands of rebels of vari
u -
ous persasions, bandits and
opium smugglers.
The small Burmese, military
garrison and haadful of offi-
cials control little more than
the town. They are linked to
Rangoon and the rest of
Burma only by air, and duty
here is not desirable for men
froin Rangoon or Mandalay.
''You can take the road,"
one said, ."hut sometimes
they cross it, and if you're
there you've had it."
"They" are the Shan State
rebels, who are fighting in
the jungle and sometimes in
the towns to separate this
vast state and its ethnic
group from the Union of
Burma.
But no our interferes
with the comings and goings
across the bridge. No one is
frisked, and the las( opium
seizure occurred many months
ago. "I think it was August,"
an official said.
Kill tribesmen, In home-
spun black shirts and lion-
cloths, carry charcoal across:
for sale in Thailand, where
the people are poor but less.
poor than in Burma. They.
return with meager food
supplies, mainly vegetables.
Burmese cross into Thai-
land to buy shoes and tex-
tiles and other small con-
sumer it ems uavailable in
Burma. Most pay in baht
acquired tin ough the illegal
sales of Burn rkese rubies,
sapphires and other gems:
STATINTL
The Burmese ltyat is a entr.,
rency worthless outside
Brir-
ma and is not acceptable
in Thailand.
Thais and Chinese mer-
chants; from Dilac:sni, and
villages nearby come to
Tachilck to buy for resale
small quantities of Western
luxuries smuggled from Laos.
Cigarettes -rind whisky are
the main itelin in the illicit
duty-free shops.
A carton of Lucky Strikes
sells here for 70 baht (!-:;f1.50)
after having been trans-
porte..l from the East
by sldp to Bangkok, by truck ?
to 'Vientiane, by plane to.
Ban Houei Sal near the
Laotian ? Burmese border,
smugxled across by boat and
carric-si here by mule ever
about 100 miles of mountain
jungle. _
marka. ? an expert customs man's eye
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coi,wha
Approved For*lease up. OU/TO . uA- P80-01 01R000600160001-1
- JULY
STATINTL
th Vientiane Stu
V views on the current
situation ? Is it rather
hard to say. I don't:
like to speak about politics
in the sense the Vientiane
.administration ?understands
it. Of course, I have my
?own point of view. By the
way, dear Thoong Phan, do
.you know what happened to
Mr Ph's niece ? I'll tell you
.her 'whole story. lie. is a well-
known and highly esteemed
Lao intellectual. At that
time, Phoumi Nosavan was
'the strongman in Laos and
and Intone
question on the Political the C
I., agents ! I am
situation in Vientiane !" : realizing more and more
"My dear Thoong Phan,
that it was for me a bless-
I don't know whether ing in disguise after all..."
there is any link between Planes were roaring past
the two things. only know in the sky.
that once, I was told by ?
some people from the US "No ! The Lao territory
Embassy: 'You're an Intel- and people are not things
and
lectual and a high official, to be borrowed '
But a mere technocrat ! You trodden down with impunity
should have a try at poli- ? hY the Yankees ! he said
tics... First, try to get' in anger.
elected to the National As-
sembly, this will make. you
olice General Siho, a pro- a vice-minister or even a'
64)6.go of the CIA, was his minister... What do you OOD morning, Dr
K
right hand. One day Siho #.ay to it, you'll be given a hanalit, good morn-
came and saw the Phs. leg up by the US
al Embassy :' " Good morning, Thoong
" 'I'm 'told you have
niece,' he said, a slip of a "The Yankee drew out a Phan ! Such forms of address
girl about 16 or 17 who is make me look old! Besides
now at Vientiane High ,
:
cheque-book : You're cer- I've not yet defended my
School. Tier parents are tainly aware of a few dun- Ph. D, thesis. Call me simply
.
ties' intention to set up a Ithamlit. By the way, forget
. 'dead and you are her guar- group of nationalist intel- about my directorship. I've
dians. So I ask you for her lectuals. Join them. This just resigned."
hand. ' zoo-dollar cheque will defray
" 'But..: you have already the expenses you may in-
'' What ? I thought your
two legitimate wives I my cur because of your new high position made it pos-:
?niece hasn't conic of age. acquaintances. Of course, sible for you to have
other will follow suit...' connections with big shots
"
Well, you've beenand fly always higher..."
warned', Siho said with an " He looked at me smiling
- equivocal smile. If you and-poising his fountain-pen. " Enough of your scof-
don't give her to me, 1'11 13ut the fellow was grossly ling ! I am but a wax-winged
"borrow" her by force
mist aken about me. I int- crow. And I'm plunging into
mediately brought him to the precipice for having
" That very evening, the
frl did not come home as his senses. come too near the sun..."
g
tiSual,. The Phs were well " 'Excuse me', I told him. " Truly, I don't net you
aware of what had happened 'You're going a bit too
to - their Ward. But how far. I don't like politics and
corld they help it ! So they am not inclined to meddle
resioned themselves to their with it.'
" The Yankee was astonish-
ed. His face fell.
" 'What .? You arc not will-
ing ?' He shoved his book
into his briefcase and
added, I say, don't you
want nationalism, eh ? Which
doctrine are you for? Neu-
tralism...or... ?'
" On the doorstep, he turn-
ed round : 'Give it another
thought, will you... you'll
reply me later.'
?
" Brit there was no later.'
When they failed to 'marry'
me the CIA raen simply bor-
rowed my director's job..."
"The niece of Mr P11,"
Mr L. went on with a
smile, "was unfortunately
'borrowed' for two weeks by
a Vientiane strongman.. As
" J3ut my dear LAM:Irby Riot, RieldWAen20011i "
has nothing to do with my w wa.s ? Dorm wea. ?
misfortune.
"Two weeks later, a poliCe
- car stopped in front of
their house. A young girl-
stepped out and staggered in,
livid and exhausted. They
recognized their niece.
" She handed them a paper,
then burst into sobs. The
letter contained but this
line : I am returning to
you . what I borrowed. And
probably with a small
profit!'
" Since that day, Mr Ph's
.attitude towards the Amer-
icans and all Vientiane
-c strongmen ' has changed
completely. It was a person-
-al drama for him, but he
let everybody know it... " ?
"You know, I gave up
my study and came back
to the country in high
spirits. The 1962 Geneva
Agreements had just been'
concluded, Laos became a
neutral nation, and Vien-
tiane, the capital of an
independent country ! At
least I thought so. I intend-
ed to put my youth at the
service of my Fatherland.
So I came back home and
accepted the position of
director... Well, let's pass
over it. What have I seen
during all these years ?
" I've witnessed the daily
merry-go-round of officials
of the US Embassy in my
boss's office. They've dictat-
ed him the answers to most:
varied problems. The budget,
expenditures, incomes, etc.,
all is seen to in detail by
PrAutdk1603140X1600160001-1
Q lv a
lxn, ,x.ro s.
ture of the royal
71.-%11:1-0
?
C-4
Ug. ai
BBC... news bulletins. Should
military campaigns be
Lao in in the dry season or
rainy one, there are US
advisors to work them out
for you. .Generals Kou-
prasit, Udon Sananikone and
Qua Rattikoun are busy
with gambling dens, drug
traffic, and erecting build-
ings for the Americans. In
the lon"b run, I've become
clear about all this There
is a limit to my patience.
One day, as the US Airforce
actions were being stepped
up, I asked my boss : Well,
boss, Washington, Saigon
and Bangkok are treating
our country as a preserve of
theirs, aren:t they ? Here
they arc pouring bombs at
random and stationing troops
everywhere without notice.'
"'Beg your pardon ?' be
stared at me with a look of
dismay. Until then he had
been thinking of me as a
director ' who carried out
his instructions to the letter
without grumbling. Never
had he expected a rebellion
of my conscience. He gave
a start as if a sudden
thought occurred to him.
" 'That's enough ! I've got
it,' he exclaimed. No more
of your innuendoes. When
I became a statesman' you
were but a snivelling. What
a rotten lot, all these stu-
dents ! All Reds, or fellow-
travellers !'
" I could no longer control
myself.
" am neither red nor
pink, Sir,' I said. 'I only know
that Laos is an independent
country, Lao affairs should be
settled between Lao. You're
perfectly aware that in Vien-
tiane the Americans can
come through the front
or back doors into all minis-
C.:CC-LA nu ed
-tr;es. Where is our sovcr- are now Excellencies in the You want to c9.11 down
'opro Fb1
*Itt'ill,e92iI1F0ph Never mind, you can do it
c ta.rge. N e , i y 0ou o er cp!riabeoFtop80-011301R000600160001-1
eignty, oar legislationA
" My boss was mad with some paper or ink, it won't quite well while in the
rage I ' Stop your cackle !. be turned down ; but no government. I'm doing it
It is fortunate that you have money, please ! " myself and so are many
not donned your lawyer's
.gown ! To hell with all your Boun Leut gave a broad others I'
laws ! If you want to keep smile. . " 'Thank you for your
your position as a director, " We are now woskin.g on advice, Mr Deputy. - Your
you have to abide by only issue N"to," he said. "Plenty secret curses are not at all
one law : do what you are of anti-US stuff ! Moreover, getting in their hair. Every
told to. You're a civil servant there won't be any end of day, they seize you by the
and Dor a politician, do you anti-US topics ! " wrist to make you sign
!
understand? .Ile paused and all of a heaps of statements. Willy
-
" I only understood it too sUdden asked me : "Can you Dilly you're one of their
" , " .
well. So I: handed in my guess who is supplying us boys a yesman of
resignation." w theirs...
with most informative, most
scaring anti-US subjects ?." ""Shut up, Bonn Lent ! I
and burst into laughter : . don't want to discuss politics
"GOOD morning, Boun " Von never can, my dear ! It with you. I've cOme to see
". Leut! What are you is our very old schoolmates you. Here, take these 5,000
doing bare backed on a now vice - miniaters... or kips as a contribution to our
Sunday ? You're mimeograph- even our University seniors magazine.' . .
ing something, I suppose. now ministers. Officially,
" 'I don't want your money.
May I see... Is it a leaflet theY- ztre chim mug in with
but do not You know that oui:'- paper
,for the Vientiane gover11- the Americans,
refuses to.take ?any snbsidies
'ment ? "
? spare them in private. 1/o
you know how they call the wherever they may come
. " I'm not good enough for US ambassador Instead tetajcle
moffrom ! If you offer paper,
ink and stencils... I won't say
that, you know ! The US/S ' our boss '
is looking after it ! 1 am say ' our boot ' ' lint the
simply preparing for my Ph. latter does not care a fig ! " 'Yes, but... If I give money,
D. in political economy !. " lie refers to all the big I just help an old friend and 1 can
? He put: On his shirt laugh- brasses in the Lao adminis- easily clear . myself from accusa-
ing and shook my hand, put tration and army as 'oar Owls. Presents in kind are a it
P''. in nraor taart boys'." compromising. So you're asking
handed me a 3o-page copy.for an impossible thing.'
On the first page I read He cast a glance at his
under the word Appeal the shabby lodgings on the same "'As you please... Tell me now
following mention : "A group floor and called my atten- the latest ones in Vientiane'? '
of young intellectuals for tion to it :
neutrality, independence and " 'Certainly. Unbelievable, dis-
" Not long ago, one of
. peace." gusting stories which make your
? our ex-fellow-students, dep-
gorge rise. Take your pen.....
"
" A newspaper ? or a maga- utv N., paid a visit to me.
zinc, weekly or monthly ? " When he saw me, he burst "You know that except for a
out
I asked. into curses: 'Damned few black sheep, most Lao intellec-
" Call it as you please. But with . this shaky staircase teals, students and functionaries in
Just take a look at this ar- likeam
my seat in the National Vientia.ne as well as in other towns
ssebly ! Look here, Boun are harbouring a bitter hatred for
tick dealing wit,h the plight
of our functionaries battling Lent... (he poi ated down- the Americans, ''Bonn Leut con-
stairs), you've bought your. tinned. "They hold in contempt
with the soaring cost of living self a Honda, haven't you ? the rightist ultras, demand the
or this one on young employ-
ees yearning for the building By Buddha, our monk is application of the 1962 Geneva
rolling in money ! Tell US Agreements and the respect of
of a neutral, independent. your secret, maybe yol baye
and peaceful Laos or on US Laos' neutrality and independence.
war activities in Laos' as accepted a job f rom the We are doing our jobs most enthu-
Americans ?'
well as other columns. Call siastically
- ! "
it a magazine if you like. A " 'You're ra.ving my boy,
I picked up a copy of the Ap-
review without regular dates sorry, Mr Deputy, the ex-
teal, while gazing at the Roneo :
of issue. Now weekly, now student of political economy
" You are fighting in difficult
monthly, depending on our in France has simply become
conditions. How is it that you're
means and articles, on the a. Honda agent in Vientiane_ '
always smiling ?
supply of paper, ink, time This 11CW motorcycle !.1
to stencil and roneo the been put at my dispza Bonn Lent's voice. grew warmer :
copies. " - my trips. The returas .;es? " I have ' many friends, former
help me rub on along and students like me, who are more
"Who is the manager and I am a bachelor... L spend deeply involved in the struggle than
chief editor? " my day time canvassing I... Let them know that Boun Leut,
" houses and my evenings though he is living in Vientiane,
There is no manager!
You know how we are about preparing tins magazine.' is not too unworthy of them. Do
it... A group of ex-students " 'Serves you weft! How you see, Tioong Phan..., our
gets together, one brings many times did I offer to Fatherland is so attractive, so
along some paper, another a get you a job in a ministry. lovable. No, the Lao people do not
typewriter or a mimeograph. You'll start as a department reconcile themselves to being
My places become a 'print- head and rise higher after- ground down by US boots."
Mg house '. We share be- wards as assistant director Thoong Phan
twcen ourselves all the edit- or even director. yowl! ride (Lao f 0 74111 a list)
ing, typewriting, printing in a car and get married ! .
work. Everyone's leisure
time is devoted to it. Printed
copies will circulate f ro in
hand to hand arApiakoved For Release 2001/09/10 : CIA-RDP80-01601R000600160001-1
sent to intellectuals and old
schoolmates, many of whom
Approved For Release 2001409410 :1A-RDP80-01601
01-
(7,
PAYLKS
Corr,...si",01:CF.0 At
' Lco3---aldCr'
American pi..esaurc--f., lioos it
about to enact its first cinu,--con-
trol 1.7n.y, and the United ttlrtr,:s
Icis promiscd to provide advis-
ers arid money to help the Lao
police caforce it.
The proposed 1:tw, which is
awaiting final action by a rclne-
tent National for the
ffnt iime, would limit thE: Ctliti-
V3tiC11
E311-fn Of
n
jar, r ii.Wit.or.t of Vientiane':
c:arrios contrab.and dregs and;
fh :ta fourti. to a thirti of the .?
(
senior or,-,bassy official said.
"Cnce ha arrives, we expect
he will he e. Lace up a progr---,
thousands of military flights, to h,clp the Lao national po,:a.
asIde from bombing runs, carry enforce the law.. The Lao have
asItcd for advisers and we have ;
"ll is going to ta!--.e a lot more ipromised to supply them. :Pint
I han a fairly '10 StG) tha pro:::!:ram are stilli
this drug traffic, especially to no workod out."? ??
when it is the Army that is a ("-;r1I?rcl
principal ? mos.,er," the aL.:ent
said. -
cr Acensed ?
? rii".vo congresional
loves-
titoes charged last spriug that!
the 1111 Hires of no2',/,?-l'n l.cos. until AffIcrinr: Ceri?
trod Iniciligence, A:yricy had al.-
it also wculd complo.tely out.- kr,-,-ec ciiplanes to be used by
law the sale,pl'ocessirig anti Lao officials transporting op--;;
0??? itinn morpnre and 1;.5'oin. .
and relato,:i dims. Marijuana, ae...:14a'
wcCI. Ii Cad p1C-:111i05l 1:110 ci onsi- who is re leg, of
ilart, too fh7;;,:re in the corn-!
not included under the lay; since ple;-; dru,g,-;:un;;Ing-and-refining
the Lao use d os 0005110g.. Od5tIuO. Titc processed heroic,
Although police 0-he comrpilir:g carefully gtiarcled through i(s;!
lists 'of the cheens o cipiurn dens journey by Lao satriters, ey.en.u.
to be cic?sed and arcH of 2.11YV.111, S1-211f:;le.(1 Into S?'-111:11
Cling addicts to I:re ar-reatul, the Vi'-'1`na'n for sobs to A:m2ri.car?
law is intend:oci principally to
American officials- Laos
cheek the heavy flow of rnw
odium through the "Gol(en li;) with t1
Burma, Laos over ...hie. years, the congreaaion-
cl Th, ind -meet. al r: &C st.gesteci, to win
',Laos pro-,7,,z..7,3.ysup,port in Ii e againot: the
crug corric,or in Asia North Vietnenle?se and the Pa'.
saki ..enI itLLDIC UI l
opluri-, is still grove peace in. the ,ornhatticd 1-.ingdom.
here dces not causo rnuch of A05CFLCLfl clitciris,no'; wc'r-
prohl mu, ancl the Lao usei.?s arc rie(1 al)mn enfoliciiilg the
once it is cnacteci, say they have.
not a big concern either.
won firm. commitment ?of sup-
. "iViajo:.?
Lacs is a mElior ihar_ poll. from the Prince
0.0:3,1.Jare in wor.h.i cirtz:j traf:ic, So:Iva:Ina Phourna, the King and
arid the amount of sic refinudcAd ill I L"?ti.ans,
clovn to a morphine base Efnd web me mir'cliul01 theIr c""-
irroin is also very imos, try's virtually total depondc.!nce
funnels drugs to Vietnam, Cam- cnTi.S. aid..
'podia, Thailand and Henri T? help uf"-rei?' the. law,
: American officials here have re-:
Kong."
A European intelligence acfent; cille-tecl that ,\,\I"sliirigt61,.1. "sits
who invcsftatedci I ii?df;Jr? Crug cooroinatOr tO tilz?!Cal
" ? here for his. bass'-'. "He should be here withind
rnatci that virtu:--dly ?.vory civil-1 a 3.:10ter of :clays, we 1-1?P2.," ci1
The Lltiai e.T.fort, acc,ording to;
America:, officials, will to
tighten ecau.ms? inspection Of'
cargoes on dames:lie, and inter- I
national air flights and to citch-
lish
controls cvcr
flights. ?
.;`,nierical -officials also hal,
to end tho of the narthern
Laotian trvin of Ban Lauci.dci
!as a opunn trcasahipatint.;
point. it has been 0 C,7:11C",.'.iklf
refinulg raw opluns, to a 11.00-
philno base 1100, recently, fr,e!
site of a maiie,;: laboratory turd
ing raoiphiae irho heroin.
Tnn nroo:tod vr,ould per-
!Mit pef?sons, over tst years of age
;to codrihiaf. growing opium 12
they gut a government licc:r..ae.
;But rock of the land l!SO.d. in
;opium c.:uitivation is under con-
; trol- of the. Pa that, Lao and North
Vietnuroce?who hu:i!, the jam cons crops cut of moral stlict-
neas--aud the grev.ws; roily
Mc.o trihesrnen, have 17,C,.:11
movec. as re.:11'.:7; to 1,-;w1:-.nds,
where ihe opium p;:,ppy not
grow well.
"We. have;?no illusions that as
soon as we get a law He flow of
drugs is going to dry up," aaid
senior U.S. diplomat, "but with
no 'law there is nothing that can
'be legally done."
In ac"Altion to advit'ers, the.
United States is prepared to pro-
vide financial aid, techilini fts-
sistanec: (such as labcratory
analysis) and help in establish-
ing or rehabilitation prograrn for
Laos's own opium sruol:e.rs and
.other drug usezs.
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BEACH, FLA. ,
TIMES JUL 2 4.
E - 23,270
POST-TIMES
S 69,302
'r
e
. New legislative safeguards offer the only hope for
putting reins on the secret wars and intrignes foietled, en
U.S. citizens.under the guise of "national defense'' and
"public interest."
? ? ? .
. ?
- Pending in the Senate are three hills to put strings
on the st?Ter-secret funds and operations of the central
Intelligence A.gency.
Kontuelw Iteiblicau Sen. john ien Ccoper ?
proposed a bill which would re-quirc-: the CIA to make
? avaik?J)le to Congress the "S-FX"se, intelligence conclu-
sions, facts and 'analyses that are now available to the
executive branch.,"
. ? . ?
?
'Another Republican, Sen. Clifford P. Case of rslew
Jersey, authored a bill limiting contriitn-;ent of troops,
.? funds and military, equipment to Laos and other areas.
Sen. Case said he sees the Ler:A "to place solne outside ?
control on what has been the free-wheeling operation
of the executive branch in C;?.,rTying on foreign policy
and even waging foreign wars." ?
The third bill, introduced by Sen. George 1,1c.C.o-
;Nem (D-S.D.), would require en aceo-!:nting of CIA
funds and prohibit concalment of the spy agency funds 1
? in ETprOpria Lions for other agencies.
Future of the three Senate bills can only be guess-
ed. But in the Hme, five rceoluth?ns on similar issues
went down the drain in rapid-fire order. Gee was
authored by Bop. Paul N. 1?.rice!o.skey (R-Calif.) who
argued that the Congress has a right to be told "the
, entire truth" about Laotian operations. In contrast, the
, Foreign Affairs Committee al?nZd that telling the truth !
about Leos "would not he conap:Aill)le with the public
interest" anIthe resolution was defeated on tire riCae
! of the Horse along with three similar resolutions.
?
?
Admittedly, some rlttisos of government operation
?
directly related to P.17.Icprintc.:ly
? long in highly restricted claL-siEicatir.i.:.-ts. The Lt.otiaa
situation,, however, and coy:ciArneRt o accurate
fig-
ures on CIA funding illustrate the delil:erately eZCS:cr-
tive ti.iy,21quas fr iratiag efiorts to learn the cfAte..A of
U.S. e4:!,n,-,3-rnesits in I;i-ita
it is a Clic...hc and an?s.-1:1s-too--neervinte one --L? to
.observe thf..q. survival Of a democracy c?;-....-,z?.,nC,:s on an
inforreed electorate. Certainly, survival 0;_iiannds en
inf.mried Congress. Ti:,e pending Senate bills ?and
perhniss ri?-!ole-- Ere clearly called for and ri:?:i?rit wide
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01/-illINIL
D'AtCrIX WORLD
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'/.'71'1r
) \.
't
Wovri Sw,riees ? ' . .
A I aSSIVO step-up in U.S. military operations in IncloCuirka a.ppeared to he underway as the Paris pc.ace talks; went into -their 122n1 session on Thurs.ilay with still no
U.S. reply to the Vietnamese patriots' seven-point peace plan of July .1.
In Saigon, the U.S. comroand an-
noiQeed on Thursday that the
Airierican military was drawing
up new, tough regulations resti'dct-
ing newsmen's coverage of the
war, because of what the U.S.
Cal:. amid claimed was "prema-
ture disclosure" of a ne\-; U.S.
Saigon puppet invasion of Cambo-
dia. The invasion began three days'
ego, when the U.S. airlifted at
least 5,000 Saigon puppet troops
into the area just cast of Snnol,
ne?ar the South Vietnamese bor-
der.
New teltil..)itt?g
? In Lacs, the liii_lostta Pathet Lao
Net's Agency reported heavy and
continuous boroi:ing raids on north-
et n. Laos l:;y U.S. B-52 jet bomhers,
Oil densely-populated districts
notth of the Plain of Jars.
The KPLNA also saki that in
the past to ..:?eelts, since the be-
ginning of the U.S. Central interligence Agency's .attack c:t the
Plin of Jars, American aircraft
.have sprayed poisonous chemicals
over the entire area north and
eaSt of the strategically-located
"ii-Tany civilians fell vic-
tim to this bar'oaric action, large
numbers of cattle have died and
-crops and orchards have been de-
vastated," the news agency said.
The U.S. cominatld admitted in
Saigon on Thursday that B-52's-
were. carrying cut heavy raids
.just south of the Demilitarized
Z3j-itl.' in South Vietnam, covering
South Vietnam's two northernmost
provinces. These 13-52 bombard-
ments have been increasing in in-
tensity for the past week.
In Paris, neither of the two
Vietnamese patriotic delegations
made reference to President Rich-
ard proposed trip to China
in Thursday's session of the peace
talks.
Mrs. Nguyen Thi rinh, Foreign
Minister .of the Provisional_ Revo-
haionary Government of South ' the 17th anniversary of the sign-
Vietnam, said on Thttrsday: "While ing of the 1954 Geneva Agreements
refusirtg to reply to our July 1 on Indochina (July 25), issued a
proposals, the Nixon adlninistra- statement ernpliasizing that "the
tion is iaten.;:ifying the war, step- world frcat of peoples supporting
ping ttli its pet theta not only in Vieteara against the Arne-rican ag-
yif,Anam, bid, also ii Laos and gre55:01'S is strengthening and
Cambodia." widening from day to day. hot-
Fat t11.; date witlistandiag their numerous and
Both Mrs. Dinh ant Democratic crafty diplomatic strategems, CtIC
Ptepublic of Viettu:tro chief dole- American imperialists have
Led-
gate Xuan Thuy insisted that the ed in greater isolation than ever
U.S. roust set .a fited date .for before."
withdrawal of all its forces from pregrasi hresscd
South Vietnam and cease stepport- ;,"The only bonorable viay out of
log Saigon puppet President Egli- the Vietnam \Val' for the U.S.,"
yen Van Thieu, in order to arrive the DRV Verei2;;:i hUn PLy said,
at a just peace settlement in Viet- "is to give a s;:erions reply to tbe?
nom. ? seven, pills put forward by the
In the DSIV capitol of Ilenci on PRG, v.rhich net with enthusiastic
Thursday, Le Dunn, First Seen> support all over the world and in
tory of the Vietnam Workers' the U.S.
ratty, spoke to it military. cadres "The more stubbcn-nly the Arne-
conference and praised theal of ricau lut. rialists resort to Nth-
all the socialist cavalries to the dons riuinouvers, the move serious
DR .V. their defeats are going to be, and
Le Duan said: "The Nixon ad- undoubtedly utter defeat is in
ministration is doing its utmost store for thein. Our people ii catty
to fool public opinion, while eon- resolved to honor their pled.:g.
tinuirg its ',var ? gamble in Iftdo- they made when bid,,ling farewell
china. But the 'Ni:-:on Doctrine' to President Ho Chi to
and the 'Victnamization' plan are carry high 1.;:o Chi Miulds victor-
suffering a complete fiasco." ions banner, to flail victory," the
The UM/ Foreir4a Ministry, on DIIV stat,;.:ment emphasized. .
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FREE PRESS *
- - -
"ArL6 2 3
53b , 2 4
S ? 578,254
Asw See it
ukiteY
a
r 0-fi
ny tcyrrii -11 r(), 1ea
IN ALL earnestness and for what he
teems to consider an exemplary cause,
columnist William Buckley has told an
outrageous and, to us, indefensible lie.
Because of his own deviousness, how-
ever, we are not quite sure of the extent
of his deliberate fraud upon his readers,
or how many lies are involved. In either
case the logic of his self-defense escape;;
-
. Buckley, who is the editor of National
Review magazine, published in the mag-
azine's last issue "highly. classified docu-
ments" which were purported to be mo:e
secret papers on the Vietnam \var. The
weight' of the "documents" was heavily
from. the viewpoints of the. Pentagon and
the Central Intelligence Agency.
Wednesday evening, -after having his
hand called by numerous sources, Buckley
announced the whole thing was an enor-
mous hoax, and said that the articles and
documents had been dreamed up "ex nihilo,
(from. nothing) in the. offices of National
Review." . .
'The purpose, Buckley said, was to show
; that the Pentagon and the CIA were not
the fools some of thesPenion--PaPers re-
ports have indicated. _
At this point is where we have trouble
following Buckley's logic. If the papers
were a fraud, then obviously they would
Iprove nothing about the CIA and the
Pentagon.
:But the evidence is that the National
RevieW "documents" were ,not all fraud.
,
_
h 6'1 ji
Some of them were clearly picked up from
the genuine Pentagon papers and docu-
ments, almost word for word,
Thus, such a,hoax was totally pointless,
at least in defending the CIA. It was re-;
markable to this newspaper, in reading'
those Pentagon papers given to us as well
as those printed by the New York Times,
how often the CIA's predictions and an7,1- ?
yes turned out to be right on target.
Its role in the war was certainly secret
and not in keeping With what Americans
had been told. The CIA conducted, the
covert war in North Vietnam before the
United Sta Les put combat troops in South
Vietnam in 1965., It masterminded the war
in Laos and ran its own air force But when
it came to telling Presidents Kennedy and
Johnsen what was actually happening andj
what was likely to happen if the United::.
States followed a certain course, the CIA
emerged as. the only agency with little or
.
no egg on its face.
What Buckley has done, then, and for
what .purpose, almost -defies analysis. Ha
lied when he first, said the "documents"
were genuine, because some of them are .
absolute, fakes, and he ii.d when .he said-
they-were created "ex nihilo" in his mag- I
azine's offices, since some of them' weren't.
In either case-he has failed to serve any
worthy. purpose, and in the .process has
damaged his credibility and that of his
magazine. his views must be taken with a
grain of salt or, as. Buckley would say,
Cum grano sails.
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TT Ecr.z.o:v-sT
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Labs Six /VICO battalions pushed -eastward
?
;
? from their base area around. Long
Ci I (Meng,. while Air America planes
?
carried- a 'commando strike-force to
The seasonal !/rhythm of the war in Xieng .Khoang in the centre of the
'northern. is reminiscent of those plain. They net with very little
z
animated barometers where one little- resistance, although Pathet Lao radio
man pops out on sunny days and reported some skirmishing over the
another on/rainy days. The dry season southern part of the. plain. There are
is traditionally the time for a corn- reports that the Meos have discovered
Munist .offensive in Laos, and it is some important arms caches, but the
.during the - monsoon (when supplies Laotian prime minister, Prince
from North Vietnam are interrupted Souvanna Phouma, merely said that
-and the communist forces pull back the offensive was " an American affair."
:towards the northern fringes of the The recapture of 30 square miles of
'Plain of Jars) that General Vang Pao's upland plain that has come to ion!:
'Me? army inches its way back across rathe.r like a battered sports trophy can
lost ground. ? hardly alter the military balance in
Reports at the end of last week Laos, and. it may have strained the.
'suggest that his " secret army," organ- diminishing. resources of the Ivieo.army
1.ised and equipped by the Central Intel- that forms the only effective local
_ligence Agency, has regained control resistance to the North Vietnamese and
of the plain after a two weeks' offensive. Pa.thet Lao. The 300,000 Me.o tribes-
men, who share a hereditary distrust of
the Vietnamese, have been badly
buffeted .by the Indochina \var. They
have become a nation of refugees,
moved back and forth down jungle
trails or in Air America planes as the
communists advance or retreat. Over
the past year, the " secret army " has
suffered from an acute shortage of
manpower, and Vang Pao has been
forced to recruit young boys.
The campaign of systematic.
terrorism launched by the communists
against. the Meo civil population
earlier this year has also shaken morale:
Some of Vang Pao's troops, separated
from their families for more than a
year and worried by stories of intirni-
dation and forced conscription by the
North Vietnamese, have deserted and
? made the long walk east. The health
of Vang Pao long
is another cause
? for concern. The current offensive is
being headed by a team of junior
officers and American advisers while
the general convalesces from a serious
illness whose nature has 'not been dis-
. closed. He would be hard to replace.
0 I /-k I IIN I L
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1E17
2 a JUL. 1..111
_
Saigon, Jnly 2?: (Special)--
Meo tribesraen, aided by the
Central .1ntellience Agency,
have. set up a radio station
imu,queradng a.; ri }Zed statue;
to sow disension anion Com-
9riuhist forces fighting in Laos,
it va:-.1 disclosed today.
The station, boanled to -no
Plain of Jars, began broadcast-
ing at the same time that gov-
ernment Me? forces moved into
the plain early this month.
An indication that the tactic
is succeeding came in a broad-
cast over the fled station which
exposed and protested the ruse.
----Joseph Friel
STATI NTL
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STATINTL
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-r;,17 ?tnr
-1 (3[4 Clq:i7L0
l' T'T j Til
1,, .:"; 0 .iJ?1";:- 2
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. i
. -
i ByF1'a I.,c;--,,,i':3
. ing countries, not confrontation. .
JOHN W. PARKE:11, -director of strategic The CIA has changed its rules in an effort;
i. . ..
Intc.?:Iligence in til r.2 BUtr.eall Of Narcotics and lo stop the use of its private airli?e, lily
Dangerous Drugs, ii C\a good deal Etbolli AMerica, for the transport of drugslYI 1 ,ao:-.4
Southeast Asia's contribution to the doil. Although only two months ago CIA Director I/
problem. And while he is a soft-spoken Lion (1 Helms adartia.ntly denied there had
Southerner, sometimes so quiet one has tc ever been any agency involvement in the
strain to hear him., he is the most straight ti.-11.,, be is now said to have told a s,,:,cre,t,
forward man I have yet found on the sub.
in-
ject in the administration. ., congressional hearing that there was in-
volvement but it has been stopped i?. the
1 De starts with an explanation. Tic:Member,
late says, that until Will we were concentrat-
Pd ear.
ing on the drug problem here in the United The U.S. Embassy in Laos has pressed the
. States. \c too much attention was paid bY govc'immehlt thel-.? to put thleillth '-itt.iiiet.-
7 the bureau to the source of supplies, And las i' on drugs which may be. passed ,thiai
,. / the Ariny,Alle CIA, the State Deprtment, the month. There was none before. ?
V . people out there where the heroin comes The U.S. EinhassY in Saigon got the Viet- ?
from weren't concerned about drugs. They names? govrnment to remove some of the
were cottcentrating on ether probicins, corrupt custo'ins officials, and similar efforts.
Further, while there has been opi0111 in
Southeast Asia since the British introduced I.'" icing lacle in Thailand. With Colli.res'::
vociferously taking up the issue, the White,
it in the early Jl-lih centuaY, until MO the
heroin refineries in the area wore all in llmtse is eracLling the whiP en all th e as?-
Thailand and Hong Kong, paisher sLys, it sorted America? officialS Who thought drug.
. didn't seem to affect the United States. traffic was not their concern, who thought
In fact, the dominant government attitude their job r;a2 only figlitim-1 the war, gather-
was that this was a fact of life in Asia which ing intelligence, maintaintng foreign lila:-
Americans shouldn't try to upset, espoei;',Ily lions.
since by the beginning ol the decade so 674-9
many Americans were so deeply engaged in
trying to control other facts of Southeast THE QUESTION is whether these rela;
Asia's life, namely the Vietnamese war and lively gentle pressures will convince govern)
,all its effshoets. . :mitts largely dependent on the United
Now, according to Parker, practically all States that they mnst fight heroin. Years of
the heroin refineries have been resituatcd argument got nowhere in Turkey, but a
along the Mekong River, in Burma, Thailand threat to cut off foreign. aid finally did.
_and Laos, and "almost all have been icle?ti--
hod." Now the Turks have promised to wipe out
If so, why hasn't. the United States, which opi urn production after the 3 972 crop, which,
means that in three or four years that
complett'dy subsidizes and virtually runs
Laos and has poured billicins into "i'hailand., senrce cli suPPlY will cirY "Pi Parker is e01)-:
whose ,,volunteer soldiers', it employs i ii vined no'.'.' that the 'Yurics can and will cm
Vietnam and Laos, 11-1E1do sure the heroin fac. force the ban. rut ztsit hint how much differ-
tories were destroyed? ? ence it will make in the amount of heroin-.
The obvious urgent question didn't annoy auPPiled to Americans.
Parker. On the contrary, his stolid face "If nothing else is done," he says. flatly,
slowly eased into ?a Cheshire cat grin. At "no difference," And the. "something, else".
first he didn't say anything. I suggested that ulli only I..-.: done in Washington, a decision
the reason wasn't hard to guess and wasn't to be just as tough in Southeast Asia as the.
really secret, .
"I know," he said. "I'm struggling not to Nixon administration was in Turkey.
say it." meanwhile, the in fti;
ch-high vials of i to Dr,
. ?? per cent pure heroin distributed in South
Vietnam have begun to turn up in the.
IT IS AT once a 'simple and excruciatingly United States. The bureau foresees an al:
tough answer', As he finally pointed out, it is most uncontrollable flood as veterans re;
R matter of political decision in v?,-_-,;iiinglort. tmn, find themselves without jobs and real-
There is a 'choice to mal;.e, at would he easy ize how much money can be made by having
, to blow up the refineries, defoliate most. of buddies or friends send them supplies from
.the poppy fields, pulth the governments in- the 3.,,,i. Firi,st.
volved into cracking down on their Co,V11 Addicts can he treated, but there -isn't
high-level militaryand civilian profiteers tinitch likelihood that there won't be far
and blocking the supply of heroin to GIs in Inere new ones than cures each day unless
Vietnam and, increasingly, to thee United the flow of heroin is cut at the source. At
,
States. ? the But-ecu of Named ics, experts are con
vi'paed that is possible, except perk apr...,. for- i-
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going to happen. The hard political decision
hasn't been taken.
r. ?
If
:But it v?ould he a severe cnibarraashien
to allies in Southeast Asia. It would hi cider
the p1 osecution. of the in Indochina,
so seriously that baaic U.S. policy
would have to be changed. ?
There have been some changes in the past
year, but they have follov,,ed a pattern of
seeking compromise with the drug-m.00mi-
S' TATINTL
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? PPA 0 FRANK ALDERT US IS .11AS NOT INVOLVED IN SUMMARY
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FAR ECO:!.1.041. W:PIE1.,3
Approved For Riliait02061*?110 : CIA-RDP80-01601R0
PIUM growing and heroin marketing are not new to
Asia or the world. Nor are efforts to control them.
Yet last month US President Richard Nixon was prompt-
ed to declare a national emergency in hisicountry, bluntly
F stating: "If we cannot destroy the drug menace in Ameri-
rca, then it will surely in 'time destroy us." America, he
admitted, has the highest number of heroin addicts of any
r.:..nation in, the world, although no Opium is
L,-grown there arid no heroin processed. "This
[-?cleacIly poison," Nixon said, "is a foreign im-
port
?::Such words Must ring ironically in those
Asian capitals which are targets of a new inter-
'E national effort to stern drug marketing. And
t Peking, forced just over a century ago to open
borders to foreign trade after attempting to
r: prevent Westerners from destroying its people
- with the "foreign mud", now se.es the wheel
come full circle.
'
- Recently a UN mission accompanied by
US observers investigated outlets in northern Thailand -
following charges by Taipei that China devoted C, million
acres annually to the production of 10,000 tons of opium
t-?- for export. It declared China innocent of any involvement
.t :in the production or export of opium, heroin or any other
narcotics. Marshall Green, US assistant sacretary of state
for East Asian and Pacific affaii-s, did. not mention China
'at a July 12 press conference on the drug problem:He
pointed instead to the "golden triangle' the border j
'areas between Eiurma, Thailand and Laos. - S*TINTL
Experts estimate that in this area 1,000 metric tons of
1
" raw popover somniferum -L the "opium poppy" - are
-harvested every year, 80% of it in Burma, the remainder in
Laos ancl Thailand. Far above the legal limit authorised by
the UN, the crop realises 30 tons of heroin in
world markets. The route to such markets was
directly through Rangoon in the years im-
mediately following world war II, then
through Bangkok until 1957, and finally by
way of Vientiane, Phnom Penh and Saigon.
The Indochina War, despite creating prob-
lems of distribution, has not slowed the flow
of .drugs. Social workers in South Vietnam
now rreport many Of the nation's large street
urchin population are hooked on the cheapest
:form of opium by-product -a dark watery
.. substance 'which is heated and -then injected
into the veins. As Green noted, heroin traffickers need to
seek new customers as .American troops H.,.ve. Vietnam:- .;
"The youth of Asia are a prime target," he concluded
"and -this disturbing. possibility is Leginning to come home
to Asian leaders". Perhaps they, like their American coun-
terparts, now realise that if they do riot destroy the drug
menace, it will surely in -time destroy them.
fr" rLP,
Uti; VV(?5.11
?
By T. D. Alban, B an el ko k .
? - ? ? ? - _ . .
3TER0lN addiction among American soldiers in Vietnam has been involve-
I_ ii..has finally prompted White House orders for US ment of government ' ?k:'-'?'--f-
rmissions in Southeast Asia to crack down on drug traffic. But officials in some of I.--
t?.?
these new efforts to curb the clandestine trade in drugs a.re these countries.
.not Ar-nrica's first incursion into the murky area of South- 'Mitchell refused to
east .Asia's most secret and profitable business enterprise, name publicly any r
. Though the exact details :have been well-guarded secrets, of the - suspected I
several US clandestine agencies and a number of allied Asian ,. figures, but Con-
military
leaders have been involved in the traffic for years. grossman Robert
Until the tragedy of opium and heroin addiction began to Steele; a former CIA
strike US soldiers, the reason for American involvement in- (Central Intelligence '
the trade :trade was ruthlessly simple. Opium is a major basis of the Agency) officer who
power wielded by several of the area's most influential pro- Eas personally Dries- t '-
American leaders, and. US influence with them has depended Ligated - . Southeast
,,,.?-.
.partly on American ability to influence the flow of opium Asian drug trade, '0
,.,
within the region. .
. . . said a ago
fortnight ?
-4,-, ,
.. The remote northern mountains of Vietnam, Laos, Thai- he US had "hard i
al.
r .
.land and Burma are among the world's prinie opiom growing - intelligence" that i....,.,) - a ..; ,-..-:-LO,..--.:?...o...,..?...,..,-..
areas. Traditionally; the local vvu-lord, govejnor or n-iilitary IvIljor General Ngo. tiieiltione marijuana market: Traffic is
commander has controlled the drug trade for his own profit. Dz.u, commander of. harde.o. to control in Laos, bocausa of n-
i
In their efforts to dominate these regions, American person- a vital military .one votvement at cla fop.
,
nel have become involved in a sordid business that goes back in northern South Vietnam was "one of the chief traffickers
.to the opium wars or the last century. in heroin id Southeast Asia". Although Dzu promptly denied
poidiviiiiiii6foillemg ivibliOti o : pAll4biDitili iii14's
- 1 i nAgi,,,w,i-A;a1rx and the US state
- The degree and natA
'trade takes different forms in different countries. When a.sKed epar ment announced "frirVaITYWiMgate immediately.
by a congressional committee if Asian government officials But when similar accusations were made against Vice Prosi?
?
were involved US ' ? .
Attorney General
John Mitchell re-
plied "the fact of
the matter is there ...f;
1
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Approved For Release 2001106/1h CeTrDP80-01601
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- By Art: .13uchluaci
After being away from Washington for 17 days I
found the town completely changed, Everywhere I. went,
people were trading secret Pentagon papers to each
other.
The first place I stopped was the National Press Club
bar. It was jammed with correspondents holding up
Xeroxed copies in their hands.
_ "I'll give you two Henry Cabot Lodge memos for one
McNamara position paper,". someone yelled.
"I've got a Walt Bestow pre-Tonkin Gulf evaluation
I'll trade for a Tet offensive report."
"How about a Joint Chiefs of Staff contingency plan
for the invasion of Manchuria?"
I drank in embarrassed. silence. Finally a New York
Times man next to me said, "You don't have any Dean
Rusk memos to Maxwell Taylor to complete my collec-
tion?"
I replied, '1". don't have any papers at all."
"I thought you were a newspaperman," he said.
"I am, but I was out of the country when Daniel Ells-
berg was handnig out the documents."
He turned away from me with suspicion.
I tapped him .on the shoulder. "You wouldn't let me
see one, would you?" I asked.
"I should say not," he said indignantly. "These are
classified documents."
I saw a friend of mine from The Washington Post.
"Murray," I said, "I don't know how to put this to you,
but I was wondering if I could hon ow a stolen Pentagon
paper until I get paid on Thursday."
Murray said, "I'd like to help you, but I need every
one I've got. I know the guy from the Boston Globe has
some extra McGeorge Bundy cables, Why don't you ask
him?"
- _
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II
I went down the bar to the Boston Globe man.
"Healy," I said, "I'm plumb out of Pentagon papers.
Could you spare a couple until I can make contact with
a. traitor from the Rand Corporation?"
"You know I'd do anything for you," Healy said, "hut
according to Attorney General John Mitchell, these pa-
pers could, compromise the government. I would be be-
traying a trust if I gave them to somebody from the
press." .
"Healy," I said. "I don't like to beg, but Pro the only
guy in town that doesn't have a single stolen document.
How can I hold up my head in this profession if I don't .
have R Pentagon paper to my name?"
Healy replied, "Look, we're dealing with top secret
stuff here. I know you wouldn't do anything with the
papers, and Murray knows you wouldn't do anything to
compromise the .country. But does J. Edgar Hoover
know it?"
_ A man from the Los Angeles Times said, "Does any-
one want to trade the CIA's estimate of Madame MAI
for the plans of a military coup in Laos?"
"I'll do it," the bartender said, bringing out some pa-
pet's from behind the bar.
You have papers too?" I asked in surprise.
"Sure," he said. "All my tips for the past.month have
been in stolen Pentagon papers."
"You wouldn't sell any, would you?"
"Not on your life. These papers were given to me on
the condition I would never show them to strangers."
I left the bar trying not to hear the taunts of the
drinkers.
A Chicago Sun-Times man said, loudly enough for me
to hear, ''We ought to keep an eye on who comes into
this place or our papers will be leaked all over town."
O 5071, Lm AlIZ;Cle:S Times
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?7-! --7.71.1..? I.1 /1-17
By D. E. Ronk
Special to The V,,ashInz ton vast
VIETIANE---Kharn Hung
at 15 is a Moo civilian and
says he's lucky not being
a soldier because soldiering
is dying, a link he under-
stands thoroughly, talks of
knowingly, and the reason
he'll probably never go
,back to the mountains.
Besides, "Fre for
how to speak Meo. I'm for-
getting how to be Moo," he
says in Vietnamese.
Kham' liTung's father. a
"captain" in the CIA's "deo
Army,' was killed in action
over two years ago. Then his
'mother died a month later
of "lowland sickness," as he
describes it. Lie and two
youngeo sisters were
brought to Vientiane by a
Laotian "capitan," a friend
of their father's and placed
with his relatives.
? "I'm becoming a Lao
when I forget to speak Moo.
I don't have AT cc friends
bore to talk to, only Lao
?friends. Maybe hi two more
Years I will speak no Moo
language, only Lao and Viet-
namese."
Kharn Hung is one among
a growing Moo population in
the lowland capital, a pres-
ence grown to "at least a
thousand, probably two and
may easily be more al-
ready," according to an
American teacher with close
tie's to the. tiny group of Men
-secondary students here.
? "You can't really count
them," he. says, "because
most hide their Meo identity
quickly to try blending into
.the Lao community. The
,
Laos know because they
- "In the mountains," he ex-
plains, "MOO boys ?hecome
soldiers at 15," adding sim-
ply, "I don't want to be a
soldier."
Soldiering has been a way
of life for Moo men for at
least three. decades. Two
years ago the army was
drafting 15-yea3solds for
lack of older soldiers; today
they are drafting 12-year-
olds to maintain the 10,000-
man army and the average
age of the soldier is re-
ported to be 15.
"It's better to live here
, and learn to be a Laotian,"
he says, grinning.
There have been shocks
since he arrived on the low-
lands. "My uncle," a Leo
captain, "is dead in the war,
too," he says. But his youth-
ful transitions have been
easy. He calls his adoptive
parents mother and father
and speaks of thorn with re-
spect and affection. -
For older Moo the
changes in place, custom,
weather, language and dress
are more wrenching than
the culture shock among
'Americans going into alien,
unmodernized societies. Moo
withdrawal into depression,
from which sense never re-
cover, is frequent, according
to the American teacher.
For most, however, accom-
modation comes rather easi-
ly, retaining v.hs L is possible
of mountain ways, hiding
some, quickly forgetting
most.
Newly arrived Alec are ob-
vious on the streets. They
cling to mountain dress,
basic black cotton for men
and women, with women
wearing day-glo colored
sashes, bandanas, scarves,
belts and tiny aprons about
waist and neck, combina-
tions of colors that identify
their clsns.
They also wear heavy sil-
ver jewelry, though that is
now sold as souvenirs in Vi-
entiane's gold and silver
shops.
Silver is the base of
hear the accent, but my ear wealth among the Meo.
Beaten silver hands adorn
the men's bird guns and sil-
ver rings inlaid with enam-
els identify clans.
There arc only two ob-
vious centers of Meo wealth
In Vientiane, the villa of
isn't that sensitive and most
can pass physically as ethnic
Lao."
Kharn Hung is young and
his status is dirforent
enough so that, he finds it
unnecessary to hide his
Identity, 'but he talks with Gen. Yang Pao and the huge
pride, then with discomfort, bungalows of Touby Ly rand of them and only one-
about "forgetting how to be Bong, often called "King of third of those accepting
But, li Is.eApprOMeld r littWat,6 '0101/01t1D pil-clidfikdiSogelb160001-1
meo students hers, he herecntary Crall (: 7.1.C1 -4-1;1(i ? ?
doesn't want to go back to
the mountains.
e`
former minister of social
'welfare educated in France.
Moo arriving in Vientiane,
like aliens elsewhere, go
first among their own kind,
living as .small, ? scattered
clusters in the unocc.tipk'd
builciiw,s of government vil-
las or small ghettoes in the
city,
Broom-making pro vi des
their main income. Families
of two to six, or more, wan-
der the business districts
with backpacks of brooms.
Brooro-making and ped-
dling is not lucrative, Neo
say, and is passed on to
later arrivals when better
work is gained.
Cottage handcrafts for the
souvenir market are rapidly
developing, stimulated by
the ease of selling silver and
embroidered cloth dccora.
tons for new arrivals.
-Although 'Westerners
working with Mee say they
learn quickly, there is little
they know that is useful on
the lowlands.
Divisions between the
Mao all(1 lowland Lao run
deep. Affection like that be-
tween 1