On the Right

Vientiane, Dec. 15—Pity the poor Laotians, however depleted your reserves of pity. There aren’t very many of them, just over 2.5 million, they are very very poor earning per capita $50 per year, which the United States practically doubles with its various projects, military, economic and social in Laos. The country is split right down the middle, the eastern half dominated by North Vietnamese soldiers who use it as a conveyor belt to feed the war against South Vietnam. That line oscillates wildly, depending on who is in control of a central plain to the north, which the government now controls, but which the Communists are always threatening to overrun. The war costs the Laotians, on a typical day, thirteen soldiers dead. Multiply that by one hundred, and you have an idea what would be a comparable loss to the United States—1,300 dead per day, or just under one-half million men per year, far far worse than our burden during the worst days of the Second World War.

Probably Laos will survive or not depending on whether South Vietnam survives. Itissoin all of Southeast Asia, which is like a mobile, which rises, or lowers, its component pieces maintaining their relative position to one another, as one lifts or lowers the halyard. Souvanna Phouma, the Prime Minister, told the visitor sadly, philosophically, that for so long as that war continues, Laos is definitely in danger, because the enemy needs the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which is on Laotian territory. But if South Vietnam survives, even then it will be a struggle, because the North Vietnam Communists are greedy, and they will continue to prey on Laos. YET THE COUNTRY BREEDS a rugged kind of optimism, or so it seems. The American ambassador, Mac Godley, is energetic, exuberant, determined. So also are the Americans who help in every conceivable way, with education, agriculture, public health, military security. It isn’t an easy job. For one thing there is the language problem— more generally, the problem of communication. There are a total of 7,500 copies sold per day throughout Laos of all the daily newspapers combined. Very few Laotians speak English, in deed very few Laotians read Lao (75 per cent are illiterate). So that one needs to start from the very bottom, which Americans have undertaken to do, helping, for instance, to train Laotians to fly airplanes, an indispensable accomplishment for any nation that desires to protect itself. As one Lao put it to one American official, complaining of the insecurity of travel, “The activities carry out quite well, but feel worry one thing that is no any boss go along the trips. I have complained this question several times but boss is afraid to die.” Not all bosses are afraid to die.

Vientiane, Dec. 15—Pity the poor Laotians, however depleted your reserves of pity. There aren’t very many of them, just over 2.5 million, they are very very poor earning per capita $50 per year, which the United States practically doubles with its various projects, military, economic and social in Laos. The country is split right down the middle, the eastern half dominated by North Vietnamese soldiers who use it as a conveyor belt to feed the war against South Vietnam. That line oscillates wildly, depending on who is in control of a central plain to the north, which the government now controls, but which the Communists are always threatening to overrun. The war costs the Laotians, on a typical day, thirteen soldiers dead. Multiply that by one hundred, and you have an idea what would be a comparable loss to the United States—1,300 dead per day, or just under one-half million men per year, far far worse than our burden during the worst days of the Second World War.

Probably Laos will survive or not depending on whether South Vietnam survives. Itissoin all of Southeast Asia, which is like a mobile, which rises, or lowers, its component pieces maintaining their relative position to one another, as one lifts or lowers the halyard. Souvanna Phouma, the Prime Minister, told the visitor sadly, philosophically, that for so long as that war continues, Laos is definitely in danger, because the enemy needs the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which is on Laotian territory. But if South Vietnam survives, even then it will be a struggle, because the North Vietnam Communists are greedy, and they will continue to prey on Laos. YET THE COUNTRY BREEDS a rugged kind of optimism, or so it seems. The American ambassador, Mac Godley, is energetic, exuberant, determined. So also are the Americans who help in every conceivable way, with education, agriculture, public health, military security. It isn’t an easy job. For one thing there is the language problem— more generally, the problem of communication. There are a total of 7,500 copies sold per day throughout Laos of all the daily newspapers combined. Very few Laotians speak English, in deed very few Laotians read Lao (75 per cent are illiterate). So that one needs to start from the very bottom, which Americans have undertaken to do, helping, for instance, to train Laotians to fly airplanes, an indispensable accomplishment for any nation that desires to protect itself. As one Lao put it to one American official, complaining of the insecurity of travel, “The activities carry out quite well, but feel worry one thing that is no any boss go along the trips. I have complained this question several times but boss is afraid to die.” Not all bosses are afraid to die.