A Tale of the Trail

The Laos-Vietnam frontier at Tchepone has been disputed since the French colonial days, when Tchepone was governed as part of Vietnam, insists the guerrilla chieftain. His black eyes smolder beneath heavy brows, his hair is slightly greying; he wears an immaculately trimmed mustache—his distinguishing trademark known all over Laos. “The North Vietnamese quite naturally claimed it after the departure of the French; no Lao official has ever visited it and no Laotian military post has ever been established there.”

After a brief pause, he continues his defense of Hanoi’s recent invasion of Laotian territory, speaking slowly in flawless French and looking thoughtfully across the veranda toward the broad Mekong flowing past his headquarters, an old French colonial villa.

GG

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Gene Gregory

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The Laos-Vietnam frontier at Tchepone has been disputed since the French colonial days, when Tchepone was governed as part of Vietnam, insists the guerrilla chieftain. His black eyes smolder beneath heavy brows, his hair is slightly greying; he wears an immaculately trimmed mustache—his distinguishing trademark known all over Laos. “The North Vietnamese quite naturally claimed it after the departure of the French; no Lao official has ever visited it and no Laotian military post has ever been established there.”

After a brief pause, he continues his defense of Hanoi’s recent invasion of Laotian territory, speaking slowly in flawless French and looking thoughtfully across the veranda toward the broad Mekong flowing past his headquarters, an old French colonial villa.