The Laos Tangle

Laos crisis of 1960-1961 is almost a schoolbook example of what C. L. Sulzberger, the European editorialist of the New York Times, has aptly defined as brush-fire peace an uneasy combination of internal political crises and external military pressures. If one couples to such a situation a large measure of pure and simple ignorance abroad of the geographical, ethnic, and political factors involved, the result is likely to be bafflement (at best) or (at worst) policy decisions made on largely erroneous premisses. In the words of a recent American traveler to Laos, . . Indeed, if you want to get a sense of the universe unraveling, come to Laos. Complexity such as this has to be respected.1 Basically, the Laotian problem has not changed one iota since 1953, when the small kingdom for the first time faced countrywide insecurity based upon native rebels backed by North Vietnamese troops (with the difference that in 1953 an actual VietMinh invasion had taken place and that there still were about twenty-thousand French troops in the country to face it) . What has changed since 1953 and that, of course, is a key element in the equation is that Laos has become a pawn in the Cold War, with every small change on the Laotian scene being immediately projected on the front pages of the world's newspapers and being gravely discussed in the world powers' chanceries. The hard fact remains that since the early 1950's not one single internal factor of the Laotian problem has materially changed: then as now, the native pro-Communist forces numbered about 4,000 men under the command of Prince Souphanouvong ; then as now, the party of moderation was led by his half

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