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University Dauy Kansan
Tuesday, May 19, 1964
Laos Crisis Same in 1962
By Phil Newsom
UPI Foreign News Analyst
It was about this time in 1962 when the United States found itself in the midst of a crisis which led it to assign troops to the defense of Thailand and powerful units of the Gulf of Siam.
FROM VIENTIANE, capital of Laos, comes word that the myth of neutrality for that sad little country has been exploded with the route of the forces of Gen. Kong Le, himself a sad, colorless little figure who also once believed in neutralism.
And so it can be assumed that more than the question of military and economic reinforcement of South Viet Nam occupied President Johnson and his chief advisers in their weekend talks which followed the return of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara from Saigon.
Laotian dispatches tell of Kong Le's neutralist forces being routed from the Plain of Jars under heavy attack by Communist-led Pathet Lao and Viet Minh forces and Kong Le himself seeking sanctuary among anti-Communist Mao tribesmen in nearby mountains to the northeast.
A similar situation may already be here.
These events bear a marked resemblance to the crisis of 1962.
Kong Le's forces have been estimated at 7,000 men armed with American weapons.
In May of 1962, Pathet Lao and Viet Minh forces broke a cease-fire with an attack on the northern town of Nam Tha.
FIVE THOUSAND royalist forces fled in panic with their officers in the vanguard and without even bothering to inform the American advisers assigned to them.
It left the Communists an open road to the Mekong River and to the border with Thailand.
The two-pronged attack which overran Kong Le's headquarters now is said to have given the Communists the entire Plain of Jars and control of the Tran Ninh plateau which traditionally is the invasion route for the whole of Indochina.
It further opens their way to the capture of the Mekong River town of Paksane which would have the twin effect of posing a new threat to Thailand and cutting Laos in two. It further would isolate the remaining bulk of the Laotian army in the south and could lead to the fall of Vientiane, the administrative capital of Laos.
So for the United States another moment of truth could be in the making.
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Three Promoted
Delbert Shankel, assistant professor of microbiology, and William Gilbert, professor of history, have been elected to the administrative committee of the College. William B. Bass, assistant professor of anthropology, was elected College faculty secretary.
USO-Sponsored Musical to Tour in Europe
The University Theatre is making plans to take a United Service Organization (USO) tour to Europe from September through October.
A musical, which has not yet been determined, will be used on the tour. There will be a
meeting for students interested in participating in the musical and who will be enrolled in summer school at 7 p.m. tonight in the University Theatre in Murphy Hall. Students who cannot attend the meeting should call the Theatre office.
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