THE THREE NATIONS OF INDO-CHINA

NOW that Indo-China is falling apart, the question is whether any of its three Associated States-- Laos, Cambodia and Viet Nam -- can survive on their own. All three are technically independent of France in domestic affairs; their own rulers run their own governments, their own civil service, their own courts. But France runs their foreign affairs and has been managing (or mismanaging) their defense.

So far, the Communist Viet Minh has been ineffectual in the smaller states of Laos and Cambodia. But by the terms of a French surrender, the Communists will probably get half, and in due course all, of Viet Nam. French and British negotiators now hope that Laos and Cambodia may be neutralized" and their freedom guaranteed. The three:

LAOS (pop. 1,100,000)

A footprint said to be that of the eternal Buddha lies preserved within the Golden Pagoda at Luang Prabang the royal capital. It is believed to protect the Laotians from their enemies. Laos has been invaded by Tibetans, Mongols, Javanese Annamites, Indians, Chinese, Frenchmen and Khmers, but the craggy, mountainous state has survived with its ethnic unity just about intact. More than two-thirds of Its people are Laotians and related Thais. Its language is still its own native Thai. Its religion is still Buddhism. Even the French prefer to channel their rule through Laotian kings, and they have established their own purely administrative capital at Vientiane 130 miles from Luang Prabang. Since 1904 the French have ruled through one venerable monarch, King Sisavang Vong, now old (68) and gouty, but no easy man to scare. When the Communists threatened Luang Prabang November 1952, the King refused to quit, declaring: "This is my country. This is my palace. I am too old to tremble before danger." The King's elephant's were used to help the French erect barricades, and his 10,000-man army helped drive the invaders out.

CAMBODIA (pop. 3,700,000)

Long before the advent of Buddha, Cambodia was settled by migrants from India. More than 1,000 years ago, Cambodia was the seat of the mighty Khmer empire, which ruled most of Indo-China and bequeathed the matchless jungle temple of Angkor Wat to posterity. But Cambodia is now the smallest (about the size of Missouri) of the three Associated States. The French established their protectorate in 1863, but decided to leave the easygoing Cambodians pretty much on their own, to trade contentedly in pepper and corn, grow rice and worship Buddha in the shade. When the Communist guerrillas arose in 1952, plump young King Norodom Sihanouk forswore his love songs, his saxophone, his personal troupe of 30 dancing girls and led his 12,000-man army and his war elephants against the Reds. In 1953, King Norodom took himself off to Thailand, vowing not to return until the French gave him more independence--which the French promptly guaranteed.

VIET NAM (pop. 23 million)

Viet Nam is rich in rubber, tin, zinc, iron and coal; it has a notable surplus of rice, and a strategic 1,200-mile coastline. Viet Nam is the prize, the arena where the French and the Viet Minh have contended for the past eight years.

The Viet Nam nation is a recent French consolidation of three ancient provinces: Tonkin, Annam and Cochin China. The Chinese ruled Tonkin and northern Annam for more than the 1,000 years, until they were expelled in the 10th century by native Annamites who were themselves of part-Chinese stock. About 150 years ago, the Annamites split into warring factions, and French missionnaires and traders moved in along the coast. By 1802, the French were strong enough to install a puppet king on the imperial throne of Annam; by 1870, the French army was ashore to protect French interests; by 1900, the French had all of Indo-China.

In the 80 years before World War II, the French invested $2 billion in Indo-China, almost all of it in Viet Nam. They built 13,800 miles of roads, railroads and canals; they reduced infant mortality by 50%; their irrigation projects brought 13 million more acres under cultivation. But they were frequently overbearing, took excessive profits out of the country, and were slow about granting any kind of independence to the Vietnamese.

In 1949, in the Indo-China war's third year, the French installed Bao Dai, playboy descendant of old Annamite kings, as Viet Nam's chief of state. But Bao Dai usually complied with French demands, and therefore got almost no public support, while Moscow Servant Ho Chi Minh was often admired simply because he was anti-French. Not until last month did Viet Nam get a genuinely nationalist Prime Minister, Ngo Dinh Diem -- probably too late to make up for France's long refusal to prepare the Vietnamese for self-government and self-defense, probably too late to save the nation's freedom.

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