Fighting Tribe

Whoever finally wins control of Laos will have a prime headache from a band of wiry mountain tribesmen who wear their hair in a tangled bun, love opium and hate law, order and progress. The Meos are the best fighters in Laos, and during the course of the civil war, they have traded in their crossbows and poisoned arrows for shiny new weapons donated by both the Communists and the U.S. "Give one of those little guys a rifle in the morning," says a U.S. military adviser, "and when he comes back that night, he'll be able to kill a man at 200 yards."

The wiliest guerrillas in the Communist Pathet Lao are Meos, who scamper by night over mountain slopes that would terrify the valley-dwelling Lao. On the pro-Western side. Colonel Vang Pao, a Royal Army Meo, has held stubbornly to a precipitous stronghold deep inside Communist territory, nicknamed "Happy Valley" by the U.S. pilots who must swoop down into it to land supplies.

Legend of Snows. The story among the Lao is that the Meos are really Eskimos, since they raise Huskylike white dogs, tell legends of great snows, and will live only above 3,000 ft. More probably, they originated in northern China and were gradually driven south. About 5,000,000 Meos are scattered through Southeast Asia, perhaps 250,000 of them in Laos. They hold a virtual monopoly on the growing of opium and hence are among the more affluent Laotians. They hoard their wealth in massive silver necklaces, worn by all Meo women. Unlike the Buddhist Lao, the Meos have no qualms about killing.

Radio Hanoi has been wooing the Meos for years with Meo-language broadcasts, but the tribe reportedly split into pro-and anti-Communist factions after a quarrel over the division of the opium crop. Colonel Vang and his cousin, Health Minister Touby Lyfoung, lead the loyalist Meos. The Pathet Lao Meos follow Chief Phay Dang, described by Communist Journalist Wilfred Burchett, who once visited him, as "a noble figure with a fine head, the dignity and poise of a great Indian chief."

Whatever their political sympathies, valley Lao wonder if the Meos, now that they have taken up modern arms, will ever put them down. Said one official: "We feel pity for them, disdain, but also respect. They have too much ability in a simple way, and too much money from their opium. They've chosen to live on the very tops of the mountains, among the clouds."

Lost in Battle. The negotiations in Geneva also seemed stuck among the clouds. Declared Red China's Foreign Minister Marshal Chen Yi contemptuously: "I cannot understand why the United States is trying to win at a conference what it has already lost on the battlefield." With the talks thoroughly deadlocked, U.S. Delegate Averell Harriman invited the pro-Western Minister of Defense, General Phoumi Nesavan. and "Neutralist" Prince Souvanna Phouma to Washington, apparently hoping to get them together on some kind of acceptable coalition government. General Phoumi came, talked to President Kennedy, Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. But Prince Souvanna, who has visited Russia twice in recent months, politely declined because of his "extremely busy" schedule, and took off for a vacation in Paris, while his half brother, Red Prince Souphanouvong, flew off to Moscow again for further instructions.

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