The Tiger in the Pagoda

The seldom reported war in Laos ebbs and flows with the seasons. In dry weather, the Communist Pathet Lao and their North Vietnamese allies go on the offensive. During the monsoon rains, the more mobile Royal Laotian Army is trucked or helicoptered into battle and usually regains what has been previously lost.

The scenario was rewritten last spring, when the Communists mounted an un precedented monsoon offensive, captured the town of Muong Soui and threatened to drive all the way to the Mekong River. Now the scenario has been modified further. In an operation launched amidst extraordinary secrecy early this month, Royal Laotian troops mounted a two-pronged attack against the Plain of Jars in the northeast, and against Communist units guarding the Ho Chi Minh Trail in central Laos. Last week, for the first time in five years, government forces were in control of part of the broad Plain of Jars, so called because of the many funereal jars on the area's tombs. Preceding the offensive was an intensive rain of bombs from Thai-based U.S. planes, which have turned the whole region into a "free-fire zone," where anything that moves is considered fair game. A woman refugee from Mahaxay said the town had emptied so completely because of the bombing that a tiger had taken up residence in the ruins of the main pagoda.

The government advance met only light opposition, suggesting either that the offensive surprised the Communists or that they had pulled back to avoid the lethal air attack. One of the few non-Communist casualties reported was that of an American CIA agent who was presumably acting as an adviser. Under the terms of the 1962 Geneva treaty, the presence of any armed man in Laos, except for the Laotians, is illegal. Even so, several thousand Thai troops have been operating more or less secretly in Laos for over a year. They have gone unnoticed because of their ethnic similarities to the Laotian people, and because they wear Royal Laotian uniforms. There are also an estimated 40,000 North Vietnamese in Laos, and perhaps 1,000 Americans.

Political Operation. Under the Geneva treaty, Laos is supposed to be governed by a three-way coalition, with four Cabinet seats set aside for the Pathet Lao, eleven for the neutralists and four for the rightists. From the first, it was a shaky arrangement. In 1963, the. Pathet Lao quit the government, leaving Prince Souvanna Phouma, the Premier, in command of a neutralist-royalist coalition. In 1964, the Communists drove the neutralists from the Plain of Jars and set about creating their own "neutralist" wing from a nucleus of defectors. The Pathet Lao figure that a new coalition will be formed once peace comes to Viet Nam, and they hope to control at least half the Cabinet posts by placing their "neutralists" in the government. Aware of the Communists' intentions, Souvanna Phouma confirmed that the offensive, at least on the Plain of Jars, was more political than military.

The intensified fighting seemed to provoke more concern in Washington than in Vientiane. At the urging of Kentucky's Senator John Sherman Cooper, the Senate adopted by an 86-to-0 vote a vague amendment barring the use of certain defense funds for U.S. combat support of local forces in Laos or Thailand. The object, said Cooper, was to prevent the nation "from moving step by step into war in Laos or Thailand, as it did in Viet Nam." The Pentagon said that the amendment would have no practical effect; the U.S. has available other funds sufficient to maintain military forces in both countries. What the Senate critics seemed to overlook, besides, was that the U.S. is involved elsewhere in Southeast Asia because of its position in Viet Nam. With Washington making every effort to extricate itself from Viet Nam, the U.S. is not very likely to make a heavy commitment of ground troops in Laos or Thailand.

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