Time for Poets

Laos' pro-Western Premier, Prince Boun Oum, called a rare press conference in Vientiane last week, but never said a word. Smiling and silent, he sat for an hour while Education Minister Nhouy Abhay, who is also the poet laureate of Laos, chattered on. In mid-conference, Nhouy casually remarked that the government had asked help from the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization in dealing with the Communist-backed insurrection in Laos. Reporters were startled, and Nhouy hastily explained: "We simply wanted to reassure our people that we have friendly nations with us. Foreigners in Vientiane have been digging trenches, and the population is worried. So we appealed to SEATO to put the people at their ease." Well, did the government want SEATO to intervene or not? "Of course not," said Nhouy. "If SEATO intervened, there would be a world war, and nobody wants that. Laos would become a battlefield."

Such ingenuous diplomacy served as a fair warning that negotiating a peace in Laos would be fully as confusing as fighting a war there. But both Russia and the West seemed convinced that negotiations should get started. In his talks with U.S. Ambassador Llewellyn Thompson in Moscow, Khrushchev hinted that he would go along with the revival of the International Control Commission (India, Poland, Canada) in Laos, provided it was linked with a larger conference of nations to work out terms for peace. The U.S. has not agreed to a conference, but President Kennedy said last week that he wanted to see Laos an "independent country, peaceful country, uncommitted country." And a Soviet diplomat in Bangkok warned: "If the war goes on, the Americans will send in a division, the Chinese will answer with ten divisions, and we'll all be in trouble."

So far, there was no sign of large-scale troop intervention--though Boun Oum's constantly inventive Information Minister claimed the capture of thousands of chopsticks, adding darkly that "Laotians don't use chopsticks." On their own, the Laotians were getting little fighting done. Rebel Captain Kong Le still sat astride the central Plaine des Jarres, on the receiving end of a steady Soviet airlift of supplies from North Viet Nam. He concentrated on training his five-battalion force, made up of paratroops, villagers and recruits from the army posts he has captured. He claimed to be only a "neutralist" himself--though he coordinates his attacks with Communist Pathet Lao guerrillas.

Prince Boun Oum's U.S.-supplied army moved north on the road from Vientiane to take the village of Muong Kassy. But immediately after the battle, the battalion commander, Colonel Oudone Sananikone, flew back by helicopter to Vientiane for a civilized French dinner at the Settha Palace Hotel. Both sides seemed interested in saving their skins, and their bargaining points, until the rest of the world got them out of trouble. "We have been frightened long enough," said Minister Nhouy. "Let others worry a bit."

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