The Double Standard

Military men have long complained that Laotian soldiers will not fight. Political scientists have been exasperated by the Laotians' lighthearted attempts to govern themselves and by their queer habit of having two capitals, a political one at Vientiane and a royal one at Luangpra-bang. Last week it was the turn of diplomats to be amazed by the Laotians--and to discover that the two-capital system has some spectacular advantages.

While in Geneva, the international conference on Laos tried to work out a formal agreement on Laotian neutrality, the new coalition Cabinet of neutralist Prince Souvanna Phouma blandly announced that it planned to recognize practically all the divided countries under the sun: North and South Viet Nam, East and West Germany, Red China as well as Nationalist China. When stunned newsmen pointed out that the rules of diplomacy require that one or the other of the split nations, or neither, be recognized, acting Foreign Minister Pheng Phongsavan professed amazement. "If they accept the laws of Laos, there will be no trouble," he declared, and added that, happily, the rival missions need not even see each other, since one could go "to Luangprabang and the other to Vientiane."

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