Nixon and his advisors planned to contain the war in Vietnam and impose a military solution; building up the puppet regime there on the basis of the Army and US led South Vietnamese troops. Events in Laos and Cambodia have shattered this dream. The war has escalated in Laos and deepened Cambodia. The control of the whole pensula is now al stake In Laos the Pathet Lao and their Vietnamese allies have moved forward to position that they can well defend. This has greatly extended US lines with minimum loss to themselves. The Americans have been forced to fly in puppet troops from Thailand (there is no stopping the war from spreading) using the CIA airline Air America as a cover Cambodia the Vietnamese have been pushing the new right wit Nol, who as hard as they can. Either Lon has just ousted Prince Sihanouk, will have to go for help to the Americans or he will topple. Either way the NLF will secure their own base areas in Cambodia, though it will cost them in supplies and effort.
Meanwhile from Vietnam itself come reports of a new offensive against the US troops.
Laos According to the was not a country •worthy engaging the attention of great powers. Now it is one of the storm-centres of the worId.
borders on China, Thailand, Laos Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam (both north and south of the 17th parallel). It is slightly larger than Britain. The DODulaLO! probably around million-although estimates of the population is Lao 15% Tribal Thai, and the rest Meo, Kha and minor groups. More than half of all the Lao people live in Thailand. The whole area is a zone where national and ethnic frontiers do not coincide. All the frontier lines are the creation of imperialism and the politics of the 'national question" both confused and exacerbated by fact. But the revolutionary peoples of the area are refusing to allow themselves to be restricted by the legacy of colonialism.
It is difficult to analyse the Laotian economy. in 19oo me imports were 4u times the value of exports. 65% three quarters of the remainder by duties on imports (paid for with foreign aid"adding up to about 95% of the budget. are langs the she situne dithe many known situated battles recently: they have never even been touched. This is partly because of the exceptionally difficult terrain, which sends transportation The country as a whole 1s very sparsely populated, yet the nutritional density is per he of population. The Plain of ars relauvey large area of cultivable land in Northern Laos, apart from the Mekong valley. Yet even this when forcibly depopulated by the Americans rebruary, yielded up a mere 15,000 refugees.
The Laotian Patriotic Front has recaptured the Plain of Jars-Xieng Khoang region. The Front had held this area for 5 years until they were ousted last year. The advance now has mainly been retake territory previously held-plus a little bit more, the posts on une soutnern and soul-wester edges of the plateau. The area provides defence in depth for the Ho Chi Minh trail, and the Front is now within striking distance of the Upper Mekong. good military and strategic position Two stones have One describes North Vietnamese offensive. The other relatively minor series of engagements, and attacking forces in the hundreds. What is clear is that the Americans have decided to launch a full-scale war of destruction, of the type used in Korea: "burn all, kill all, destroy all." The South Eastern area of Laos which includes the Ho Chi Minh Trail, has already been subject to a vast bombing offensive. Long before this current escalation Laos was being more heavily bombed than North Vietnam at the height of the American offensive. Given ine extremely difficult terrain and the proven unrenabinty minuscule mercenar! forces under the bandit chieftain Vang Pao. the Americans have decided to depopulate the Plain of Jars zone-from the air. So the new situation is both result of a Vietnamese backed Pathet Lao advance and of an escalation by the Americans. Full scale warfare is in (Fred Halliday irst analysed this in the Black Dwarf DEURICS. see "Imperialism Routed in Lao" BD Vol 4 No 24 Unlike Korea, Laos the demarcation line between nationalists and communists has remained fluid. The Americans have never succeeded in isolating the Pathet Lao, who still hold been an imperialist war launched by the US, and where the popular forces have managed to prevent the installation of an artificial geographical frontier. The political situation is much more open than the US would wish (it has always tried to close the political and geographic situation-in China, Korea, in Vietnam, in Germany).
The recent successes of the Laotian particulariv henful to the struggle of the Vietnamese. It has enthe area of popular control l Laos, and made more secure the lines of between North and South Vietnam. The advance has also created conditions for an advantageous political settlement in Vientiane, capital of Laos. And it has been well timed to catch the US at a moment when it may find it difficult to another war of aggression. Yet it is also important to repeat that the US is deeply involved. At Long Cheng, in the words of Time. *American money and officials Have creaica a lown or 40.000 people dedicated to war. Newsweek's Saigon corresDonGenI that have watched the US escalate again and again in Laos. alwavs in secret and without the knowledge or consent of the American public. The limitations or Anenican action are obvious, but equally obvious is America's determination block the liberation of the peoples of Asia. has been a political failure for the USthey have failed to stabilize a right-wing regime with control over the countryand so now they have decided to turn the Laotian into Wal destruction.