Word: bouns
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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...
...army nurtured and trained by the U.S. was bad enough. But Western diplomats in Laos feared that Kong Le was actually gaining strength, picking up new recruits in the villages as well as seasoned units of the pro-Communist Pathet Lao guerrilla movement. The government of Premier Boun Oum was even talking of moving south out of Vientiane, which was won from Kong Le just last month...
...International Control Commission that policed Laos from 1954 to 1958 seemed the likeliest solution, and the U.S. and Britain supported the idea. The chief problem was that both India, chairman of the old commission, and Russia, the chief troublemaker, refused to recognize the U.S.-backed government of Premier Prince Boun...
...delegation from Premier Boun Oum visited him in Cambodia last week, found him planting gladiolas on the grounds of the borrowed palace where he lives. They offered him a free choice of posts in the new government, hoping to thus put out of business the "government" the Russians claim to be supporting. Souvanna dismissed his visitors as "a pathetic bunch of clowns" and went back to his gardening. "We have been a plaything of the big powers, a doll which has been broken," he said loftily. "It is up to the big powers to mend...
...mark was Russia. Premier Khrushchev just a fortnight ago called loudly for revival of the control commission. But no sooner had the U.S. come around to the idea than Khrushchev began to hedge. Now he demanded an "Asian arbitration congress" instead. He may still deny the legality of the Boun Oum government, claiming that it was elected under duress, and go right on dropping supplies to Kong Le. But at week's end there were no Ilyushins in the air over Laos...