Word: lao
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...youngest Premier in Laotian history was Tiao Somsanith, 47, who has a shining reputation for honesty and ability. As governor of the northern province of Houa Khong, Somsanith was one of the few Laotian leaders not involved in the diversion of U.S. foreign aid funds, looked after the non-Lao tribes committed to his care so solicitously that the pro-Communist Pathet Lao forces were unable to make any inroads in his territory. According to Laotian cynics, he is perhaps the only anti-Communist Laotian politician who would win by a sweep in a free election...
Behind this odd situation lay a coldeyed appraisal of power realities in Laos. In the crisis-ridden months that followed last summer's invasion of Laos by Red guerrillas from Communist North Viet Nam, Phoui Sananikone, 56, the Prime Minister, became painfully aware that the non-Lao tribesmen who make up nearly half of Laos' population had no loyalty to their six-year-old nation. To transform Laos into a reasonable facsimile of a functioning nation would take years of rural economic reform - and peace. Pro-Western as he was, Phoui concluded that Laos would not have such...
Though in quick headline-reading terms the conclusion was disappointing to Laos and the West, the circumstantial evidence cited in the body of the U.N. report left little doubt where the blame lay in Laos. The committee examined captured North Viet Nam uniforms, rifles made in China and Czechoslovakia, hand grenades and medical supplies bearing Chinese lettering. Laotian witnesses testified that troops attacking them were identifiable as North Vietnamese not only by their green uniforms but by their language ("Mau! Mau!"-Quick! Quick!) and even by the common rice they ate (Laotians eat glutinous rice). Ten captured Pathet Lao rebels...
...Sins." All Laotians are careful to propitiate the phis (malignant and mystic spirits of the earth and sky) and nagas (dragon spirits who inhabit rivers), but the prevalent Lao tian faith is Buddhism, with its strong emphasis on harming no living creature. Some medical men attribute the lack of aggressiveness among Laotians to disease rather than Buddhism or innate gentleness. Malaria, yaws, gonorrhea and kwashiorkor (an often fatal protein deficiency) are common; an estimated 50% of Laotian children die in childbirth or infancy. But to all disasters of body or soul, pious Laotians murmur in the words...
Unhappy Mountaineers. These mountaineers-the Black Thai, the primitive Kha, the opium-growing Meo-have long disliked being ruled by the Lao of the south. A few among the wild hill people fight on the side of the Communist Pathet Lao; many more have a passive indifference toward the government...