LAOS: Perilous Course’

LAOS ‘Perilous Course’Ever since they set about to reunite their country in the wake of the Geneva Conference three years ago, the royal government of Laos and its Communist-led rebels in the northeastern provinces of Samneua and Phongsaly had been conducting on-again-off-again negotiations (and on-again-off-again war) that nobody seemed to take very seriously. After all, the Premier, Prince Souvanna Phouma, is the half-brother of Communist Boss Prince Souphanouvong, and many of the handful of educated Laotians who make up the government insisted that the whole thing was just a family affair. Last week the family affair was settled. Sarong-clad Laotians from villages and the deep bush along the Mekong streamed into the capital of Vientiane. They had cheers for Souvanna Phouma, cheers for Souphanouvong, and smiles for everyone.

Souvanna Phouma gave the Communists two seats in the Cabinet, and in return Souphanouvong agreed to integrate 1,500 of his 6,000-odd Communist troops into the royal army. The rest of the Pathet Lao army would be placed in “reserve status,” and permitted to return to their native villages, there to create what unrest they could.

In Washington, State Department Spokesman Lincoln White declared Laos had embarked on “a perilous course.” But another veteran U.S. diplomat added: “Don’t write Laos off to the Communists yet. There’ll be time enough to do that when it happens. After all, this is not the first time in history that a country has admitted Communists to its government and still survived.”

But the unfortunate truth was that Premier Souvanna Phouma had already placed his Communist half-brother in control of the Ministries of Planning and of Reconstruction and Urbanization. In these posts he will direct how and where a large part of the U.S.’s aid money (some $43 million this year) will be spent. Ironically, the other Cabinet post assigned to the Pathet Lao Communists was the Ministry of Religion and Fine Arts.

Immediately after the reunification ceremonies, Communist Souphanouvong announced that he had lost a list of Red officials and army personnel that he was supposed to turn over to his halfbrother. He said he would goback to Samneua and Phongsaly to see if he could get another. The rest of Laos’ ministers, all now technically royal and loyal, went nightclubbing. Communist broadcasters in Hanoi, Peking and Moscow were jubilant. “The agreement,” said Radio Hanoi, “would serve as a model for the reunification of North and South Viet Nam.”