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The War Continues: Laos

By VVAW

Laos is nestled in the heart of Indochina, landlocked between Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and china. The country is inhabited by approximately three million people, made up by over sixty different nationalities. By their lifestyles and their ethnic origin, the people can be classified into three main groupings. The Lao Loum (Thai-Lao) are settled in the plains, the Lao Theung (Indonesian) are settled on the mountain slopes and the Lao Soung (Chinese) are settled on the mountain tops. Although their origins are so diverse, the people are drawn together by centuries of common life, work and struggle for the building and defense of their nation.

Laos is essentially an agricultural country with approximately 95% of the people living on the cultivation of rice. Cotton, Tobacco, Coffee, Quinine, Vegetables and Fruits are also grown. The country is rich in natural mineral resources: tin, gold, iron, copper, manganese and coal. Although most of these resources are untapped, the imperialist powers of France, Japan and the United States have recognized the importance of dominating this small nation and have for the past 100 years done much to unify the country against their foreign exploitation.

Starting in 1866, when the French sent two explorers to find a route to Southern China by way of Laos, the nation has not been without foreign influence or presence. Resistance to the French began immediately, as was the case in Cambodia. Using armed troops, gunboats, artillery, and planes the French continued to suppress these patriotic liberation forces by terrorizing the countryside, burning crops, destroying villages, massacring resistance leaders and harassing the general population.

This domination by the French lasted until 1940 when France fell to Nazi Germany, resulting in Japan seizing control of Laos. When the Japanese surrendered in 1945, the Laotians declared their independence but this was short-lived as the French re-invaded the country in 1946 and recolonized it. The Laotian resistance intensified with the formation of the Lao People?s Liberation Army and the political organization, the Pathet Lao. This united struggle successfully forced the French, along with the defeat at Dien Bien Phu, to sign the Geneva Accords in 1954. These same accords allowed for the independence of Vietnam and Cambodia.

The United States did not sign, nor recognize the Accords and was therefore in the position to pick up after the French. The US began giving aid to the French in 1950 and now became the dominant force in undermining the accords. With the formation of SEATO, at US insistance, the Eisenhower administration became the first to violate the accords. Since that time the US government has intervened in the internal affairs of the Laotian people by supporting and planning a series of coup d?etats; introducing thousands of military personnel in various operations, including operations Dewey Canyon I and II; and by conducting the most massive bombing, per capita, over a period of years of any country in the world.

Under the Johnson Administration the average amount of daily sorties by US aircraft went from 200 in 1966 to 500 in 1968. The Nixon Administration exceeded this average. In 1969 there was an average of 900 sorties a day and in 1970-1 the average was 1,200. The tonnage of President Johnson?s peak year (1968) was 500,000 tons and Nixon during his first three years in office dropped approximately 3,000,000 tons of bombs, which averages out to 2,600 tons a day or equivalent to 150 Hiroshimas. Thus, each square kilometer of the Lao liberated areas had to suffer nearly 8 tons of bombs; each person nearly 2 tons. This bombing cost the American taxpayers over 10 billion dollars.

With all of this bombing and with 23 years of American government intervention in Laos and nine years of intensified bombing in Laos, the people of that country have successfully forced the signing of an agreement in February of 1973 between the Pathet Lao and the US supported regime of Prince Souvanna Phouma. This victory of the forces for an independent, neutral and sovereign Laos are even now being undermined by the Nixon Administration. Within 3 months of the signing of the agreement the US has continued to:

- support nearly 20,000 Thai mercenary troops, recruited and financed by the CIA,
- maintain military pressure against the Pathet Lao zone,
- carry out periodic bombings of the Pathet Lao zone
- provide logistical support for puppet para-military forces,
- support the CIA run Air America,
- provide logistical support for Vietiane?s armies against the Pathet Lao zone.

The determination of the Lao people to overcome these US violations of the agreement is best summed up by Prince Souphanouvong, President of the Central Committee of the Lao Patriotic Front, "The prospect of our struggle is very bright. Justice is on our side. We have a correct line, an iron will, an everstronger force, and the traditions of heroic struggle; we also draw strength from the solidarity between the three peoples - Lao, Vietnamese and Khmer - and from the assistance of the socialist countries and the whole progressive mankind. We will win!

"Long live peaceful, independent neutral, democratic, unified and prosperous Laos."

LAO PEN LAO !!
LAOS FOR LAOTIANS !!