Hanoi's Second Front

Though South Viet Nam commands the headlines, it is not the only country that the North Vietnamese have invaded in force. Neighboring Laos shares that unhappy distinction, despite the fact that, under the Geneva accords of 1962, no foreign forces are permitted in the neutralist Elephant Kingdom of 3,000,000 people. From the very beginning, Hanoi broke that agreement by routing the main part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos. Now the North is stepping up its attacks on the Royal Lao government itself, hitting with force up and down the length of the narrow nation.

In northern Laos, two Communist battalions struck last week at government positions north of the royal capital of Luangprabang, having taken the strategic valley of Nam Bac in January. In central Laos, two battalions of mixed North Vietnamese and local Communist Pathet Lao forces were thrown back just outside Thakhek on the border of northeast Thailand--a threat so close to home that Thai Foreign Minister Thanat Khoman warned Hanoi that the Thais might have to take direct action to aid Laos. Worst of all is the situation in southern Laos, where North Vietnamese forces have cut road links, launched mortar attacks and surrounded the provincial towns of Lao Ngam, Saravane and Attopeu.

The Quiet Americans. No one knows for certain why Hanoi has taken the offensive in Laos. North Vietnamese taken prisoner seldom seem to know what their overall aim is in Laos, though they make good propaganda exhibits to rally villagers against the Communists. The best guess is that the Laos offensive is all part of General Giap's wider offensive in South Viet Nam.

Part of the massive North Vietnamese force surrounding the U.S. Marines at Khe Sanh sits in Laos. The North Viet namese may also be moving the Ho Chi Minh Trail westward and protecting its flanks against possible allied ground interdiction from South Viet Nam. And Giap might use a major attack in Laos as a diversion to accom pany a second round of countrywide assaults in South Viet Nam. Whatever his reasons, he now has some 40,000 North Vietnamese positioned throughout Laos, along with 30,000 indigenous Pathet Lao comrades in arms.

As a result of this growing Communist menace, the U.S. is gradually increasing its carefully unadvertised presence in Laos. The U.S. ambassador in the capital of Vientiane, William Sullivan, has quietly spent his time directing little bits of crucial help to the right places, leaving Prince Souvanna Phouma free to run the government in his own way. Officially, the U.S. has no combat troops in Laos, but it does have 72 military attaches in Vientiane, more than are assigned to any other U.S. embassy in the world. Six months ago, an American in the capital was a rarity; now husky, crewcut young Americans in civilian clothes are common in the streets and often fill the few hotels.

They are there as civilian pilots, air-traffic controllers, radarmen, advisers, engineers and cartographers. The U.S. officially admits to just 1,752 men in Laos, but there are probably a good many more.

Cover & Forays. Thailand-based U.S. bombers are providing direct air support to the Royal Lao in their firefights with the North Vietnamese army. U.S. trained Thais sometimes fly Lao planes and man Lao artillery in order to bolster the anti-Communist defenses, dressing in Lao uniforms. Air America and Continental Air Services planes ferry ammunition, boots, radio gear and food to the Lao forces, as do unmarked helicopters piloted by Americans. Air America planes are dropping $3,500,000 worth of food a year to some 125,000 refugees at 86 remote sites--refugees who might otherwise have to turn to the Communists for survival. Among them are several thousand Meo tribes men who, freed from the necessity of tilling the rice fields, wage hit-and-run guerrilla warfare against the Communists in Pathet Lao-controlled areas of northern Laos.

U.S. trained Lao serve as ground spotters along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, directing air strikes against infiltrators headed for South Viet Nam. During the past two months, American planes have dropped almost as many bombs over Laos as over North Viet Nam.

Clandestine Laotian and South Viet namese commando teams led by U.S. Green Berets have stepped up the number of their covert forays into Laos. But the bulk of the U.S. presence in Laos, open and covert, is aimed at maintaining the uneasy balance of forces in Laos. To that end, the U.S. provides most of the money for the government's budget, and enough military aid to keep the 70,000-man Laotian forces equipped to fight.

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