UNITED NATIONS: Report from Laos

Like a specialist called in to diagnose a serious infection but not permitted to bring all his instruments along, the U.N. observer team sent in September to Laos to investigate charges of Communist Viet Nam aggression was hamstrung by explicit instructions to simply look and listen. Otherwise, U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge might never have succeeded in his adroit procedural move to create the Laos subcommittee over Russia's negative vote. An investigation would have been subject to Soviet veto, but Lodge's lawyers had found a veto-proof 1946 precedent for "a subcommittee of inquiry" that could receive reports but could not...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!