BATTLE OF INDO-CHINA: Urn Burial

BATTLE OF INDOCHINA

In the high mountains of the kingdom of Laos, there is a wide, grassy plateau which the French call the Plaine des Jarres because of the ancient stone burial urns dotted about the landscape. According to French military thinking, the invading Viet Minh Communists "had to pass through" the Plaine des Jarres on their way to conquer Laos. There last week, in a two-mile perimeter around an airstrip, the French were hastily improvising a defense system of barbed wire and entrenchments. Soon Legionnaires and loyal Laotian troops were as securely...

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