THE one substantive accord to come out of Vienna was Nikita Khrushchev's statement that he favored "an effective ceasefire" in Laos. In his otherwise grim speech reporting on the meeting, President John Kennedy declared himself "hopeful" that this could "be translated into new attitudes at Geneva."
The hope did not last long. Even before Kennedy spoke, Russian-supplied guns opened up on the small Laotian village of Padong, high on a 6,000-ft. ridge in Communist-held territory, but manned by two holdout battalions of royal soldiers, most of them untrained Meo tribesmen. The barrage lasted...
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