LAOS: Threat from the North

Laotians, who have gone through two coups d'état in a year, last week had a coup de radio. From the southern town of Savannakhet, Prince Boun Oum, 52, tall, silvery-maned royal inspector general and pretender to a long defunct kingdom, took to the radio to declare that the new neutralist government in Vientiane was handing the country over to Communism, and announced "the seizure of power and the abrogation of the constitution in order to bring peace and happiness to the country and the people." The prince is kingpin of the rich southern Laotian valleys, famed for leading a...