It sometimes seems as if the U.S. Government would like to make the very existence of Laos classified information. Thus, when the country's Premier, Prince Souvanna Phouma, flew into Washington last week, the White House said as little as possible about his meeting with President Nixon. The U.S. these days is anxious to get out of Southeast Asia, not to get in deeper. Reflecting that mood, Senator Stuart Symington next week will begin hearings on the American involvement in Laos. To gauge the U.S. presence there, TIME Correspondents David Greenway and William Marmon visited the kingdom twice in recent weeks. Their report:
The depth of the U.S. involvement in Laos is not immediately apparent in the seedy, down-at-the-heels capital of Vientiane. There is none of the neon nightmare that Americans have brought to Bangkok, and the town does not creak under the weight of the U.S. military as does Saigon. One sees few Americans, and none in uniforms. In a few bars one may find the freewheeling, CIA-paid Air America pilots, the Lord Jims of Laos. But the main accent is French. The old ochre-colored colonial buildings with their big windows and high ceilings set the architectural style. Citron pressé outsells Coca-Cola, and hamburgers hardly exist. The pace is as slow-moving as the ceiling fans, and Vientiane exudes a decadent charm that is extinct where Americans have made a more obvious invasion.
But appearances are misleading. The U.S. Embassy telephone book is as thick as the one for all of Laos. Of the more than 2,100 Americans (including dependents) now stationed in Laos, most live in all-American compounds outside Vientiane and very much out of sight. The largest is KM6 (six kilometers from town), a U.S. suburb transplanted to Asian soil. There American families live in two-and four-bedroom ranch-style houses laid out with barbecue pits and with swings, ponies and bicycles on their grassy lawns. KM6 has its own electric power generators, water supply and sewage system, plus tennis courts and a 450-student school.
Though there are no U.S. ground troops fighting in Laos, the country has become even more of a client state than Viet Nam. Laos receives more U.S. aid per capita than any other country—over $250 million a year in a country of 2,825,000 people, one-third of whom live in Communist-held areas.
The Americans admit to the presence of 75 military personnel serving as advisers in the capital and the six military regions. There are also more than 200 CIA agents. "Laos is an agency country," a longtime Vientiane observer notes. The silver fleets of the CIA contract carriers, Air America and Continental Airlines, have for years provided tactical support for the most effective government force in Laos—General Vang Pao's Meo tribesmen. The CIA men and the military advisers train, equip, support and transport the entire Royal Laotian military effort. Americans have been known to advise on tactics on the battalion level.