Just a year after the Geneva agreement consolidated Laos' three warring factions into a single government, the precarious arrangement is falling apart. Reason: the Communists are simply ignoring the truce, as well as their longtime alliance with Neutralist Premier Souvanna Phouma, and are seeking to wrest control of the vital Plain of Jars in central Laos from neutralist troops. Though at first suspicious of the neutralist regime, Rightist General Phoumi Nosavan sent four battalions to help it. Despite such assistance, the neutralist forces under General Kong Le have only one strategic position left on the plain — Phou Theneng mountain and its foothills. Last week the Communist Pathet Lao opened a heavy artillery barrage on Kong Le's position.
"At first, the Communists were very good to us and gave us supplies," says the little general. "But now I know the Pathet Lao are not fighting for Laos but for Communism. We do not want Laos to be controlled by anyone, not the Communists or the Americans.
" Old Battle Scar. In his olive-drab headquarters tent on the Plain of Jars, wearing a T shirt, a pair of Levi's and rubber bath shoes, Kong Le perches on a stool morosely studying a map beneath the light of a swaying hurricane lamp. The picture is discouraging: the Pathet Lao are advancing in the Vang Vieng area, 13 neutralist soldiers are missing after an action at Ban Boua, a 100-truck Red supply convoy from North Viet Nam arrived at the Pathet Lao headquarters at Khang Khay. At such news, Kong Le is apt to wince, rub an old battle scar on his forehead and say: "My head hurts." Then he usually takes some pills, and a bodyguard treats his shoulder with Vicks ointment.
While the neutralists are increasingly "neutral" against the Reds, Premier Souvanna Phouma continues to insist on a defensive war, is reluctant to take the initiative. "What can I do?" muses Kong Le despondently. "The Premier is always telling me I must not attack. It is very difficult."
Locked Briefcases. Kong Le is a magnet for some of the most idealistic men in Laos. Short (5 ft. 1 in., 115 Ibs.), quiet and good-natured, he neither drinks, smokes nor gambles and is fanatic about health, honesty and cleanliness. He shares common Laotian superstitions, such as wearing a "magic" ring and a wrist amulet to placate the phi (spirits, evil or otherwise). Without personal ambition, Kong Le says that "when Laos is free," he will go home to his village and become a farmer.
In the field, he shares his tent with three officers and four enlisted men. They mess together around a campfire, sing sad Laotian songs or dance the graceful lamvong, while Kong Le, holding two pet hamsters in his lap, looks on. His possessions are few: a desk, a footlocker, a transistor radio (gift from the U.S. ambassador), and five locked briefcases, which he keeps under his bunk. Occasionally he unlocks one to take out not confidential papers but a handkerchief and a pair of socks, and then carefully relocks it.