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Gradually Kong Le's men retreated—to the outskirts of town, then to the airport (his only supply line to the Communists). Caught in a deadly barrage, 1,500 surrendered and the rest fled into the jungle country that the Pathet Lao controls. As Vientiane counted its dead (an estimated 200), TIME Reporter James Wilde cabled: "The streets were littered with broken glass, shattered bricks, mangled cars, shell cases, abandoned trucks and Jeeps. In the center of town I passed bodies covered with a cloth or a bamboo mat. Funeral pyres lit the sky. Here and there the sidewalks were stained with blood." On the heels of Kong Le's retreat, Premier Prince Boun Oum drove into Vientiane and sent out an appeal for U.S. aid for his ravaged capital.
The U.S., which maintained correct relations with Neutralist Souvanna but made no secret of its private preference for anti-Communist Phoumi, quickly offered its support. A State Department spokesman warned that aggression against Laos from Communist North Viet Nam could bring both Thailand and South Viet Nam to the rescue and start a Southeast Asian war. But even without overt aggression, Boun Oum and Phoumi faced bitter days ahead. Though Phoumi declared that all he wanted was "a neutral Laos," the Communists were smarting for revenge, and from the Pathet Lao came an order of the day: "Develop guerrilla warfare powerfully. Destroy supply lines, communications and transport."