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derivative filename/jpeg
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363-08009 to 363-08021.pdf
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Digital Object Identifier
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363-08009 to 363-08021
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Title
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Article about Laotian General Kong Le
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Description
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Original title: "Laos", Keever's title: "Interviewing Laotian General Kong Le as he Prophisized his Own End", Article draft about Laotian General Kong Le, for Newsweek Magazine
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Transcript
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- Page 1
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Laos
Deepe-1
Firexpressed.
April 17/63.
CUNT-
The greasy rays of a feeble kerosene lamp highlighted a small huddle
of men a motley crew hardly reconigzable as the general staff of one of
Laos three armies. A short vanilla-faced officer stood quietly with hands
in pockets of his baggy beige North Vietnamese uniform; another in tight
blue turtle-necked sweatshirt from Hanoi jabbed his finger into the air in
an overly tall one in oversized United States Army fatigues and
exclamation;
a French paratroopers hat of mottled greens and browns drew quickly with
wax pencil heavy orange lines on a plastic-covered map. In the center of the
conversation was a short one-a five-foot, three-inch midget--mauvre-bereted
NEUTRALST
General Kong Le, bundled in a heavy charcoal grey French overcoat reaching
to his ankles.
READ
Orders were shouted into
The pintsized General re-red the sixline scribbled message that a runner
at that momen, 8:30 p.m. Monday, had brought in. He re-studied the orange
lines on the map and despondently, but calmy, shook his head. Within
moments a reconnaissance team was dispatched.
boxed field telephones that rarely worked. S Soldiers in flappy coats
marched through the headquarters building with walkie-talkies relaying
instructions. Four lumbering Russian-made tanks, like giganticxmin
metallic ginx turtles, churned the red dust around rough timber headquarters
which Kong Le feared might be attacked by his jungled enemy.
building,
Two hours later, the first reconnaissance patrol returned and hushed
whispers bounced from the dim conference room. Soldiers in their underclothes
jumped from their bamboo floor mats and ran outdoors exia exclaiming "Cing
Kilometres !"
(More)
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Deep 2
As the pint-sized general had feared, the Pathet Lao were spotted only
five kilometers (three miles) away. Then the dull thud of heavy mortar and
artillery-coups des cannons pierced the moonless night. The only light
visible from the headquarters were the small fires of Pathet Lao camps
on the slopes of the heavily forested hillsides.
The six-lined message that caused the consternation told of the
Pathet Lao's throwing a battalion-sized force of 700 men armed with mortars
(according to high neutralista officer) against Kong Le's two infantry
companies of 150 men total and three tanks in Ban (village) Kosi, a small
collection of typically Laotian mud-plaster flimsy huts. Kong Le Forces
sufferred three killed in action, two wounded and two missing in the
withdrawal. Few people had heard of the minute village named Kosi before and
it is written on only the most detailed maps of the PlaineDes Jarres.
It was
a meaningless village unworthy of fighting for-except for its position on a
key dusty road bisecting the Plaines Des Jarres stretching 12 miles from
the provincial capital of Xieng Khouangville to Kong Le's headquarters, also
called Plaine Des Jarres, situated on an old French airstrip.
And events
Whoever controlled the road controlled the Plaine, observers noted,
and also gained a key avenue of approach into northern Thailand.
in the last two weeks indicated that the Pathet Lao clearly intended to
control the road. The routing of the forces from Ban Kosi and
simultaneously another small village named Dong Danh signified the Pathet
Lao's complete success in their venture. By mid-week they controlled the
12-mile stretch of road to the town of Lat Houang only three miles
from Kong Le's headquarters.
(More)
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Deep e-3
Before the signing of the Geneva Accords last July, Kong Le neutralists
were allied with the Pathet Lao in their fight against United States-supported
rightist General Phoumi Nosavan.
Kong Le troops mixed freely in with
Pathet Lao i units in the small villages and camps stretching throughout
the Plaine Des Jarres, which lies 115 miles north of Vientiane.
desolate, Wyoming-like plain, with water buffalo, horses and ancient
stone jars (once used as rice wine storage pots) scattered about it, is a
triangular blob 18 miles long at its longest point and 12 miles wide.
The
But
But at the end of March-only days before the assassination of leftwing
neutralist foreign minister Quinim Pholsena--the Pathet Lao, at times
using dissident leftwing neutralists as their tools, had shoved Kong Le
units out of Xieng Khouangville into the small village called Nong Nam,
a mile away. Shortly afterwards Kong Le troops were forced out of Khang Khay,
formerly the Pathet Lao and neutralist headquarters town during the fight
the civil war against General Phoumi Nosavan. Khang Khay lies about nine
miles east of Kong Lets headwuarters on an excellent road called Route Seven
which leads directly into North Viet Nam.
Then on April 12, the Pathet Lao ambushed Kong Le tanks and troops
at Lat Houang as North Vietnamese construction workers picked up guns and
grenades to join in the fight. By capturing Lat Houang, Kong Le troops further
up the road at Dong Danh and Nong Nam were isolated.
(More)
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Deep e--4
On Sunday, Kong Le's two companies and three tanks isolated at
Nong Nam were forced to retreat to Ban Kosi, which they held for 20
hours until 4 p.m. Monday, April 15, until the Pathet Lao battalion advanced
on them. Troops from Ban Kosi and Dong Danh retreated to Kong Le's
headquarters thus giving the Pathet Lao complete access to the road they
had wanted.
Of the original towns in the Plaine Des Jarres jointly held by Kong Le
and Pathet Lao before the Geneva Accords, Kong Le now controls only two--
his own airport headquarters and a small town six miles away called Phong-Savan
The loss of the road was a bitter defeat for the softspoken, quick-
smiling Kong Le, the only honest man in Laos who has captured the popular
support. Born 31 years ago in a southern province of parents of rural
peasant stock, he was educated in a Buddhist pagoda school. During his
military career, he attended an American-supported Ranger training school
outside Manila, where he received a mortar fragment above his left eye
which fiercely burns when he drinks anything stronger than beer. In August,
1960, he lead a coup d'etat against American- supported General Phoumi
Nosavan.
Consistently mistrusted and rebuked by the West, Kong Le is still
not violently anti-American. ("I want aid from all countries, but control
from none," he said, explaining his "Laos for Lao" rather than "Laos for
Communist theories. ) Yet he is now the man that has become the only
hope of the West for maintaining a strong neutralist center to separate the
rightwing forces of General Phoumi Nosavan and the Procommunist Pathet Lao,
reportedly reinforced with Viet Minh units.
(More)
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Deep e--6
Kong Les rumble-tumble headquarters built of rough timber, almost
barren except for rough hewn homemade tables and chairs, wired for electricity.
but without enough gasoline to run the generator, is a grim home for this
humble man--a general who calls himself "capitan of the 1960 coup" and who
wears no military insignia. Upon entering the building, Monday at 2 p.ml,
less than 24 hours after a temporary ceasefire was arranged, Newsweek
found him attired in a small blue jeans and a blue basketball jacket.
He looked like an undernourished American teenager with his crisp,
closely shaven crewcut. At 5:30, he sat down toxmammmmmm a Spartan
Laotian dinner of sticky glutinous rice, which he rolled into pingpong ball
size and dipped in vegetable and beef stew.
Munching a broiled chicken
claw, he told of his trip to Moscow ("They are a strong nation with
many military weapons and rockets") and to tamnimimm Peking (They have a
bigt army but the people are so poor"). He sat on a hand-made foot-high
stool on the damp dirt floor and ate off axix tin plates on a low bamboo
Laotian table.
Yet, the Communists, having honored him with cavier and a huge shako hat
in Moscow, have not been able to manipulate him. He was also given in
the Soviet Union a slick newspaper printed in French showing Khrushchev
addressing a conference. Called "News of Moscow," the publication is now
used as toilet tissue in the grin tin mix headquarters outhouse.
"The Pathet Lao are not neutralists," Kong Le said, popping a ball of
Sweet gluey rice in his mouth. "They have given us weapons (before Geneva
with them.
Agreements) because they think we'll go
But we want ouR
R
country for ourselves. Now the Russians don't like us.
(More)
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Deep e--7
"The Pathet Lao want to keep the neutralist party and the neutralist
army under their control of someone they can lead," he said, knowing that
they would well like to get rid of him as leader of the neutralist fat
military leader.
"The Communists are making progress like an peid epidemic," Kong Le
warned. Little did he know that at the moment he was talking the Pathet Lao
were routing his forces from Ban Kosi, to give a sharply disturbing
ring of truth to his statement.
If the loss of Ban Kosi was a military setback for Kong Le, it was
an even more serious political one for the West--for the Western great white
hope of a peaceful, neutral Laos had been transformed into a dreary
nightmare. It underscored the essence of the problem of the Geneva
Agreements signed last summer. For Ban Kosi was lost only 23 hours after
Premier Prince Souvanna Phouma had arranged for a temporary ceasefire
between Kong Le and the Pathet Lao leaders.
the temporary ceasefire by launching a
again defied the Geneva Agreements.
The Pathet Lao observed
battalion size raid at Ban Kosi and
(More)
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Deepe
While ting, ritty General Con le saw the Communiste
teering away tore and more of hi téritory this week, the
King of Isos, King Savang Tatthana, the Frenier, Irince
Souvanna Phoums and other notables our in the dotian New Tear
with water-throwing and parties at the Royal Palace In Luang
Prabang, the Royal capital of Laos.
The parties kanket ended a little earlier than usual
this year. Commented one western diplomat: "I'm glad they
have the grace to feel a little, shamefaced."
In the administrative capital of Vientiane, all wark
halted for two days while Laotians hurled water over one
another to wash away their sins at the time of the New Year.
A Fuscian diplomet, dripping fx wet, grimaced wryly st
reporters and said: "While the fighting goes on in the laine
dee Jarres they throw water - they are not serious."
But some Lastiane at least were serious. There was no
water-throwing on the Pleine des Jarres, where General Kong Le
and his neutralist forces were fighting for their lives.
For Long Le, this is the moment of truth. Foted as a great
hero of the Laotian people in Moscow, Teking and Hanoi, ho ho
remained a neutral.For the Communists, a neutral is a men who
can be managed, and they cannot manage Kong Le, so they must
eliminate him. The process of elimination is going ahead qutolky.
Ty mid-week, Kong Le and his neutralicts had lost four-tite
of the territory they controlled at the end of last month. It
seems inevitable that they will also lose the rest, whether
suioklys
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Deepe
Prince So uvanna Phouma, the pipe-smoking, genial and
ineffectual Premier of the Laotian Government of National
Union, keeps telling Kong Le not to seek a solution by violent
means.
Kong Le has obeyed thus far, and seen his forces pushed
out of much of the zone formerly occupied by joint Communist-
Neutralist garrisons.
He told reporters this week he would try to negotiate
peacefully but unless negotiation would give back the areas
he had lost, he would have to assault
"
Militarily, he has no hope of victory by arms, but the
nature of the man is such that he and the hard core of his
forces could well spell the end of neutralism in Laos with
a vain, but glorious last fight.
Five feet tall and 31 years old, Kong Le is a man of the
people, and the nearest thing to a widely-popular man that
Laos has produced.
As a general, the
is a fine battalion commander. He has been
outwitted on several occasions by the Communist Pathet Lao
larger Stagg & better jüpment
Stopp
forces with la
His forces are poorly-equipped, do not even have a doctor.
They are not being paid, and secretly many are convinced that
the Pathet Lao will overwhelm them.
But their morale remains high, and there is no doubting the
loyalty and affection that this tiny man with the nervous smile
inspires in them.
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Deepe
But the Communists have manufactured their own brand
of neutralist in a handsome, swaggering bully named Deuane, and
are determined to eliminate Kong Le and replace him with their
man.
9
When Kong Le staged his coup in 1960, Deuane was his
principal bodyguard. Then only a Lieutenant Deuane never left
Kong Le's side as the unknown Captain sought to arrange a Government
to use the power he had gained.
Now Deuane is a Colonel. He has grown a wispy beard and
a great confidence in his own ability. It has become evident
recently that the Communists chose Deuane for the neutralist
leader's mantle as soon as they realised that the little man
remained completely unaffected by their plaudits and honours, and
that his definition of neutralism meant just that- the accepting
of aid, advice and friendships from both sides
The events which have led up to the present crisis on the
Plaine des Jarmes are complex and sometimes bewildering.
It has been a eriod of agreements and negotiations, of
much talking and little fighting, of much aid and little effective
use made of it.
When the military disasters of the forces of pro-Western
General Phoumi Nosavan led the U.S. to the conference table
in Geneva the optimists hoped that Russian assurances of
dedication to the principle of neutralism for Laos would halt
large-scale Communist progress in the tiny Kingdom.
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Deepe
Western Statesmen were heard to express "cautious
optimism" about the formation of the Government of National
Union, headed by Souvanna Phouma, last June.
But optimism was all that the West brought from the
conference table- they certainly brought little of the
tightly-drawn, concise agreements so necessary in Laos, where
all agreement is "in principle."
The country is still divided into two roughly-defined
zones- one occupies by the forces of the former Government of
Prince Boun Oum, under the command of General Phoumi Nosavan and
the other shared in principle between the neutralist and
Pathet Lao forces, but in fact occupied almost entirely by
the Pathet Lao.
The Government took office in June, and from the start
it became obvious that the meutralists were just as split
among themselves as the Government itself was split between
Communist and pro-Western factions.
Differences centred on the meaning of neutralism, and
those neutralists who believed neutralism meant a leaning to the
left gathered around Foreign Minister Quinim Pholsena in the
Government, and Colonel Deuane in the military ranks.
Deuane (full name Deuane Sipaseuth) had made many trips
to Hanoi, and while other neutralists had been left unmoved by
the North Vietnamese blandishments, Deuane was flattered and
impressed.
The split in the neutralist ranks became clear-cut when
an American C-123 transport aircraft was shot down. in November.
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Deepe
The aircraft, flying rice to Kong Le's troops by agreement
with Souvanna Phouma, was shot down by a neutralist artillery
company, directed by Deuane, after it had been cleared to land
at the Plaine des Jarres airstrip.
Kong Le and his senior officers encircled the dissident
company and took the gunners into custody, but Deuane escaped
capture and fled to take refuge with the Pathet Lao in
Khanh Khay, the tiny town where Souvanna Phouma made his capital
during the civil war.
Last December, Souvanna Phouma made a conciliatory trip
to the Plaine des Jarres and brought Kong Le and Deuane together
again to swear eternal friendship. Deuane's 400 dissident
troops were accepted back into the Neutralst ranks.
But Kong Le, though desirous of peace, made no secret
of his belief that the Pathet Lao was directed from Hanoi, and
bitterly accused Quinim Pholsena of betraying the cause of the
coup d'etat.
Then Colonel Ketsana Vongsouvanh, one of Kong Le's
closest friends, and a man becoming steadily more anti-Communist,
was murdered in his house in the village of Phonesavan on the
edge of the Plain x des Jarres. A campaign of assassination
began, and soon Quinim Pholsena was dead - he was cut down by
one of his Kong Le guards as he returned from a royal recaption.
This stung the Pathat Lao to action, and a series of
military moves which had begun at the end of last month,
was intensified with the murder of Quinim.
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Deepe
Kong Le and his men have been pushed out of Khang Khay,
where they used to share control with the Pathet Lao, and
the provincial capital of Xieng Khouang town. TThe loss
of the village of Lao Huaong, only five kilometres from the
Plaine des Jarres airfield, means that the airfield where
Kong Le has his headquarters can be brought under Communist
artillery fire.
To a group of correspondents who visited him at
his headquarters Max April 15, Kong Le asserted that the
North Vietnamese had left a strong leavening of cadres in the
Pathet Lao ranks, and that a group of North Vietnamese workers,
engaged on a brickmaking project, had turned into military
men to throw grenades at a group of his tanks which were trying
to battle through from Xieng Khouang to the airfield.
He said more than 200, including civilians, had been
killed in the fighting from the start of the month to that
date.
"The Pathet Lao are trying to replace me with Deuane
because he will carry out their orders," he said.
He added that his troubles with the Pathet Lao could be
ended if the Pathet Lao would recognise that Deuane and his
dissidents were members of their ranks, and no longer neutralists.
Two days later, Prince Souvanna Phouma accompanied by
the Indián, Polish and Canadian commissioners of the International
Control Commission and the Russian and British ambassadors, and
also Souvanna's half-borhter Prince Souphannouvong, titular head
of the Pathet Lao, arrived in the Plaine to arrange a truce.
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Deepe
Souvanna collected Kong Le at the airport and went on to
Phonesavan, where eventually wily General Sinkhapo Chounamaly,
military commander of the Pathet Lao, arrived.
Kong Le and Sinkhapo embraced and chattered like schoolboys,
but within minutes were squabbling as Sinkhapo said he would
not talk at Phonesavan, and demanded that the party go on to
Khang Khay.
Kong Le refused flatly, and said to reporters he was
afraid for his own and Souvanna's safety, as he did not trust
the Communists.
He stayed, but Souvanna, Souphannouvong and the party
went on to lunch with Laos' number 2 Communist, Nouhak Phoumsavan
savan, and Kong Le
They eventually returned to Phonesavan
and Sinkhapo agreed to a temporary truce until Souvanna returned
to tryn to arrange a more permament peace.
But it soon became vident that the Pathet Lao are too
opposed to Kong Le to concern themselves with formalities.
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Date
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1963, Apr. 15
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Subject
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975; Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Campaigns--Laos; Kong Le; Military leadership
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Location
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Saigon, South Vietnam
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Coordinates
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10.8231; 106.6311
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Size
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20 x 26 cm
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Container
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B2, F4
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Format
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dispatches
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Collection Number
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MS 363
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Collection Title
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Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers
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Creator
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Collector
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Keever, Beverly Deepe
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Copyright Information
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These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.
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Publisher
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Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
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Language
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English
