University of Virginia Library

Reader Disagrees On Laos

Letters To The Editor

I'm afraid that Dana McGuinness
(and fellow indignant Mike
Kramm) are themselves guilty of
displaying that "typical blend of
misinformation and faulty reasoning
that has done so much in confusing
the American people,"
not, as they accused, "The C.D."
I'm certain that anyone who read
their letters in the Oct. 5th "C.D."
issue, and is reasonably informed
on the subject of Vietnam would
agree.

To systematically refute each
one of Mr. McGuinness' points
is a task too great for this short
letter, and I would instead suggest
he and Kramm read a couple of
objective works dealing with the
United States involvement in Vietnam
and how this tragic imbroglio
is affecting not only the American
scene but our relations with the
other nations of the world as well
(especially that of Eastern Europe
and the developing countries....
areas that hold a much greater
priority in relation to our "national
interest" than do the jungles
of former Indochina).

My three years experience of
living in Thailand and Laos does
give me, however, an opportunity
to point out at least one interesting
fact that illustrates the general
"half-truth" information on which
Mr. McGuinness based his points.
It relates to the fourth point of
his letter that deals with the
coalition government in Laos. Mr.
McGuinness asserts that the
neutralized government in Laos,
that the CD editorial suggested
might be a feasible model for some
workable solution in Vietnam, is
a farce because "the communist
cabinet ministers have refused to
cooperate in the neutralized
government and the Communist
Army has refused to be integrated
into the Laotion Army as was
prescribed in the Geneva Convention."

I'm afraid Mr. McGuinness has
pointed the finger of blame chiefly
in the wrong direction. For as
shocking as it may be to an
American's moralistic, freedom-loving
pride, I discovered through
my discussions with a number of
State Department personnel who
lived in Vientiane, Laos during
the early days of the coalition,
that one of the major factors that
caused a breakdown of the coalition
government was a large number of
terrorist activities against the
Pathe Lao faction conducted by
the Right Wing Laotian Army
(an army entirely armed and
financed by the U.S.).

Mr. R. J. Hawes of AID said
that it was not long after the three-party
coalition of the Pathe Lao,
the Neutralist, and the Right Wing
had occupied their new government
positions in Vientiane that almost
every Friday for a number of weeks
one of the communist officials in
the new government was "mysteriously"
assassinated; everyone
knew that the Right Wing was
responsible, Mr. Hawes said, but
nothing was ever publicly proved.

In a matter of a few weeks the
communist Pathe Lao faction was
forced to leave the Royalist-dominated
capital, and retreated to
solidify their communist dominion
over Northern Laos. The coalition
was from then on a de facto dead
letter.

In addition to the overall fact
twisting in the letters of Mr. McGuinness
and Mr. Kramm, the
self-righteous and condescending
tone of their letters was a bit
irritating. On the other hand I
couldn't help but sympathize a bit,
for I used to react with the same
emotional, misinformed indignation
against such "Vietnam critics"
as the latest C. D. editorial on
the subject before I read a number
of informative books and articles
on Vietnam (and I don't mean
The Reader's Digest and the
State Department's "White
Paper" on Vietnam).

I highly suggest that McGuinness
and Kramm do the same. An
excellent paperback that was
published this year and that is
widely acclaimed by East Asian
scholars as one of the most objective,
encompassing, and best
documented works on Vietnam
to date is "The United State In
Vietnam" by Cornell scholars
George Mcnan Kahin and
John W. Lewis (Delta Press, 1967).

Name Change Urged

After attending several October
6th smokers, we have found it
necessary to voice our opinion on
the term "smoker." It is our
finding that this designation is
inaccurate and fallacious.

It would seem more appropriate
to title these affairs "drinkers"
due to the heavy consumption
of alcoholic beverages.

We hope that the IFC will take
prompt action on this suggestion
so future misunderstanding may
be avoided.

1st Floor Lefevre