Secret Defence Plan For Laos Denied

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29107, 20 January 1960, Page 15

Secret Defence Plan For Laos Denied

The report, in the weekly news magazine “U.S. News and World Report,” said: “The United States and Great Britain have reached a secret agreement to accept the risk of war with Communist China if necessary to counter any new attempt by the Communists to take over the little country of Laos in South-east Asia. “The agreement . . . provides that American and British troops will be flown into Laos if the Communists try to exploit the current political crisis in that country by launching a new military campaign . . . The United States and Britain have agreed

that direct Chinese aggression to support the Communist guerrilla army in Laos would be met I by blow’s against the Chinese i mainland.” I -The use of nuclear weapons in i such an action was not ruled out,

(Rec. 9 p.m.) WASHINGTON, January 18. Diplomats denied a magazine report today that the United States tand Britain had reached a secret agreement to fly British and American troops into Laos if the Communists launched a new military campaign similar to that of 1959.

the magazine said. Diplomatic sources said Laos was entitled under the South-East Asian Treaty to appeal for assistance if it were attacked from abroad. If such an appeal were made—and nobody knew whether Laos would ask for S.E.A.T.O. helpthen SJE.A.T.O. would have to act, the sources said. Accordingly, S.E.A.T.O. planners, like the staff of any other defence alliance, had prepared plans to deal with any contingency that might arise. Britain and the United States, as leading members of S.E.A.T.O. would naturally play their roles in the collective defence system. But there was no secret BritishAmerican agreement to intervene in Laos, the source said. There was no special anxiety at this time about the safety of Laos, the sources said.