Laos
Sir,—Before we accept America’s and South Vietnam’s reason for being in Laos as being because North Vietnam broke the Geneva Agreement first, we should heed the reporter in Laos of "Far Eastern Economic Review” (January 30), who states that no independent observer had seen a North Vietnamese soldier in Laos for months because of army travel restrictions. The Red Cross described a hundred prisoners simply as ethnic Vietnamese, possibly from Laos’s large Vietnamese community. Also, as a neutral country, Laos has its own 50,000 Pathet Lao troops, which of course would be called Communist invaders by Americans. Let us remember, before we condemn Communist aggression in Laos, that in war the first casualty is truth; also, as even repbrters with travel permits personally signed by Prince Souvanna Phouma are threatened with death by regional military commanders, let us be cautious about any news from Laos. —Yours, etc., M. O’NEILL. February 17, 1971.
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Press, Issue 32535, 19 February 1971, Page 8
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153Laos Press, Issue 32535, 19 February 1971, Page 8
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