The Turnip Watchers

For nearly a year a lackadaisical honor guard of green-clad Communist sentries lounged around a moldering villa on the banks of the Mekong River in the lotusland Laotian capital of Vientiane. In their spare time, which was ample, the guards planted turnips and lettuce in a tiny garden.

While the turnips and lettuce waxed luxuriant, the man the Communist sentries were assigned to protect was up to other matters. Bronze-skinned, mustachioed Prince Souphanouvong, leader of the Communist-controlled Pathet Lao forces which occupy the northeastern Laotian provinces of Samneua and Phongsaly, was determined to get representation in the Royal Government of Laos on his own terms. To this end he assiduously cultivated the idea that unity in Laos was a family affair. After all, his half brother is the Premier, Prince Souvanna Phouma.

The Pathet Lao has consistently refused to honor the 1954 Geneva agreement placing the administration of its two provinces under the royal government; Pathet Lao forces, Communist-supplied and equipped, have been waging haphazard war against royal government troops for more than two years. The Reds' idea of a settlement is to be incorporated into the royal government, and the princely Premier had shown signs of falling for it. The Reds kept pressing. Souphanouvong argued: "To be really neutral, Laos should accept economic aid from China as a counterweight to American aid." Royal Premier Souvanna Phouma, who had come back empty-handed from a trip to Peking last year, replied: "How could we accept what has not been offered to us?" He knew better than anyone else that almost the whole Laotian budget, save for some revenue from legal and illegal opium exports, comes from U.S. aid.

This week, faced with a probable vote of no confidence from his 39 Deputies if he continued the talks with the Communists, Prince Souvanna Phouma broke them off. Prince Souphanouvong could only return to his thatch-hut capital in Samneua. leaving the villa and the turnip garden behind.

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