How to Move a Horse

Anywhere else in the world, the U.S. would rush to back a stubborn antiCommunist leader. In Laos the situation is different. For months the U.S. has been trying to nudge the country's leading antiCommunist, General Phoumi Nosavan, and his protege, Prince Boun Oum, into a coalition government with "Neutralist" Prince Souvanna Phouma and pro-Communist Prince Souphanouvong. Reason: the U.S. is convinced that De fense Minister Phoumi (whom it once backed) and his Royal Laotian Army could never win a war against the Communist guerrillas, now considers its best hope is to make Laos into a neutral buffer state. But Phoumi and Boun Oum have danced away from every effort by U.S. Ambassador Winthrop Brown to align them in a neutral government. Praising Phoumi's stubborn resistance to U.S. policy, a supporter said: "When you hit a horse on the nose, he doesn't move back ward. He just rears up on his hind legs and comes down in the same place."

Last week the U.S. got weary of Phoumi's rearing and backing, and hit him where it hurt: in the pocketbook. Leary of outright sanctions, the U.S. put the pressure on by failing to deposit the regular monthly aid payment of $4,000,000 with the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York. With a straight face, U.S. officials announced that "administrative snags" caused the delay. The U.S. aim: to make Phoumi and Boun Oum go to Geneva for more talks with the permanent international conference on Laos. But Phoumi was not about to buy a plane ticket for Geneva without a fight. In a belt-tightening measure to safeguard his dollar reserves, he ordered the National Bank of Laos to stop exchanging dollars for Laotian kip. The black market price for the dollar promptly jumped from 80 to 150 kip, and food prices spiraled. He floated rumors of dollar loans from other sources, announced new Communist invasions from Red China and North Viet Nam to make the U.S. rally to him (as of last week, U.S. military men discounted the invasion stories).

Said a government minister bravely: "The royal government will never agree that its alignment is the price of aid, even less that the kingdom is a poker chip in an international game. The pressure now exercised on the royal government is intolerable."

At week's end Boun Oum and Phoumi finally yielded to the pressure, announced that they would go to Geneva. At the same time, the U.S. discreetly deposited the $4,000,000 in the Laotian account. But there was no reason to hope that the Geneva meeting would be successful. Phoumi still is holding out for the vital defense and interior ministries that Souvanna demands as his share of the prepared coalition government. And Boun Oum will not be in Geneva long. He must return to Laos by the end of this month to attend the cremation of his mother.

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