Settlement in Dreamland

War has never come naturally to the Laotians. A gentle, passive people, they traditionally harvested their rice and then relaxed or staged religious feasts. For decades, the French, then the North Vietnamese and finally the Americans have been backing rival factions and educating the Laotians in the ways of combat. They had to be taught to aim their rifles to kill rather than to fire overhead. Opposing armies regularly grouped for great battles, then retreated to regroup for combat some other day.

A former French colony, Laos drifted into independence after World War II, under the custody of a fractious royal family. The two chief rivals: Prince Souvanna Phouma, who became Premier, and his half brother, Prince Souphanouvong, who became a follower of North Viet Nam's Ho Chi Minh and headed the guerrilla Pathet Lao. Fighting between their forces continued fitfully for years, and the war in neighboring Viet Nam turned dreamy little Laos into a strategic battleground, a Communist sanctuary and supply route between North and South.

When a peace settlement was reached in Viet Nam, the peripheral war in Laos lost much of its urgency. Despite ringing rhetoric by all U.S. Presidents since Dwight Eisenhower about the pivotal role of Laos in Southeast Asia, the U.S. last week urged Premier Souvanna to agree to a ceasefire. In desperation he accepted a settlement that gives the Communist Pathet Lao just about everything it has asked for ending the shooting. The Communists will be allowed to retain the land they now control, which is about two-thirds of the country (but includes only one-third of the population). The other third of the land will be governed by a new regime, with Communists holding half of the key offices. Each side will have veto power, which prompted protests from conservative General Kouprasith Abhay, who had once led a coup against Souvanna. "It is a paralyzed government," said he. "It will not be able to do anything...But there is nothing we can do about it."

Militarily, the North Vietnamese troops, estimated at some 67,000, are required to leave Laos within 90 days. But the only agency to ensure that they do so is the ineffectual three-nation (Poland, Canada and India) International Control Commission which was set up by the Geneva Conference in 1954 and which has never had much success in either supervising a truce or checking on troop movements. The U.S., in turn, agreed to stop its bombing campaign, which has been blasting unspecified targets at a rate of nearly 400 sorties per day. The U.S. presumably will also have to stop arming dissident tribesmen.

The final settlement was negotiated by Souvanna, now 72, after more than 19 weeks of talks with the Pathet Lao; rival Prince Souphanouvong sent only an intermediary to bargain with his brother. Whether Souvanna Phouma will now retain his top position in the new government is not certain, although the concessions he made to the Communists could have been motivated by his desire to do so. Complained one top administrator: "Souvanna capitulated on every point except one--that he should be Prime Minister--and he didn't even get that in writing."

As the agreement was signed at Souvanna's residence, only the Communists were smiling, and the chief Communist negotiator sardonically "thanked the American ambassador for all his help." Even after the signing, however, there was a new outburst of gunfire in the jungles. Souvanna, angry at continued Communist assaults, asked the U.S. to resume its bombing attacks, and Washington readily complied, making one more, and perhaps final series of raids.

State Department officials professed to be pleased by the cease-fire arrangement, terming it "acceptable." It seemed that Washington was finally conceding the irrelevance of Laos in global politics. Although the U.S. has spent $1.8 billion in aid to Laos since 1953, just who would govern a land with no appreciable industry, almost no export trade, and only one genuine city (Vientiane, pop. 160,000) is not a burning international issue once the still-sputtering war in Viet Nam subsides.

That is also acceptable to most Laotians, who have concerns they consider more meaningful, such as worrying about the 32 souls they believe reside in each human body and the phis (earthly spirits) constantly complicating their lives. Fighting to subdue the evil spirits, they feel, is more ennobling than the imported practice of destroying the bodies.

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