History - Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Northern Thailand - page 996

The Land of a Million Irrelevants
War correspondents covering the conflict in Indochina soon renamed Lan Xang (ie Laos)
the land of a million irrelevants. However, the on-going conflict was very relevant to the
Cold War and the great powers were playing out their power struggles on this most obscure
of stages. Successive governments came and went so fast they needed a revolving door in
the national assembly.
Upcountry, large areas fell under the control of communist forces. The US sent troops to
Thailand, in case communist forces attempted to cross the Mekong, and it looked for a time
as if the major commitment of US troops in Southeast Asia would be to Laos rather than
Vietnam. Both the North Vietnamese and the Americans were jockeying for strategic ad-
vantage, and neither was going to let Lao neutrality get in the way.
By mid-1972, when serious peace moves got under way, some four-fifths of Laos was
under communist control. Unlike Cambodia and Vietnam, the communists were eventually
able to take power without a fight. City after city was occupied by the Pathet Lao (com-
munist forces) and in August 1975 they marched into Vientiane unopposed.
François Bizot was kidnapped by the Khmer Rouge, interrogated by Comrade Duch and is be-
lieved to be the only foreigner to have been released. Later he was holed up in the French em-
bassy in April 1975. Read his harrowing story in The Gate .