The Kennedy administration moves haltingly toward a Geneva conference on Laos just as serious debate over its foreign policy erupts for the first time.

This is another of the modifications of policy on Laos that the Kennedy administration has felt compelled to make.

The Republicans some weeks ago served notice through Senator Thruston B. Morton ( R ) of Kentucky, chairman of the Republican National Committee, that the Kennedy administration would be held responsible if the outcome in Laos was a coalition government susceptible of Communist domination.

There was the further complication that the administration had very early concluded that Laos was ill suited to be an ally, unlike its more determined neighbors, Thailand and South Viet Nam.

The administration declared itself in favor of a neutralized Laos.

After French rule ended, the French language was still largely used among the new governments ( with the exception of North Vietnam ) and French is still spoken in the region today by the educated and elderly and is sometimes used in administration in Laos and Cambodia.

* French colonial administration of Laos

As in China and Laos, there is a certain degree of participation of Hmong in the local and regional administration.

In 1961, John F. Kennedy's administration opted for a neutralist coalition rather than risk an armed confrontation with the Russians over Laos, and Phoumi was ordered to merge his right-wing government into a tripartite coalition under the leadership of Souvanna Phouma.

Johns maintained close relationships with the leaderships of resistance movements challenging Soviet-backed governments in Afghanistan, Angola Cambodia, Ethiopia Laos, Mozambique, Nicaragua and other nations, sometimes mitigating these resistance movements ' concerns with Washington, sometimes carrying their messages to key Reagan administration officials.

As the United Nations, with support from the Clinton administration, began repatriating Thailand-based Hmong veterans from Vietnam's " Secret War " to Laos, Johns was one of several influential opponents of the policy, labeling the repatriation a " betrayal.

In the late 1990s, Johns was one of several U. S. conservatives who successfully urged the Clinton administration to reverse the U. S. government's long-standing policy of officially denying the existence of the CIA-supported covert " Secret War " in Laos and to honor the thousands of Hmong who provided support to U. S. air and ground combat operations against the North Vietnamese Army and Việt Cộng during the Vietnam War.

The government of Thailand, with support from the United Nations and the Clinton administration, sought to repatriate the Hmong at Wat Tham Krabok to Laos.

During the 1920s, the administration of Buddhism in Laos was reorganized by Prince Phetsarath, who established a system of schools for providing instruction to the Lao clergy.

We were there at a moment when the situation in Laos threatened to ignite another war among the world's giants.

To find out, we traveled throughout that part of Laos still nominally controlled, in the daytime at least, by the Royal Lao Army: from Attopeu, the City of Buffalo Dung in the southeast, to Muong Sing, the City of Lions in the northwest, close to Communist China ( map, page 250 ).

We were told that to the Pathet Lao, a kidnaped American was worth at least $750, a fortune in Laos.

There is little optimism here that the Communists will be any more docile at the conference table than they were in military actions on the ground in Laos.

But the Communists never gave sufficient provocation at any one time for the United States to want to risk a limited or an all-out war over Laos.

As a result, the West is in a poor bargaining position at the current Geneva negotiations on Laos, and South Vietnam and other nations in Southeast Asia are under increased pressure.

Ancient Chinese records mention two kings, Shrutavarman and Shreshthavarman who ruled at the capital Shreshthapura located in modern day southern Laos.

The Dong falls at the southern end of the country prevent access to the sea, but cargo boats travel along the entire length of the Mekong in Laos during most of the year.

The Mekong at Luang Prabang, Laos

Laos shares its short — only 541 kilometers — southern border with Cambodia, and ancient Khmer ruins at Wat Pho and other southern locations attest to the long history of contact between the Lao and the Khmer.

Laos ' population was estimated at about 6, 48 million in July 2011, dispersed unevenly across the country.

As of November 2010, Lao officials plan to convert the station into a rail cargo terminal for freight trains, allowing cargo to be transported from Bangkok into Laos at a lower cost than would be possible with road transport.

The proposed line would continue to the coast at Vung Ang, a port in Ha Tinh Province, which would provide landlocked Laos with access to the South China Sea.

Laos has constructed a new highway connecting Savannakhet to the Vietnamese border at Lao Bao, with funding coming from the Japanese government.

In so doing, Laos has opened the door to rapprochement with Thailand and China at some expense to its special dependence on Vietnam.

Consequently, the Theravadan tradition ( Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Burma ) which follows the Pali scriptures does not practice vegetarianism though an individual may do so at his or her personal choice.

* Easternmost point: Laos border, Khong Chiam District, Ubon Ratchathani Province, at

The border marked by the Mekong is as liquid as the waters within it: at high water during the rainy season, the centre line of the current is the border, while during low water periods, all islands, mudbanks, sandbanks, and rocks that are revealed, belong to Laos.

In so doing, Laos has opened the door to rapprochement with Thailand and China at some expense to its special dependence on Vietnam.

After their defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 France granted independence to the nations of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

He believed that hundreds of American servicemen were left behind in Southeast Asia at the end of the U. S. involvement in the war, and that government officials were covering up POW / MIA investigations in order to avoid revealing a drug smuggling operation used to finance a secret war in Laos.

Only Laos was seen initially as an economically unviable colony, although timber was harvested at a small scale from there.

The proposed railway into Laos would run between Vung Ang, a port in Ha Tinh Province, to connect with the North – South Railway at Tan Ap Railway Station in Quang Binh Province, then crossing through the Mu Gia Pass towards Thakhek.

Increased demand since the 1980s, principally from China, for both Amomum villosum and Amomum tsao-ko has provided a key source of income for poor farmers living at higher altitudes in localized areas of China, Laos and Vietnam, people typically isolated from many other markets.

Eisenhower told Kennedy he considered Laos to be " the cork in the bottle " in regards to the regional threat.

The Western fear of a Communist extension in Southeast Asia, named the Domino Theory by Dwight D. Eisenhower during the siege of Điện Biên Phủ and the departure of the French from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, was a factor leading to the direct American intervention in South Vietnam.

You can see it, for example, in the extensive efforts President Kennedy has made to enlist solid bipartisan support for his actions toward both Cuba and Laos ; ;

A minor producer of opium, heroin, and marijuana ; major illicit transit point for heroin en route to the international drug market from Burma and Laos ; eradication efforts have reduced the area of cannabis cultivation and shifted some production to neighboring countries ; opium poppy cultivation has been reduced by eradication efforts ; also a drug money-laundering center ; minor role in amphetamine production for regional consumption ; increasing indigenous abuse of methamphetamines and heroin.

Once in Saigon, he strongly supported the war efforts of Presidents Johnson and Richard Nixon, going so far as to applaud US incursions into Laos and Cambodia.

The weather in southeastern Laos came to play a large role both in the supply effort and in U. S ./ South Vietnamese efforts to interdict it.

Due to the efforts of the PAVN 592nd Pipelaying Regiment, the number of pipelines entering Laos increased to six ( 6 ) that year.

In the meantime, the United States re-established a Military Assistance Advisory Group to support its efforts in Laos, basing it in Bangkok.