At his press conference Mr. Kennedy said, `` All we want in Laos is peace not war a truly neutral government not a cold war pawn ''.

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.

-- The three leaders of Laos agreed today to begin negotiations tomorrow on forming a coalition government that would unite the war-ridden kingdom.

The Laos government plea for help was made by Foreign Minister Tiao Sopsaisana.

After a White House huddle between the President and top lieutenants, the Defense Department reacted sharply to a cry from the pro-Western government of Laos that several battalions of Communist troops had invaded Laos from North Viet Nam.

But by week's end the Laotian cry of invasion was read as an exaggeration ( see foreign news ), and the U.S. was agreeing with its cautious British and French allies that a neutralist -- rather than a pro-Western -- government might be best for Laos.

The official History of Laos as introduced in government textbooks, is conventionally traced to the establishment of the kingdom of Lan Xang by Fa Ngum in 1353.

The borders of the modern state of Laos were established by the French colonial government in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

At the same time, international concern about environmental degradation and the loss of many wildlife species unique to Laos has also prompted the government to consider the implications of these developments.

The government opened Laos to the world in the 1990s, and continues to be a popular destination amongst tourists.

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

The foreign relations of Laos, after the takeover by the Pathet Lao in December 1975, were characterized by a hostile posture toward the West, with the government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic aligning itself with the Soviet bloc, maintaining close ties with the Soviet Union and depending heavily on the Soviets for most of its foreign assistance.

The U. S. government provided more than $ 13. 4 million in foreign assistance to Laos in FY 2006, in areas including unexploded ordnance clearance and removal, health and avian influenza, education, economic development, and governance.

* 1997 – The United States government acknowledges the existence of the " Secret War " in Laos and dedicates the Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other " Secret War " veterans.

* April 19 – In Laos, the coalition government of Prince Souvanna Phouma is deposed by a right-wing military group, led by Brig.

* May 15 – The United States government acknowledges existence of the " Secret War " in Laos, and dedicates the Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other " Secret War " veterans.

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.

Small groups of Hmong people, many of them second or third generation descendants of former CIA soldiers, remain internally displaced in remote parts of Laos, in fear of government reprisals.

In 2004, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers ( CSUCS ) reported that in Asia thousands of children are involved in fighting forces in active conflict and ceasefire situations in Afghanistan, Burma, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Nepal and Sri Lanka, although government refusal of access to conflict zones has made it impossible to document the numbers involved.

This had been accomplished due to the results of elections in May that had brought a right-wing government to power in Laos, its increasing dependence on U. S. military and economic aid, and an increasingly antagonistic attitude toward North Vietnam.

On July 2005, the second Greater Mekong Subregion ( GMS ) Summit was held in Kunming, with government leaders from China, Laos, Myanmar ( Burma ), Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam participating.

Before the airplanes came, he said, travel in Laos was just about impossible.

Until the Cuban fiasco and the Communist military victories in Laos, almost any observer would have said that President Kennedy had blended a program that respected, generally, the opinions voiced both by Mr. Nixon and the professors.

He said Britain also proposed that the international truce commission should be reconvened, sent to New Delhi and from there to Laos to verify the cease-fire.

A 14-power conference on Laos should then meet on May 5, he said.

The minister, describing the attacks which led up to the appeal, said that 60,000 Communist North Vietnamese were fighting royal army troops on one front -- near Thakhek, in southern-central Laos.

`` In view of the present situation in Laos '', said the Pentagon's announcement, `` we are taking normal precautionary actions to increase the readiness of our forces in the Pacific ''.

The Yeti is said to have been spotted in the remote Mae Charim area of the Luang Prabang Range range, between the Thai highlands and Sainyabuli Province, Laos.

" He said there was insufficient evidence that sarin or any other deadly gas was used, nor could CNN confirm that American deserters were targeted or even at the camp in Laos.

During the Cold War the Baltic states, Central Europe, some countries in Eastern Europe, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, North Korea, and, until the Sino-Soviet split, the People's Republic of China, among other countries at various times, were said to lie under the Soviet sphere of influence.

Two Air America pilots who were in Laos at that time said that flights were during the day and flew no less than 500 feet from the ground.

In Saved by the Light, Brinkley said his actions as a CIA sniper in Laos during the Vietnam War were part of his NDE life review.

It was a " marvellous experience " for McCarthy who said about this time: " We travelled to Zanzibar and China, Fiji and Corsica, Costa Rica and Laos ; stood on the edge of volcanoes, had lunch with heroes of the Crete resistance, and got caught up in a military coup in Vanuatu ".

He was also said to be the director of the " Phoenix Program " during the Vietnam War, as well as the CIA station chief in Laos between 1966 – 1968, and Saigon station chief from 1968 through February 1972.

In the other four de jure socialist states existing today — China, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam — the ruling Parties hold Marxism – Leninism as their official ideology, although they give it different interpretations in terms of practical policy.

Thai cuisine is more accurately described as four regional cuisines corresponding to the four main regions of the country: Northern, Northeastern ( or Isan ), Central, and Southern, each cuisine sharing similar foods or foods derived from those of neighboring countries and regions: Burma to the northwest, the Chinese province of Yunnan and Laos to the north, Vietnam and Cambodia to the east and Malaysia to the south of Thailand.

The region now comprised four independent countries: North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

On their side, the United States flew four B-26 Invader bombers from Taiwan into Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base, poised to strike into Laos.

Some of them he acquired in 1960 from composer Allyn Ferguson, who returned from Laos with four of them, and subsequently wrote for angklung in his scores, including Charlie ’ s Angels.

Laos issued a miniature sheet of four stamps, showing a Laotian landscape, and, on the selvage, fireworks bursting high in the sky.

The four corners of the gateways are adorned by statues of a Naga King ( mythical symbol of Laos ), with a depiction signifying spraying of a jet of water ( suggesting nature, fertility, welfare and happiness ) into the ponds on the ground.

By 1770, Alaungpaya's heirs had temporarily defeated Siam ( 1767 ), subdued much of Laos ( 1765 ) and defeated four invasions by Qing China ( 1765 – 1769 ).

Saek ( Sek ; Thai: ภาษาแสก ) is a Tai language spoken in at least ten villages in Khammouane Province, Laos, and at least four villages in Nakhon Phanom Province in northeastern Thailand, just across the Mekong River.

This resultet in Indochina being divided into four countries: North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos and Kampuchea.

France withdraws from Indochina, leaving four independent states: Cambodia, Laos, and what became North Vietnam and South Vietnam.