Subtitled “Everyday Life Goes On Unchanged Within Earshot of the Guns as French-led Forces Battle Reds in Indochina ”
Along with hundreds of local residents who line the river bank, I have a front-row seat at that strange guerrilla warfare going on in Indochina.
Directly across the half-mile-wide expanse of the muddy Mekong dividing Thailand from Laos perches the town of Thakhek, scene of the fighting. Plumes of smoke rise above the trees behind the town, and an observation plane circles in the sky. Unseen French and national troops are fanning out into the bush.
Thakhek first came into the headlines in late December, 1953, when the Communist Viet Minh forces reached it in a surprise thrust from the Annam mountains across the narrow waistline of Indochina to slice the country in two.
Now, less than a month later, the French had moved in again. In an offensive mounted at Savannakhet, 60 miles downriver, land forces, supported by river craft and air cover from strategic Seno airbase, struck at dawn to reoccupy it.
As has happened so often in this 70-year-old war in Indochina, the retaking of the town brought little heavy fighting. Again the Viet Minh guerrillas faded into the bush and the green limestone hills which rise in jagged lumps beyond the river.
In this hit-and-run war no one can say where the real battle will be.
With Thakhek retaken, however, the French were in position to reopen the Mekong for transporting supplies to Vientiane and other towns in northern Laos. Since late December, all goods and personnel had had to go by air. Only fishermen and a few Thai craft had ventured out on the river.
Before the Viet Minh push to the Mekong I had planned a trip along the river to northern Laos and eastern Thailand. "Can I still go?" I asked Thai officials in Bangkok (Krung Thep).
There was a shaking of heads. "We've closed the border and declared an emergency in our northeast provinces," I was told.
A few days later, however, courteous Thai officials gave me a letter asking the border police to grant me "all facilities" for travel.
I understood the officials' concern and caution. Thailand adjoins Laos for roughly 1,000 miles; for more than 500 miles of that distance the wide bend of the Mekong forms the frontier. Thai Government officials were well aware that any successful occupation of Laos by the Viet Minh would bring the Bamboo Curtain right to their border. Already Thailand has had a refugee problem; about 1,000 persons fled from Thakhek across the river, seeking safety.
I flew from Bangkok to Udon Thani in a Beechcraft Bonanza of the Thai Airways Company. From there I rode by bus to Nong Khai on the river, halting for police checks several times en route. Then, with the simple formality of having my passport stamped, I crossed the Mekong in a motorized sampan and rode the 13 miles to Vientiane with members of our United States Legation staff.
It is one of the odd experiences of this war to find that life goes on with no marked change, except in actual combat zones.
At Vientiane I found a temple fair in full swing. At night the town echoed with the blare of native orchestras. Through milling, celebrating crowds, I roamed among food stalls and gambling booths, watched Thai-style boxing in which kicking and elbowing were more deadly than fists, and saw taxi…"
7” x 10”, 16 pages, 14 B&W photos plus map
These are pages from an actual 1954 magazine.
54E4
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