LAOS: The Nameless Menace

In Greece, in Russia, in China, there is a word for it: a Communist is called a Communist. But not in Laos. A man who follows Moscow or Peking is called a Pathet Lao, a Neo Lao Haksat, sometimes a "tool of a foreign power" (unnamed), but never called what he is, for in Laotian, there is no word for Communist. This state of affairs may not last long after last week's events in the landlocked mountain kingdom carved out of French Indo-China, bordered on the north by Red China and the northeast by Red North Viet Nam.

Ever since...