Urn Burial

BATTLE OF INDOCHINA

In the high mountains of the kingdom of Laos, there is a wide, grassy plateau which the French call the Plaine des Jarres because of the ancient stone burial urns dotted about the landscape. According to French military thinking, the invading Viet Minh Communists "had to pass through" the Plaine des Jarres on their way to conquer Laos. There last week, in a two-mile perimeter around an airstrip, the French were hastily improvising a defense system of barbed wire and entrenchments. Soon Legionnaires and loyal Laotian troops were as securely trussed-up in their "hedgehog" as the ancient Laotians in their old stone jars.

Communist General Vo Nguyen Giap's Chinese-trained and equipped army of some 40,000, supported by another army of ragged coolie carriers, was swarming through the valleys and mountain passes as fast as their bare feet could carry them. They came in three columns, from the east, northeast, and north. There was plenty of room: Laos, one of the two kingdoms in the Associated States of French Indo-China, is as big as Oregon. In a fortnight they advanced almost 150 miles, leaving behind them French mountain-top outposts abandoned, surrounded, or in smoldering ruins, their tiny garrisons besieged, captured, dead or defected. At week's end the Communists had flowed around the Plaine des Janes, after giving it a blast of mortar fire, and were pouring past it westward. As the three columns began to converge, it became clear that Giap's objective was the ancient Laotian capital of Luang Prabang, seat of King

Sisavang Vong, on the great Mekong River. With the leading Communist column only 35 miles distant, a Communist-rebel underground proclaimed itself the "sole legal government" of Laos, named a Laotian rebel, Souphanou Vong, as President.

Luang Prabang would be defended, the French promised: "It is a matter of prestige." From Hanoi, the French began airlifting soldiers and equipment to Luang Prabang. Inside the Hanoi delta, Giap launched a surprise attack on Kien Airfield, clearly intending to delay air reinforcements to Laos. The Red guerrillas swarmed over the airfield, the finest in Indo-China and specially designed for jet aircraft, and dispersed the guard. They killed 20 Frenchmen, captured and executed Provincial Chief Trinh Nhu Tiep, burned the barracks, set off 3,000 tons of ammunition. A French counterattack killed 212 Viet Minh, captured 125, and regained control of Kien.

At week's end Admiral Arthur W. Radford, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, arrived in Hanoi. Said Radford, after a conference with French General Raoul Salan: "The situation is serious. The Viet Minh have introduced new complications in Laos, but the Viet Minh will be defeated. They must be."

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