Bombers Hit Laos Again

America has bombed Laos longer than any one nation has ever bombed another nation in world history. U.S. air strikes began clandestinely in 1962, even before warplanes began to hit Vietnam.

The aerial warfare continued almost continuously since that time, through the entry and exit of American ground troops in Vietnam, through the terms of three American presidents, through countless rainy and dry seasons.

The bombing ended finally February 22 when a Laotian peace agreement was signed. But it seems eleven years was not enough. American bombers last week took off from airfields in Thailand, followed all too familiar flight routes, and once again bombed Laos.

The two days of air strikes, performed at the request of the Royal Laotion government, were aimed at North Vietnames and Pathet Lao forces on the Plain of Jars, an area that has been bombed so much observers say it looks like the craters of the moon.

The Defense Department said the raids could be resumed at any time. The Laotian people apparently cannot come out of their caves yet.

American bombing continued regularly in Cambodia and U.S. minesweepers stopped clearing operations along the coasts of North Vietnam as the fragile peace signed a mere three months ago continued to unravel.

The United States said its actions were in response to stepped up liberation force activity in Laos and continued war in Cambodia, the only nation in the area not covered by a peace agreement.

Both the U.S. and the dictatorship of President Lon Nol claimed the crackling Cambodian war was being pressed by North Vietnamese regular army units, but several observers at the scene disagreed.

Although acknowledging the presence of Vietnamese in the country, they said the brunt of the onslaught against the Lon Nol regime was being shouldered by the Khmer Rouge, an indigenous revolutionary movement.

At any rate, Lon Nol is in trouble. Fighting is surging closer to his capital of Phnom Penh and all three highways into the city have been sliced by the guerrillas. His tottering regime will probably soon topple, barring another U.S. escalation.