Just a random news clipping I found among my dad’s effects, some of which ended up in a foot locker my sister shipped here the bedroom I grew up in in Tampa. Random stuff, dad would have been happy to see this online. Those looters look like they’re having a fun time.
Lao Looters Begin Stripping Yank Residential Compound.
Stars & Stripes. May 29 1975
VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) —
Looters are cutting holes in the
fence of the sparsely guarded
U.S. residential settlement out-
side Vientiane and carting off
the household possessions left
by Americans evacuated from
Laos.
An American interviewed
through the locked gates of the
residential compound four
miles outside the city said only
about 80 persons remain there,
including six American women
secretaries.
He said four or five homes
were stripped Sunday because
there were only two unarmed
volunteer patrols to guard the
150-house compound.
Most of those remaining who
lived on the periphery of the
compound have moved into va-
cant houses in the center, he
said. Volunteers have crated
what they can in abandoned
homes and taken them to the
settlement’s gymnasium, but
such large items as furniture,
carpets and refrigerators re-
main in the houses.
The guards on the gate from
the Communist Pathet Lao
allowed the departing Ameri-
cans to take only one suitcase
each out of the compound.
Tw,o U.S. Marine guards and
an American civilian remained
locked inside separate buildings
in the downtown compound of
the U.S. Agency for Inter-
national Development (AID)
which has been occupied by
students since Wednesday. The
U.S. Embassy said all three
were in good condition and had
enough to eat and drink.
An Embassy spokesman said
an agreement aimed at per-
suading the students to end
their occupation had been hand-
ed back and forth several times
between the Embassy and the
government but still had not
been signed. The agreement is
expected to provide for Ameri-
can personnel to regain’control
of the compound but with stu-
dent representatives remaining
there.
Once agreement has been
reached, the spokesman said,
the Embassy and the govern-
ment will begin renegotiating
the 1951 aid agreement. The
Pathet Lao, which now domi-
nates the coalition government,
says it wants American aid to
continue but without any Amer-
ican restriction or supervision
of its use.
The evacuation of U.S. gov-
ernment employes and their
families because of leftist agi-
tation has reduced the official
American community to 280
persons, about 100 of them at-
tached to the Embassy and the
rest to the AID mission. The
spokesman said no further re-
duction in personnel is planned
for the time being.
Before the evacuation began,
American officials and their
families totaled about 820 per-
sons. Most of the 150 private
U.S. residents have also left.
The Pathet Lao continued to
extend its control over areas
formerly held by the right-wing
or “Vientiane” faction of the
coalition government. Officials
reported that the Pathet Lao
army on Sunday took over the
town of Champassak, the seat
of the once-powerful, right-wing
Champassak family.
The leader of the Champas-
sak clan, Prince Boun Oum,
once was the third-ranking per-
sonage in Laos, behind the king
and crown prince. Sisouk Na
Champassak, defense minister
in the coalition government, re-
signed and fled to Thailand
when the Pathet Lao began to
take over and drive the leading
rightists from the government.
In other Indochina develop-
ments four South Vietnamese
ships that fled to Singapore have
returned to Saigon, Hanoi Radio
reported. It gave no details of
refugees or military men
aboard.
The Thai Interior Ministry
announced that three South
Vietnamese fishing boats carry-
ing 60 refugees landed during
the weekend in Rayong Prov-
ince, 100 miles southeast of
Bangkok.
