Abstract
When the Laotian crises of 1961–2 are discussed by analysts of international relations, it is often only in terms of US-Soviet relations.1 The view that crisis management in 1961–2 was strictly an affair between Moscow and Washington was also that of the governments of the time and it will be argued here that this perspective is too narrow. It will be our objective here to point out the essential role of Peking in the 1961–2 crisis and highlight the trend toward tripolar politics. We will study those important events of early 1961, but also focus on the much neglected period of the Geneva conference on Laos and on the US-PRC crisis of May 1962. In the course of the analysis we will describe the genesis of tripolarity in the hope that by stressing the tripolar aspects, the Laotian crisis can be more comprehensively analysed and the events understood in a new light.
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Notes and References
David Hall, ‘The Laos Crisis 1960–61’ in Alexander George David Hall, William Simon, The Limits of Coercive Diplomacy, Laos, Cuba, Vietnam (Boston: Little Brown, 1971) p.36.
Chae-Jin Lee, Communist China’s Policy Toward Laos: A Case Study 1954–67 (Kansas: Center for East Asian Studies, 1970) p.65.
Donald Zagoria, The Sino-Soviet Conflict 1956–61 (New York: Athenum, 1973) p.243.
Arthur Dommen, Conflict in Laos. The Politics of Neutralization (New York: Praeger, 1971) p.135.
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Brian Crozier, ‘Peking and the Laotian Crisis: An Interim Appraisal’ The China Quarterly, no.7, July–Sept. 1961 p.128. Also Arthur Lall, How Communist China Negotiates (New York: Columbia University Press, 1968) pp.1–12.
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Geoffrey Hodgson, America In Our Time (London: Macmillan, 1976).
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Schlesinger, Thousand Days p.516. At this point Kennedy viewed Phoumi as a ‘total shit’. Benjamin Bradlee, Conversations with Kennedy (London: Quartet Books, 1976) p.84.
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© 1982 Gerald Segal
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Segal, G. (1982). Laos, 1961–2. In: The Great Power Triangle. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06059-7_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06059-7_2
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