Laos

Laos is a small country in Southeast Asia between Vietnam and Thailand.  It currently has a [[Communism|communist]] government.

== Speech Relevance ==
Laos is mentioned briefly in '[[Encroaching Control]]':
<BLOCKQUOTE>''[[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]], in 1923, said, "We will take [[Eastern Europe]], we will organize the hordes of Asia and we won't have to take the United States. We will surround it and that last bastion of capitalism will fall into our outstretched hand like overripe fruit."  Well, they've taken [[Eastern Europe]].  They are organizing the hordes of Asia around the red colossus of [[China]] and today I'm sure many of us suspect we are being prepared for the bitter cup of capitulation in Laos that will be watered down only slightly by a few face-saving devices.  [[Cuba]] is a Russian beach head 90 miles off our Florida coast and more telling that even that, 250,000 communist professional organizers are scattered up and down the length and  breadth of [[Latin America]].''</BLOCKQUOTE>
In 1961, Laos was in the midst of a civil war between a communist faction known as the Pathet Lao, and the royalist government.  The communists were aided by the [[Soviet Union]] and North Vietnam.  The royalists were supported by the United States.  In many ways, this civil war little more than a proxy war in the overall [[Cold War]].  It has also been called a hidden theater of the [[Vietnam War]].

The war ended in 1975 with a victory by the communists.

== Source Links ==
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laos|Laos ''(Wikipedia)'']

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laotian_Civil_War|Laotian Civil War ''(Wikipedia)'']
The Reagan Speech Preservation Society

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Laos
