However, in the period 1959-62 the situation worsened for the US. The strongmen behind the Sananikone clique were a general, noumi Nousavan, and a Prince Boun Oum who ruled in the south and had worked with te rrenca to pur down tne bao Inenn rising in the 1930s. They staged a coup early in 1960, but were ousted by a so-called "neutralist" coup led by Kong Le in August; Kong Le was a dynamic captain who had fought with the French against Pathet Lao and had been given a "Ranger course by the US in 1957. The CIA did not then trust him and the southern reactionaries staged a counter-offensive; the only men in the southern forces who could use the artillery accurately were two CIA men, and when they finally got near Vientiane they shelled the US Embassy - to get their revenge on the state Department men who were backing the neutralists. Kong Le then allied with Pathet Lao who had been holding back; but the US puppets were in a weak position.
Kennedy got an agreement with the Russians; a tripartite government was set up in 1962 after another conference and official "neutralism" was proclaimed. But the Soviet attempt to muzzle the liberation struggle failed; the Chinese refused to ship Soviet arms to the neutralist government and gave them to Pathet Lao instead. Since then PL strength has consolidated in the north and mountainous east of Laos. In the liberated areas, occupied by more than half the population they have carried out tax reforms, set up schools and established a people's militia. The famous Ho Chi Minh trail also runs through these liberated areas.
In 1964 the US launched another counter-offensive and started to bomb the PL zones. PL claims to have shot down 1,100 US planes since that time; the US admits to losing 97 pilots. The US operation in Laos uses a number of mechanisms. There is nominally 60,000 strong Royal Laotian Army which is corrupt and inefficient. In addition there is a 12,500 "Special Forces" army, trained by Green Berets and recruited from Meos. The Meos were not ponucany united and some or tem, witn pro-French tribal chiefs, have been recruited by the US. Other clans fight with the PL. In addition the US uses Thai soldiers and Thai airforcemen to back up the Laotians. The US itself has over a thousand military advisers and "aid officials" there who organise military operations and drop food and arms to pro-government forces. Air operations by the US fall into two categories: first, there are the straightforward military bombing raids by US