The asymmetry of Laos conflict in the views of the RAND Corporation experts (1960–1973)

The paper deals with analytical reports prepared by the experts of the RAND Corporation on the «Secret War» in Laos (1960–1973) between the Royal Laotian Army, tacit living in the United States, and the communist movement Patet Lao, which received assistance from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Initially, it was Laos, not Vietnam that was the strategic and important region of Southeast Asia in the concept of «domino theory» of the US policy. A vivid example is the study of Laos in the RAND Corporation, which began earlier than the study of Vietnam. Analyst reports were created on the basis of geography, demography, geology, economics, etc. The paper addresses reports on the development of the military-political situation in Laos by the experts of the corporation such as Joel Martin Halpern, Paul Langer and Joseph Zastoff. It is shown that a part of the research was carried out with the aim of developing the theory of counterinsurgency at the request of the Agency for Perspective Research under the Ministry of Defense of the USA for the development of a foreign policy strategy in the countries of the «Third world». Special attention is paid to the connection of research on the situation in Laos with the analysis of the prospects of the American policy in Vietnam in the 1960s and early 1970s.