One of the first American casualties in Southeast Asia, an intelligence-gathering plane en route from Laos to Saigon is shot down over the Plain of Jars in central Laos. The mission was flown in an attempt to determine the extent of the Soviet support being provided to the communist Pathet Lao guerrillas in Laos. The guerrillas had been waging a war against the Royal Lao government since 1959. In a television news conference, President John F. Kennedy warned of communist expansion in Laos and said that a cease-fire must precede the start of negotiations to establish a neutral and independent nation.
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Mar 23, 1961:
U.S. plane shot down over Laos
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This Week in History, Mar 23 - Mar 29
- Mar 23, 1961
- U.S. plane shot down over Laos
- Mar 23, 1970
- Prince Sihanouk issues a call for arms
- Mar 24, 1965
- First teach-in conducted
- Mar 24, 1975
- North Vietnamese launch "Ho Chi Minh Campaign"
- Mar 25, 1967
- Martin Luther King leads march against the war
- Mar 25, 1968
- Johnson meets with the "Wise Men"
- Mar 26, 1969
- Antiwar demonstration in Washington
- Mar 26, 1975
- Hue falls to the communists
- Mar 27, 1965
- South Vietnamese forces conduct combat operations in Cambodia
- Mar 27, 1973
- Bombing of Cambodia to continue
- Mar 28, 1961
- Diem's popular support questioned
- Mar 28, 1967
- American pacifists arrive in Haiphong
- Mar 29, 1971
- Calley found guilty of My Lai murders
- Mar 29, 1973
- Last U.S. troops depart South Vietnam
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