A long country inhabited by lotus eaters : Washington encounters Laos -- A soft buffer : Laos in the Eisenhower administration's grand strategy -- Help the seemingly unhelpable : Little America and the U.S. aid program in Laos -- Foreigners who want to enslave the country : American neocolonialism, Lao defiance -- Doctor Tom and Mister Pop : American icons in Laos -- Retarded children : Laos in the American popular imagination -- No place to fight a war : Washington backs away from Laos.