At the 1954 Geneva conference to end the conflicts in Korea and Indochina the world suddenly discovered that Indochina was in fact three distinct countries inhabited by people of different races and cultures, each with its own individual language and writing. Though Burchett wrote much more about Vietnam, he produced two books about Cambodia and Laos, Mekong Upstream and The Second Indochina War. The former, written in 1957, combines Burchett's eye for the exotic with his political insights.

His Introduction states that ‘the main purpose of this book is to introduce Cambodia and Laos, their people and their leaders, to those who, like the author, only recently discovered them, but who sympathise entirely with their aspirations to build up a new life in peace and free from outside interference or threats of interference. The book is the fruit of three visits to Cambodia and Laos, during which the author was an eyewitness to the vigorous way in which the peoples of these countries – each in their own way – resisted the attempts to reshackle them with the fetters of colonialism.’

* * *

By the time we had reached the outskirts of the village, women were seated at their weaving frames under the houses or at their spinning wheels on the platforms which project from all Lao Lum homes. The track climbed steeply.