In recent years the various players on the international chessboard of Southeast Asia have come to view the northeastern region of Thailand as a crucial factor in the determination of Thailand's future. The Thai government itself believes it possible that the region's economic and political problems could seriously compromise its efforts to effect stable and enduring national integration. The fears of Thai officials and their Western advisers stem in part from a belief that elements opposed to the present Thai government might use ethnic ties between the populace of northeastern Thailand and the dominant community in Laos to undermine Thai influence and control over the one-third of the kingdom's population who live in the northeastern region.' The common assumption upon which such fears are predicated is that the Northeasterners share a common ethnic identity with the Lao of the Kingdom of Laos. Such an assumption is difficult to substantiate by an outsider applying objective criteria. Although evidence can be brought to bear to demonstrate the cultural, linguistic and historical association of most of the inhabitants of the Northeast with the people of Laos,2 such proofs depend upon making subtle distinctions within a large geographical area in which the broad cultural characteristics are the same. What Moerman has said of the Lue who inhabit northern Thailand, northern Laos, and southern China could