in luang prabang? >> mama vaughn: yes, in luang prabang., you -- >> michel: i was born in vientiane. >> mama vaughn: in vientiane. >> anthony: in ventiane? >> mama vaughn: yeah. >> anthony: have you lived here all your life? no, ah -- >> mama vaughn: in france. >> anthony: in france. >> michel: by the age of 11 i went to france to study. i came back in, in, in 1971. >> anthony: in difficult times, 1971. very, very difficult. >> michel: oh yeah, it was still the war. >> anthony: mama vaughns' long time friend michel is a journalist, though what that means in a communist one party state like laos is necessarily different than what you and i might define it as. >> michel: when i was in paris, i studied ethnology. when i came here, they said, ethnology can wait. what we need it journalists. >> mama vaughn: journalist. that's why you get your job. >> michel: that's how i became a journalist. >> anthony: american involvement here remained a particularly painful and even taboo subject with the lao governmt. >> anthony: obama, the united states pre