U.S. Officials Believe Nigeria Will Order Troops to Crush Secession of East Region - The hotels of Lagos are crammed this week with Americans evacuated from secessionist Biafra. It is hard to call them war refugees - young American mothers in flowery resort wear, tall, twisting teen-agers, fatcheeked, mischief-making kids, and infants squalling for a diaper change - but they are the most convincing sign in Nigeria today of the imminence of war. Despite attempts by the American Embassy to downgrade the significance of the evacuation of almost 1,000 women and children by a shuttling DC-6, it clearly means that U.S. officials believe Maj. Gen. Yakubu Gowon, the federal military ruler will soon order troops to invade Eastern Nigeria. That region seceded from the federation last week and proclaimed itself the independent republic of Biafra. For its part, the federal government, which has proclaimed its intent to crush the rebellion, refuses to give any hint of how it hopes to do so...

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