CONTEXTS - The Rough Guide to Laos - page 398

and the territory of Champasak in a single, independent Kingdom of Laos. The king repudi-
ated Phetsarath by dismissing him as prime minister and viceroy on October 10, 1945.
In response, the newly constituted LaoIssaragovernment deposed the king two days later.
This new government, which based itself in Vientiane, contained some of the key figures who
would dominate politics in Laos over the course of the next few decades, including Phet-
sarath's younger brothers Souvannaphouma and Souphanouvong, both educated in Paris. Be-
fore joining the new government in Vientiane as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chief of
the Liberation Army, Souphanouvong was flown to Hanoi by an American general, where
he met with, and earned the support of, Ho Chi Minh. He returned with a contingent of Viet
Minh soldiers - the first instance of Vietnamese armed support for a Lao nationalist move-
ment - and swore to continue the struggle until an independent Laos had been won.
The Potsdam Agreement marking the end of World War II failed to recognize the Lao Is-
sara government. Under the terms of the agreement, the Japanese surrender was accepted
by the British to the south, who facilitated the return of French occupation forces. In March
1946 French forces, along with their Lao allies, made their way slowly up the Mekong Val-
ley. Lao Issara volunteers, led by Souphanouvong and assisted by the Viet Minh, resisted the
French near Thakhek, but the French successfully reoccupied Vientiane in April 1946 and
Luang Prabang three weeks later. Thousands of Lao Issara supporters and Vietnamese fled to
Thailand, where Prince Phetsarath established a government-in-exile in Bangkok. Although
Souphanouvong repeated US President Franklin Roosevelt's statement that the French should
not be allowed to return to Indochina, the US and Britain did not offer the Lao Issara support.
The Kingdom of Laos
In 1947, the newly constituted Kingdom of Laos began to take shape. Prince Boun Oum of
Champasak, who had helped the French in the south, renounced his claim to a separate south-
ern kingdom, strengthening the French position in Vientiane and paving the way for Laos to
be unified under the royal house of Luang Prabang. The territories west of the Mekong were
restored, elections for a Constituent Assembly were held and a new constitution proclaimed.
The members of the new government, which was a decidedly pro-French body, were drawn
from the elite that had benefited from the French presence all along. The government lacked
cohesion, however, and the king opted to remain in Luang Prabang rather than move to Vien-
tiane.
The French by now were increasingly bogged down in their struggle with the Viet Minh ,
which had erupted in December 1946 and would become known as the First Indochina War.
What had begun as a police action had rapidly become a costly “war without borders”, which
was to last eight years and cost the lives of 93,000 on the French side and an estimated
200,000 Viet Minh supporters. Vietnamese nationalists coordinated and participated in Lao
Issara guerrilla raids, led by Souphanouvong, on French convoys and garrisons. The Viet