Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Although the Royal Lao Army generals were far too concerned with vying for influence to
worry about the communists' successes in indoctrinating the rural population, the men guard-
ing Souphanouvong and his comrades certainly took note. As the new government - one
which was set on a show trial for the Red Prince - was taking shape, all fifteen Pathet Lao
prisoners, along with their guards, slipped off in the night. Souphanouvong began his now
legendary 500km march to Pathet Lao headquarters in Hua Phan.
The Laotian crisis
The Pathet Lao weren't the only ones fed up with the self-serving politicians and generals in
Vientiane. In August 1960, a disgruntled 26-year-old army captain named
Kong Le
seized
control of Vientiane, much to the surprise of the US and the Cabinet, whose ministers were
away in Luang Prabang. Proclaiming himself a neutralist, Kong Le called for an end to “Lao
killing Lao” and an end to foreign interference in the affairs of the country. He then invited
Souvannaphouma to lead a new government.
As Laos began to split apart, the Pathet Lao seized more territory. Phoumi regrouped what
troops he could in Savannakhet, where he gained the backing of the CIA. Planes belonging
to Air America, a civilian contract airline that was later revealed to be a front for the CIA,
began flying into Savannakhet with arms and bundles of money.
In November, Phoumi's men, coordinated by American advisors and assisted by a group of
crack Thai troops, began a march on Vientiane, as Moscow and Washington - both of whom
saw Laos as an excellent place from which to control Southeast Asia - looked on. The Soviet
Union began airlifting supplies to Kong Le's neutralist forces in the capital. Laos was now at
the heart of a Cold War showdown.
By the time Phoumi's troops reached Vientiane in December, the neutralists had allied them-
selves with the Pathet Lao and the Viet Minh. With both sides reluctant to spill Lao blood, a
sloppy battle ensued which was won by the rightists. The neutralists retreated north and even-
tually joined Pathet Lao forces on the Plain of Jars. Souvannaphouma, who fled for Phnom
Penh before the battle, was formally ousted as prime minister by King Sisavang Vatthana and
replaced by Prince Boun Oum of Champasak.
But by March 1961, as a neutralist-Pathet Lao offensive got under way, President Kennedy
announced American support for a
politicalsettlement
involving the neutralization of Laos.
This was an acknowledgement that America saw military victory as unlikely given the in-
competence and reluctance to fight on the part of the Royal Lao Army, something that
Kennedy sensed when he first met the diminutive Phoumi and commented, “if that's our
strongman, we're in trouble”. With Cuba, Berlin and numerous other hotspots on the radar,
Washington worried about spreading itself too thinly. The president concluded his March
23rd speech on the “Laotian Crisis” saying: “All we want in Laos is peace, not war; a truly
