Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Continued negotiations resulted in the formation of a third coalition government in April
1974, with leftists taking half the ministerial portfolios and the remainder going to the right.
But when Phnom Penh and then Saigon fell to communist forces in April 1975, a complete
communist takeover in Laos appeared a foregone conclusion.
By August 23, a band of fifty women soldiers had symbolically “liberated” Vientiane. Vang
Pao was persuaded to leave Laos by the US, whose representatives were also pulling out. A
mass exodus of Hmong towards Thailand followed; an estimated thirty thousand Hmong had
died during the war.
Lowland Lao generals of the Royalist side usually cooperated with the new government.
Thousands of civil servants and military officers went willingly to re-education camps in re-
mote corners of the country after being told these “seminars” would only last a few weeks.
The absence of right-wing figures opened the door to further Pathet Lao advances which
culminated in a National Congress of People's Representatives on December 2, 1975,
when the congress proclaimed the Lao People's Democratic Republic and accepted the ab-
dication of King Sisavang Vatthana.
The Lao People's Democratic Republic
The ThirtyYearStruggle , with its roots in the short-lived Lao Issara government, was over.
The man in charge was the little-known party secretary-general Kaysone , who was named
prime minister. The man who had been the face of the Pathet Lao all along, Souphanouvong,
assumed the role of president, essentially becoming a figurehead - after all, it wouldn't do to
have a communist country run by a French-educated prince.
Unlike their comrades in Vietnam and Cambodia, the Pathet Lao took power in a bloodless
coup . After overthrowing the government of Souvannaphouma and abolishing royalty, the
Pathet Lao named the prince and the king as advisors to the new government and demon-
strated further flexibility by inviting the US to maintain its embassy in Vientiane.
The Pathet Lao's goodwill ended there, however, as they continued to round up civil ser-
vants and military personnel with ties to the Royalists until as many as fifty thousand people
were in re-educationcamps . Many, on their release, left the country. By the mid-1980s Laos
had lost ten percent of its population - including an overwhelming majority of its educated
class.
Considerable problems faced the new government, which took over a country stripped of
money and resources. The economy was now a shambles, crippled by the termination of US
aid, runaway inflation and the closure of the border with Thailand - the country's primary
source of imports, which resulted in severe food shortages. Thirty-five thousand ethnic Vi-
etnamese and Chinese - the traditional merchants of the country - boarded up their shops
in Vientiane and crossed the Mekong. Intent on ushering in a socialist state, the Pathet Lao
Search WWH ::




Custom Search