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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Laos
Index
At the outset of its rule, the authority of the Lao
Issara
provisional government was extremely limited outside
Vientiane. In
the north, the towns of Louangphrabang, Phôngsali, and
Louang
Namtha were occupied by the Chinese. The Franco-Laotian
guerrillas,
with support from Touby Lyfoung's Hmong, had taken control
of the
main towns of Xiangkhoang Province at the beginning of
September.
Their hold on Houaphan was much less solid, in spite of
efforts on
the part of the provincial governor, Phoumi Vongvichit, to
prevent
the Chinese from entering the province. Here, because of
its
proximity to Vietnam, the revolutionary propaganda spread
by the
Viet Minh was strong but also pro-Viet Minh rather than
pro-Lao
Issara. Moreover, the main roads leading east were denied
to the
Franco-Laotian guerrillas by Viet Minh detachments coming
from
Vietnam. In the center and south, the Lao Issara
government
controlled the towns of Thakhek and Savannakhét. Most of
the
remainder of the provinces of Khammouan and Savannakhét
was
controlled by the Franco-Laotian guerrillas. So were the
southernmost provinces of Pakxé and Saravan, which fell
largely in
the British zone of operation decided upon at the Potsdam
Conference and where Prince Boun Oum of Champasak,
sympathetic to
the French, had 15,000 troops under his command.
The outlook became more favorable for the Lao Issara as
the
year ended. France, preoccupied with the situation in
Vietnam, was
unable to send reinforcements to the Franco-Laotian
guerrillas.
Fabre and his men were evacuated from
Vientiane--eventually to
Thailand--under an escort provided by the Chinese. Various
events
led the Franco-Laotian guerrillas to evacuate Xiangkhoang
town and
Louang Namtha. While Viet Minh propaganda exploited
differences
between the Lao and Phuan on the one hand and Touby's
Hmong on the
other, the Viet Minh were themselves putting together a
Hmong
guerrilla force under Faydang Lobliayao of the Lo clan. In
Louangphrabang, Imfeld and his men had been subjected to
all kinds
of pressure, culminating in their evacuation across the
river under
Chinese escort on January 4.
In Vientiane, the Lao Issara government was confronted
with a
growing list of problems. The most serious was how to
finance the
government because the treasury was empty and there were
no funds
to pay civil servants. An attempt to tax opium exports was
unenforceable because the government did not control opium
trade
routes. The government even took steps to abolish the
Indochinese
régie (state monopoly) that regulated the opium
trade and
make it a Laos monopoly. In desperation, the government
appealed to
the Thai government for a press on which to print money.
Foreign
relations and the procurement of military equipment were
also
problems.
Beginning in January 1946, with the loss anew of
Xiangkhoang,
the fortunes of the Lao Issara government began to
decline. The
Franco-Laotian guerrillas were receiving reinforcements
and
supplies by air and road from French headquarters in
Saigon, which
made entry into the towns possible for the first time. Lao
Issara
appeals to the Viet Minh for assistance went largely
unheeded, and
the Franco-Laotian guerrillas once again were positioned
along the
main roads leading from Vietnam.
After long negotiations in Chongqing, China's wartime
capital,
the French government obtained China's commitment to
withdraw its
troops from Indochina. The withddrawal allowed the
Franco-Laotian
guerrillas to make their entry into Savannakhét against
token
resistance camouflaged by the Chinese withdrawal. At
Thakhek,
however, Souphanouvong and his largely Vietnamese force
were
determined to make the French pay. In a day-long battle on
March
21, approximately 700 of the defenders and 300 civilians
were
killed.
With the French menacing Vientiane, the first thought
of the
Lao Issara government was to regularize its relations with
the
monarchy. On March 23, Xieng Mao, having abandoned
Vientiane for
Louangphrabang, sent the king a letter asking him to
resume his
throne. But the king was in no hurry, and it was not until
April 23
that the king signaled his acceptance of the constitution
and
reaffirmed the unity of Laos by a royal ordinance.
Meanwhile, a strong French column was making its way up
the
road from Vientiane to Louangphrabang. Simultaneously,
Hmong
guerrillas moved west to harass Chinese troops in the
vicinity of
the royal capital. The French column entered
Louangphrabang forcing
Phetsarath and the Lao Issara ministers to flee Laos. The
king
welcomed the French by declaring null and void all acts
that he had
sanctioned under pressure from the Japanese, the Chinese,
and the
Lao Issara since April 4, 1945. He also promised a
democratic
constitution.
The Lao Issara government-in-exile set up its
headquarters in
Bangkok. Scattered groups of armed partisans mounted raids
into
Laos from bases along the Mekong and in southern Laos. One
group
was under the command of Thao O Anourack. After the
Japanese
takeover, Thao O had refused the Franco-Laotian
guerrillas' appeal
to join them. When the Lao Issara took over Savannakhét,
the
provincial governor appointed him commander of liberation
forces in
Xépôn. Thus, when the Franco-Laotians reoccupied Xépôn in
March
1946, Thao O made his way east with some 200 to 300 men to
the
safety of Lao Bao just across the border of Vietnam.
Eventually, he
was forced to abandon Laos altogether and to make his way
to Hanoi
where the Viet Minh put him in touch with Kaysone
Phomvihan, a
Vietnamese-Lao métis (person of mixed race) from
Savannakhét
who had been sent to direct Lao Issara radiobroadcasts
over Radio
Hanoi, and Nouhak Phoumsavan, a Vietnamese from Mukdahan.
Neither
Kaysone Phomvihan nor Nouhak Phoumsavan had a significant
role in
the Lao Issara, but both had the confidence of Ho Chi Minh
and saw
in Ho's government the salvation of an independent Laos.
The Vietnamese proposed to Thao O--and he
accepted--that he
form a committee for the liberation of Laos. Nouhak became
president of the committee. The enlistment of other small
groups
from Xiangkhoang and Houaphan brought the effective
strength under
Thao O's command to 500; he dispatched one company each to
Xam Nua,
Xiangkhoang, Muang Mo, Napé, and Muang Sen. Thao O soon
received
secret codes from Phetsarath and Souvanna Phouma in
Bangkok that
allowed him to communicate with his companies.
Data as of July 1994
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