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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Laos
Index
Souvanna Phouma returned as prime minister in August
1957
following a cabinet crisis and was charged by the king
with forming
a new government. He reopened negotiations, and on October
22, a
final agreement was reached. This agreement called for
reestablishing RLG administration over the two provinces,
forming
a coalition government, and holding supplementary
elections to the
National Assembly. The government set elections for May
1958. On
November 18, Souphanouvong symbolically returned to RLG
authority,
represented by Crown Prince Savang, the two provinces,
together
with all the troops, civil servants, and war matériel
belonging to
the Pathet Lao. A RLG governor was appointed in Houaphan
and a
Pathet Lao governor in Phôngsali, each with a deputy of
the
opposite camp. Mayoral and other provincial official
positions were
equally divided between the two parties. It was agreed
that two
Pathet Lao battalions, totaling 1,500 troops, would be
integrated
into the Royal Lao Army and the remainder would be
demobilized and
sent home. The National Assembly unanimously approved the
coalition
government. Souphanouvong became minister of planning,
reconstruction, and urbanism, and Phoumi Vongvichit became
minister
of culture and fine arts.
Souvanna Phouma visited Washington in January 1958
hoping to
persuade United States policy makers, who worried about
his having
accepted Pathet Lao participation in the government in
advance of
elections, that his strategy for dealing with the Pathet
Lao was
the best course. However, he left Washington without
gaining
unqualified support for his strategy.
United States aid failed to blunt the effects of Pathet
Lao
propaganda and indoctrination in the villages. The Pathet
Lao were
masters of political persuasion, exploiting popular themes
of
nationalism, anticorruption, and "anti-big family." There
were
exceptions, however, to the general negative perception of
United
States aid. Tom Dooley, a physician from the United
States, brought
health care to the people who needed it most, those in
remote
villages. Another American--an Indiana farmer named Edgar
"Pop"
Buell--devoted the last years of his life to helping the
Hmong,
including training the first Hmong nurses and opening
Hmong
schools.
Data as of July 1994
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