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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Laos
Index
Implementation of the armistice agreement in Laos began
on
schedule. The Joint Commission, on which the RLG was
represented by
General Bounphone Maekthepharak and Colonel Sengsouvanh
Souvannarath and Colonel Boun Ma, and the Pathet Lao by
Singkapo,
Sisavath, and Ma Khamphitay, held a number of meetings at
Khang
Khay to deal with the details. The presence of the
International
Control Commission (ICC), made up of Canada, India, and
Poland,
also helped force the two sides to live up to their
commitments.
However, the insistence of the Pathet Lao that their
regroupment
areas cover the entire territory of the two provinces,
along with
a right to exclusive administration of those provinces,
raised
serious problems almost immediately. Another part of the
armistice
agreement that caused difficulties was, as noted in an ICC
report,
the "... glaring differences regarding the number and
categories of
prisoners of war and civil internees exchanged."
It became clear that higher-level negotiations were
needed.
Princes Souvanna Phouma and Souphanouvong met at Khang
Khay on
September 8. The assassination of the defense minister,
Kou
Voravong, in Vientiane on September 18, however,
demonstrated the
fragility of the Laotian political structure. The act
seemed to be
a settling of old scores, dating probably to Kou's
energetic
measures as interior minister to suppress banditry
perpetrated from
across the river. Thailand also seemed to be implicated,
but the
announcement by Thai police that they had arrested the
assassin,
who claimed to have been in league with Phoui, only
poisoned
relations between the Voravong and Sananikone families.
Crown
Prince Savang wondered aloud whether Phetsarath, with the
help of
foreigners, was trying to oust the monarchy.
The Pathet Lao and their North Vietnamese backers
meanwhile
took advantage of the cease-fire to launch a vast
recruitment
campaign. In the cases of numerous recruits who were later
interviewed, the offer of schooling or more specialized
training in
North Vietnam proved decisive to their enlistment, and
even those
who were initially skeptical were ultimately won over by
the
attentions of their Vietnamese instructors and the
persuasiveness
of the political lessons they received. One major
consequence of
this campaign was that the Pathet Lao ranks were swelled
by
recruits from the many different hill tribes of Laos.
These men
were to constitute the initial Pathet Lao units. The
immediate goal
after regrouping in the two provinces was to form nine
battalions,
plus independent companies for propaganda missions.
Laos, a member of the United Nations (UN) since
December 14,
1955, seemed an unlikely place for a resumption of
hostilities.
Peaceful coexistence was the dominant mood of the time. A
new
government under Katay was represented at the
Asian-African
Conference held in April 1955 in Bandung, Indonesia, where
he and
North Vietnamese prime minister Pham Van Dong spoke of
peace and
noninterference in each other's affairs. But an initial
round of
negotiations between the government and the Pathet Lao in
Rangoon
in October collapsed, dashing hopes of a rapid settlement
of the
Pathet Lao question. Armed clashes between the Royal Lao
Army and
the Pathet Lao continued sporadically in the two
provinces.
The threat to the RLG posed by a combination of
internal
subversion and outside aggression preoccupied its leaders,
none
more so than Crown Prince Savang Vatthana. As early as
summer 1954,
fearing a French deal with the Viet Minh that might be
injurious to
Laotian sovereignty and territorial integrity, Savang had
flown to
Paris to make his own soundings of French intentions. He
was also
anxious to probe United States diplomats for reassurances
as to the
nature of the support Laos could expect in the event of an
attack
from its communist neighbors. He told Dulles that Laos was
in a
"life or death struggle" for survival and that the Laotian
people
were opposed to communist dictatorship. Dulles replied,
"You can
count upon our support--moral, political, and material--so
long as
that support goes to a government vigorously seeking to
maintain
its own independence."
Washington's immediate concern was that the Royal Lao
Army was
inadequately trained and equipped because all French
troops, except
for a small detachment at Xéno in the south, had departed.
The
Geneva armistice terms prohibited Laos from having foreign
military
bases and participating in any foreign military alliance,
but
allowed a small French training mission. Dissatisfied with
the
French mission and seeing a larger role for itself, the
United
States established a disguised military mission in
Vientiane, the
Programs Evaluation Office (PEO). This mission became
operational
on December 13, 1955, under the command of a general
officer, who,
like others on his staff, had been removed from Department
of
Defense rosters of active service personnel. The secrecy
stemmed
from the Department of State's concern that the PEO's
existence
might be construed as a violation of the Geneva Agreement
of 1954,
which United States policy continued to uphold.
The RLG held elections in December 1955 without the
Pathet Lao.
As a result, the Progressive Party again emerged as the
leading
party with eighteen seats; the newly formed Independent
Party (Phak
Seli) of Phoui Sananikone and Leuam secured nine seats,
the
Democratic Party secured four seats, and the National
Union Party
won two seats.
Data as of July 1994
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