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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Laos
Index
Internal Stability and External Influences
Since the LPDR was proclaimed in December 1975, its
leadership
has been remarkably stable and cohesive. The record of
continuous
service at the highest ranks is equaled by few, if any,
regimes in
the contemporary world. Laotian leaders have an equally
impressive
record of unity. Although outside observers have
scrutinized the
leadership for factions--and some have postulated at
various times
that such factions might be divided along the lines of
MarxistLeninist ideologues versus pragmatists or pro-Vietnamese
versus
nationalists (or pro-Chinese), there is no solid evidence
that the
leadership is seriously divided on any critical issues.
In 1975 the Laotian communist leaders, most of whom had
spent
the revolutionary decade from 1964 to 1974 operating from
Pathet
Lao headquarters in the caves of Sam Neua Province, came
down from
the mountains to Vientiane to direct the new government.
At the
outset of their accession to power, they were suspicious,
secretive, and inaccessible, and lower-level cadres were
maladroit
in imposing heavy bureaucratic controls. Travel within the
country
was limited, personal and family behavior was monitored by
newly
organized revolutionary administrative committees, cadres
were
assigned to disseminate propaganda, and seminars were held
to
provide political education for all sorts of groups.
During these
early years, the party squandered much of the goodwill and
friendly
acceptance from a population tired of war and the
corruption of the
old regime.
At first, Laotian communist leaders were committed to
fulfilling their revolutionary goals of fundamentally
altering
society through "socialist transformation and socialist
construction." After 1979 the regime modified its earlier
zealous
pursuit of socialism and pursued more liberal economic and
social
policies, in much the same manner as Vietnam.
For more than a decade after 1975, the Vietnamese
continued to
exercise significant influence upon the Laotian leadership
through
a variety of party, military, and economic channels. By
the end of
the 1980s, however--in particular following the collapse
of the
Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc in 1991 and diminishing
assistance
from the Soviet Union to Vietnam and Laos--Vietnam turned
inward to
concentrate on its own problems of development. This
emboldened
Laotians leaders to jettison even more of their socialist
ideological baggage, abandon agricultural
collectivization, and
move toward a market economy. Laos was also free to pursue
an
independent foreign policy. The single most important
vestige of
the former communist system was the solitary ruling party,
the
LPRP.
Data as of July 1994
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