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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Laos
Index
Although French rule in Laos was punctuated by
rebellions among
tribal peoples that had to be suppressed by force, the
Laotians by
and large accepted the French presence. The need to
counter the
pan-Thai irredentism propagated by the Pibul regime in
Bangkok
nevertheless led the Decoux administration to foster
Laotian
nationalism through the Lao Renovation Movement (Lao
Nhay). The
goals of this movement were to "provide Laos with its own
personality with respect to its neighbors and to inculcate
the
sense of patrie." The first Lao language
publications in the
style of the modern press, for example, Lao Nhay
(New Laos),
and Tin Lao (News of Laos) both launched in 1941,
resulted
from this movement.
An activist group of teachers and students among the
Lao
nationalists, however, attempted to stage a coup d'état at
the
Collège Pavie in Vientiane in July 1940. When the coup
failed, they
fled across the river and founded a semisecret
organization, Laos
for the Lao (Lao Pen Lao). Founding members included the
Pali
teacher and historian Mahasila Viravong, Tham Sayasithena,
Thongdy
Sounthonvichit, and Oudone Sananikone and his half-brother
Oun.
Beginning in December 1944, with the upswing of Allied
fortunes
in Europe and the Pacific, General Charles de Gaulle's
provisional
government in Paris began airdropping French agents into
Indochina
with the aim of recruiting and training guerrilla forces
to harass
the Japanese and maintain a French presence. These agents
readily
found supporters in Laos, and soon Franco-Laotian
guerrilla groups
were operating from jungle camps scattered from Louang
Namtha
Province in the north to Champasak Province in the south.
On March
9, 1945, however, the Japanese carried out a coup de force
that
overturned the 1940 political agreement and ended French
administrative control throughout Indochina. Having the
Indochinese
rulers renounce their treaties of protectorate with France
formed
an integral part of Japanese plans, but no steps were
taken to
prepare the Laotians or others for "independence."
Data as of July 1994
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