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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Laos
Index
At the reconvened Geneva Conference, the Neutralists
were
represented by Quinim, the rightists by Phoui Sananikone,
and the
Pathet Lao by Phoumi Vongvichit. The separate delegations
served
until they agreed on forming a unified government to sign
the final
agreement. All Laos's neighbors were represented, as were
the three
ICC member countries and their cochairmen, and the United
States
and France.
The summit meeting between John F. Kennedy and Nikita
Khrushchev in Vienna on June 3-4, 1961, coincided with the
crisis
over the North Vietnamese-Pathet Lao cease-fire violations
at the
besieged Hmong outpost of Padong. The Hmong abandoned
Padong in
early June and established a new base at Long Chieng.
Kennedy
protested North Vietnam's involvement to Khrushchev and
pointed out
that the United States was supporting Laos's neutrality.
Both
leaders agreed that the conflict in Laos should not bring
their two
countries into confrontation. The idea of neutralizing
Laos had
been suggested to Kennedy as early as January.
For the next year, an enormous effort of persuasion
involving
all the great powers went into getting the Laotian parties
to agree
to form a coalition government. The effort included
meetings among
princes Souvanna Phouma, Boun Oum, and Souphanouvong in
Zurich and
Vientiane and protracted diplomatic consultations in
Vientiane,
Xiangkhoang, Rangoon, Moscow, Paris, and Geneva.
Phoumi finally had to be disabused of the notion that
he could
count on unqualified United States and Thai support. Sarit
favored
supporting the negotiation policy. Phoumi favored peace
but felt
that Souvanna Phouma was the wrong choice to lead a new
government.
W. Averell Harriman, the intermediary, and a United States
delegation held a tense and acrimonious meeting with
Phoumi and his
cabinet at the general's office in Vientiane. Phoumi
repeated his
opposition to Souvanna Phouma, and Harriman warned him he
was
leading his country to disaster. The meeting ended
inconclusively.
Phoumi further demonstrated his intransigence by building
up his
forces at Nam Tha, a town in northwestern Laos without
strategic
importance, thereby inviting attack. When the North
Vietnamese and
Pathet Lao attacked, camouflaging their violation of the
cease-fire
with the usual propaganda about mutinies in the opposing
ranks, the
defenders fled toward the Mekong, leaving most of their
weapons
behind. Phoumi may have hoped the debacle would
precipitate Thai or
United States armed intervention, but it did not. In the
end, he
agreed to the coalition.
Souvanna Phouma's new government took office on June
23, 1962,
the second coalition in Laos's modern history. In
accordance with
the principle of tripartism, seven cabinet seats were
allocated to
the Neutralists, four seats each to the rightists and
Pathet Lao,
and four to nonparty people. The rapprochement between
Souvanna
Phouma and Kennedy was manifested by the former's visit to
Washington in July at the conclusion of the Geneva
Conference.
Unlike in 1954, representatives of each of the fourteen
participating nations signed the final document, the
Declaration on
the Neutrality of Laos and its Protocol.
Data as of July 1994
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