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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Laos
Index
The stunning success of the LPF and its allies in
winning
thirteen of the twenty-one seats contested in the May 4,
1958,
elections to the National Assembly changed the political
atmosphere
in Vientiane. This success had less to do with the LPF's
adroitness
than with the ineptness of the old-line nationalists, more
intent
on advancing their personal interests than on meeting the
challenge
from the LPF. The two largest parties, the Progressive
Party and
the Independent Party, could not agree on a list of common
candidates in spite of repeated prodding by the United
States
embassy and so split their votes among dozens of
candidates. The
LPF and the Peace (Santiphab) Party carefully worked out a
strategy
of mutual support, which succeeded in winning nearly
two-thirds of
the seats with barely one-third of the votes cast.
Souphanouvong
garnered the most votes and became chairman of the
National
Assembly. The Progressive Party and the Independent Party
tardily
merged to become the Rally of the Lao People (Lao Rouam
Lao).
In the wake of the election fiasco, Washington
concentrated on
finding alternatives to Souvanna Phouma's strategy of
winning over
the Pathet Lao and on building up the Royal Lao Army as
the only
cohesive nationalist force capable of dealing with the
communists'
united front tactics. On June 10, 1958, a new political
grouping
called the Committee for the Defense of the National
Interests
(CDNI) made its appearance. Formed mainly of a younger
generation
not tied to the big families and as yet untainted by
corruption, it
announced a program for revitalizing the economy, forming
an
anticommunist front that excluded the Pathet Lao,
suppressing
corruption, and creating a national mystique.
Washington, which was paying the entire salary cost of
the
Royal Lao Army, was enthusiastic about the "young turks"
of the
CDNI. This enthusiasm was not altogether shared by United
States
ambassador Horace H. Smith, who asked what right a group
untested
by any election had to set its sights on cabinet
appointments.
Whereas Souvanna Phouma tried and failed to form a
government,
creating a drawn-out cabinet crisis, Phoui Sananikone
eventually
succeeded and included four CDNI members and Phoumi
Nosavan in a
subcabinet post.
Data as of July 1994
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