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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Laos
Index
War had broken out in the meantime between the French
and Ho
Chi Minh's government at the end of 1946. Leaving Nouhak
in charge
of the resistance committee, Thao O set up his base at Con
Cuong
(Vietnam), from which his men could cross the border into
Laos with
relative impunity. In January 1949, Kaysone formed the
first unit
of a new resistance army, the Latsavong detachment, named
after the
latsavong of Vientiane, who had led resistance
against the
Siamese in the nineteenth century. To lend the resistance
the
appearance of authority it lacked in reality, a government
headed
by Souphanouvong was formed at a congress held in Vietnam
in August
1950. This government included Kaysone, Nouhak, Tiao Souk
Vongsak,
and Phoumi Vongvichit.
The congress created the Free Laos Front
(Neo Lao Issara--see Glossary).
The basic stance of this front's propaganda was
the
united struggle against the French without reference to
political
parties or ideology. Illustrative of this stance was the
use
henceforth of the name Pathet Lao
(Lao Nation--see Glossary).
Indicative of the "single battlefield" theme repeated in
Viet Minh
propaganda were the increasing numbers of Viet Minh agents
sent to
Laos: 500 to 700 political and military agents at the end
of 1946
and the beginning of 1947, approximately 5,000 to 7,000
agents at
the end of 1950 and the beginning of 1951, and 17,000
agents in
1953.
In keeping with the united front against the French,
Souphanouvong's Pathet Lao government included not only
leaders who
had developed close ties to the Viet Minh over the
previous five
years, but also members of the Lao aristocracy (such as
Souphanouvong himself) and former officials of the RLG.
Significantly, the Pathet Lao government also included two
representatives of Laos's tribal groups who were made
ministers
without portfolio.
By 1950 both Kaysone and Nouhak had become members of
the ICP.
The party's strategy was to operate clandestinely behind
broad
national front organizations such as the Viet Minh and the
Neo Lao
Issara that were capable of mobilizing support from people
for whom
Marxism-Leninism held no appeal. This strategy applied
particularly
to Laos, where issues such as land reform and other
aspects of
class struggle, antithetical to the notion of Buddhist
harmony, had
almost no appeal. The overthrow of the monarchy, which had
figured
as a goal in the ICP program since 1932, was also not
publicized.
Although the ICP had announced its dissolution in 1945,
it
continued to operate secretly. In February 1951, at its
second
congress, the ICP decided to split into separate parties
for each
of the three countries---Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia--in
accordance
with the need to mobilize mass support for the anti-French
war
throughout Indochina. At this time, of 2,091 ICP members
in Laos,
only thirty-one were Laotians. The Laotian members of the
ICP were
"transferred" to a new party whose name reflected its
Laotian
constituency but that was still tied to the two other
parties of
the ICP in the new triad.
The decision to form a new party led to considerable
discussion
among noncommunist Pathet Lao supporters unfamiliar with
Leninist
strategy. In the second half of 1954, an important meeting
of
Pathet Lao leaders was held near the Houaphan Province
border,
where the need to establish this new party to ensure
success of the
struggle in the postwar period was explained. Some
participants
supported this proposal; others did not. Proponents of the
new
party met in secret. The Phak Pasason Lao (Lao People's
Party--LPP)
was formally established on March 22, 1955. The very
existence of
the party was kept a secret from nonparty people.
By 1951 enough Pathet Lao troops had been recruited and
trained
to take part in Viet Minh military operations against
French Union
forces in Laos. In the spring of 1953, the Viet Minh
overran almost
all of Houaphan Province and portions of Phôngsali,
Xiangkhoang,
and Louangphrabang provinces. Approximately 300 Pathet Lao
accompanied the Viet Minh. On April 19, Souphanouvong
formally
established the Pathet Lao government in Houaphan
Province. A
"people's tribunal" presided over by Kaysone condemned the
acting
province chief to death for having helped organize
guerrilla
resistance to the invaders.
With Louangphrabang in danger of Viet Minh occupation,
Crown
Prince Savang Vatthana received a letter from the United
States
chargé d'affaires in Saigon, Robert McClintock, expressing
concern
for the king's safety and saying that withdrawal from the
capital
"would seem the course of wisdom." Savang said that the
king
intended to stay to bolster morale for the defense of his
capital.
At the end of 1953 and beginning of 1954, the Viet Minh
again
invaded Laos, pushing as far as Thakhek and creating
considerable
difficulties for the French Union defenders. Their
appearance
seemed timed to coincide with the sale of the opium crop
in
Houaphan and Xiangkhoang provinces.
In elections to the National Assembly held on August
26, 1951,
the National Progressive Party (Phak Xat Kao Na) formed by
the
returned Lao Issara ministers, Xieng Mao, Souvanna Phouma,
and
Katay Don Sasorith, won fifteen of thirty-nine seats. The
Democratic Party (Praxathipatay) of Kou Voravong and his
brotherin -law Major Phoumi Nosavan won four seats; the National
Lao Union
(Lao Rouam Samphan) of Bong Souvannavong won three; and
seventeen
seats went to independents that included Phoui Sananikone
and Leuam
Insixiengmay. Xieng Mao having failed to form a
government, Prince
Souvanna Phouma headed a government that was invested on
November
21. The Franco-Lao Treaty of Amity and Association on
October 22,
1953, removed the last strictures on independence.
Data as of July 1994
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