The Best of Cambodia & Laos

1950, an offshoot of pro-Vietminh Issara
came into being. It was dubbed the Pathet
Lao. The main figure behind this was Lao
Prince Souphanouvong, who became the
focus of Lao resistance to the French and
president of the Naeo Lao Issara or Free
Laos Front. The real power, however, lay
with hard-core Communists Kaysone
Phomivane and Nouhak Phoumsavan. In
1953, the Vietnamese revolutionary forces
of Ho Chi Minh entered northern Laos in
a drive to take Luang Prabang, although
they were stopped by the French. It was to
prevent this happening again that the
French built a remote military base at
Dien Bien Phu in the mountains of North
Vietnam and it was here that they were to
meet their nemesis in Indochina. Surrounded
by the Viet Minh under the military
genius from Hanoi, General Giap,
pounded by heavy guns dragged over
Phomvihane, the Gentle Revolutionary
incredibly rough terrain, supplied by
intermittent airdrops, the French were
beaten and surrendered.
INDEPENDENCE
Under the Geneva conference of 1953
France granted independence to the countries
of Indochina, including Laos, with
the Franco-Laos Treaty of Amity and Association.
This set up the scene for conflict
between the Pathet Lao and the newly
formed Royal Lao Government. They
came increasingly to rely on American
support while the Pathet Lao retained
close ties to, and were sponsored by, North
Vietnam. The government was led by
Prince Souvanna Phoumma while the
Pathet Lao was led by his half bother,
Prince Souphanouvong. They patched up
an agreement on joint government, but it
fell apart in 1958.
Kaysone Phomvihane was a very low-key revolutionary. Born Nguyen Cai Song in
what is now Savannakhet Province in southern Laos, his father was Vietnamese
and his mother was Lao.
He went to law school in the 1940s in Hanoi, but dropped out early in order to
join the struggle against the French. In 1955 he was an important figure in the
creation of LPRP at Sam Nuea in northern Laos, and he then went on to serve as
the Pathet Lao leader, although Souphanouvong, known as the “Red Prince,”
acted as the figurehead.
In the following years, it was Kaysone who led the Communist forces against
the Kingdom of Laos and the Americans. The old regime fell without the same
degree of bloodshed seen in Cambodia and Vietnam, a result of both his military
and diplomatic skills. After the Pathet Lao victory, he served as Prime Minister
from the founding of the Lao PDR in 1975 until 1991, when he became president.
Although Kaysone was a lifelong committed old-school Communist, he was
also a pragmatist. It was he who initiated the necessary economic reforms at the
end of the Cold War when Soviet power in the region ceased to be. Though
revered in Laos, Kaysone has failed to receive the kind of posthumous international
fame that sees the image of Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara printed on
T-shirts. If you want to find out more about him, the National Museum in Vientiane
(p. 228) displays plenty of black-and-white photos of him in action, both
young and old.
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LAOS IN DEPTH 9
LOOKING BACK