Word: laos
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...years later, Phoumi led the first of five coups that have kept Laos in turmoil ever since. In April 1960 Phoumi's slate of candidates won handily in a rigged election, but the Pathet Lao were back in business as guerrillas, and the prospect of another long, bloody civil war faced the country. Then, in August 1960, Kong Le acted...
...wing government, although Phoumi had been his mentor in the army. Installing Prince Souvanna Phouma as Premier, Kong Le sat back hopefully and waited for neutralism to develop. But furious at what he considered a betrayal by his protege, Phoumi pulled his 60,000-man army down to southern Laos and set up his own revolutionary committee. Sporadic fighting between Phoumi's army and the Pathet Lao broke out. The neutralists were drawn ever closer to the Pathet Lao...
...myth of his invulnerability took on a new dimension during a festival in Vientiane, where an old woman fell into a trance on seeing Kong Le's photograph. "Setthathirath is returned!" she screamed. Setthathirath is a legendary king of Laos who disappeared in the 16th century while on a jungle expedition. The Lao believe that when Vientiane is in great danger, this hero-like Britain's King Arthur-will return to save them. To this day many Laotians believe Kong Le is Setthathirath. And although Kong Le embarrassedly shrugs the matter off himself, he is not so sure...
...failed him late in 1960 when Phoumi's rightists-led by a rising young colonel named Kouprasith Abhay-defeated the neutralists in the Battle of Vientiane and forced Kong Le and his men north to the Plain of Jars. There, Kong Le's alliance with the Pathet Lao was cemented, and when the neutralist-led troika headed by Souvanna was established at another Geneva conference in July 1962, Kong Le was still firmly allied with the Communists...
Then came the betrayals. The Pathet Lao began wooing Kong Le's men, mounting quick, vicious infantry actions against his positions on the Plain of Jars in hopes of grabbing territory. When a Pathet Lao gunman shot down Kong Le's top deputy, the idealistic neutralist was well on his way to becoming a fervent antiCommunist. The Reds pulled out of the coalition government when a left-leaning minister was assassinated by a neutralist soldier...