Word: laotians
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...cameramen shouted for a word in English. Beaming. Souvanna replied: "I cannot speak English. I can only say-it is all O.K.'' Souvanna's enthusiasm was shared in Moscow. Nikita Khrushchev fired off a cable to President John Kennedy hailing the creation of a neutral Laotian government as "good news" in the "cause of strengthening peace in Southeast Asia." In Washington the mood was appropriately cooler. Kennedy replied that settlement of the Laos problem was a "milestone," but added warily that it was "important that no untoward actions anywhere" interrupt the progress already made...
...agree, don't come back." In taking office as Premier. Souvanna will name Red Prince Souphanouvong and General Phoumi as Vice Premiers, and all three have agreed that major issues must be decided by a unanimous vote-a kind of Laotian troika. Four Cabinet posts (including Economics and Information) go to the Communists, and four others (including Finance and Education) to Phoumi's antiCommunists. Phoumi's longtime ally. Prince Boun Oum. will resign as Premier and retire from active politics to his meaningless lifetime post as Inspector General of the realm. The remaining eleven Cabinet posts...
...most left-wing of these neutralists is Foreign Minister Quinim Pholsena, a bookseller and politician who nurses a grudge against the U.S.. both for the previous machinations of the CIA and for alleged slights at the hands of U.S. diplomats. Quinim has the potential of developing into a Laotian Krishna Menon. but last week he was acting his affable best, assuring newsmen that the new Laos was happy to accept aid "without conditions" from East and West. Washington was swift to make its contribution: the payment of $3,000,000 a month to the Laos government-suspended last February...
Minded Store. The other neutralist ministers range politically from liberal to far right, including some who are as determinedly anti-Communist as General Phoumi himself. Biggest problem ahead is how to integrate the three rival armies: 1 ) Phoumi's 60,000 Royal Laotian troops, 2) Souphanouvong's 15,000 Communist Pathet Lao and 3) Captain Kong Le's 5,000 "neutralist" paratroops. Souvanna hopes to reduce the swollen army to the size of a national police force and to use the discharged troops in such public works as building roads, schools and dispensaries...
General Phoumi said progress had been made, and "I think in a few days we could have a formal announcement of a coalition government." Beaming Prince Souvanna added: "The conversations were held in an atmosphere tres amiable. It is truly 100% Laotian talking to Laotian." Red Prince Souphanouvong, leader of the Communist Pathet Lao forces, was delighted to face the TV cameras. In adequate English he predicted that the coalition government would mean "peace in Laos, a neutralist peace," and rejected the suggestion that it might lead swiftly to a Red takeover. When asked if he was a Communist, Souphanouvong...