Word: phouma
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...flying visit to the Plain of Jars, Neutralist Premier Souvanna Phouma managed to arrange a shaky cease-fire between the Pathet Lao and Kong Le's neutralists. Though sporadic artillery duels still pockmarked the plain, there were no outright Red attacks, and the neutralists lost no new territory. But hostilities threatened to erupt from another quarter. Around the perimeter of the plain, right-wing General Phoumi Nosavan was reinforcing his positions, and in the foothills behind the Pathet Lao lines, tough, well-armed Meo tribesmen, who have no love for the Reds, posed a dangerous threat to Communist supply...
Fleeing Neutralists. The week began with a desperate flight to the plain by Neutralist Premier Souvanna Phouma, who hoped it still might be possible to arrange a cease-fire between the Communist Pathet Lao and Neutralist Army Chief Kong Le. Things seemed cheery enough as the opposing leaders embraced and their troops exchanged cigarettes. But. as one neutralist put it, "we exchange cigarettes during the day and bullets at night." All too true. Hardly had Souvanna departed when the truce abruptly collapsed...
Pressure from Two Quarters. Kong Le's retreat caused consternation in Vien tiane. With his left-right-center coalition fast coming unstuck, Premier Souvanna Phouma was fearful that Kong Le's troops would join forces with a right-wing army just southwest of the Plaine des Jarres and launch a joint counterattack against the Reds that would surely precipitate civil war. Desperately he appealed to Britain and Russia, overseers of the Geneva agreement, for quick intervention to stop the Pathet Lao's flagrant violations of the ceasefire...
Heart in France. Last week Kong Le was desperately urging his old right-wing foes to send troops to his aid on the Plaine des Jarres. But ineffectual neutralist Premier Souvanna Phouma feared that any such determined action might unglue his tottering left-right-center coalition. Souvanna could not even keep order in Vientiane, where last week another top neutralist-the second in a fortnight-was gunned down in his own house. "I don't know which foot to dance on," said Souvanna plaintively. "I wish I was on the seashore in France with my family...
...charged Quinim with trying to overthrow the government and bribing neutralist officers to defect to the Pathet Lao forces encamped in the Plaine des Jarres, where at week's end fighting broke out that caused 20 casualties. Asked if he agreed that Quinim had been proCommunist, Premier Souvanna Phouma replied simply: "He is dead. Peace to his soul...