Word: phoumi
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...went glimmering. In a candy-striped tent on the Lik River, at meetings punctuated by toasts in champagne and burgundy, "Neutralist" Souvanna was selected Premier by two fellow princes, his Communist half brother Souphanouvong and the dispirited pro-Westerner, Boun Oum. Worse, it seems evident that U.S.-supported General Phoumi Nosavan will be fobbed off with a minor cabinet post-or with none at all. His Royal Laotian Army is better trained and equipped than it was at the time of the cease-fire last May. But the most optimistic Western observers doubt whether it is yet a match...
...China's Foreign Minister Marshal Chen Yi contemptuously: "I cannot understand why the United States is trying to win at a conference what it has already lost on the battlefield." With the talks thoroughly deadlocked, U.S. Delegate Averell Harriman invited the pro-Western Minister of Defense, General Phoumi Nesavan. and "Neutralist" Prince Souvanna Phouma to Washington, apparently hoping to get them together on some kind of acceptable coalition government. General Phoumi came, talked to President Kennedy, Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. But Prince Souvanna, who has visited Russia twice in recent months, politely declined...
...Vientiane, but only because the Pathet Lao withdrew. The Pathet Lao took the small town of Tha Thom in central Laos after the royal army fled. U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Harry Felt himself flew into Udon to try to buck up the pro-Western army chief, General Phoumi Nosavan-but with no noticeable results. Complained one military man in Vientiane: "This is war, dammit, but the Laotians are just not willing to risk getting killed. They don't think past tomorrow, and many not even as far ahead as tonight." In the event of a major attack...
...staged an exasperated and successful revolt last August against the current pro-Western Laotian government, he installed Souvanna as Premier as the Laotian who most deeply believed that Laotians should not fight each other. Outraged when Souvanna again began dickering with his Communist half brother, another army man, General Phoumi Nosavan, organized a rebellion in his turn. Souvanna begged the Russians for help, then fled into exile at a flower-trimmed estate in Cambodia...
Souvanna has done better in exile than most Laotian premiers have done in power. The Russians (and the Pathet Lao) still recognize him as the "legitimate" government of Laos-despite the fact that a majority of the Laotian legislature approved the installation of Prince Boun Oum as General Phoumi's candidate for Premier. Unofficially, the British, French and Indians have let it be known that they consider Souvanna the best of all possible Laotians. Two weeks ago, Souvanna took off on a junket to seek support in the world's capitals...