Word: phoumi
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Anywhere else in the world, the U.S. would rush to back a stubborn antiCommunist leader. In Laos the situation is different. For months the U.S. has been trying to nudge the country's leading antiCommunist, General Phoumi Nosavan, and his protege, Prince Boun Oum, into a coalition government with "Neutralist" Prince Souvanna Phouma and pro-Communist Prince Souphanouvong. Reason: the U.S. is convinced that De fense Minister Phoumi (whom it once backed) and his Royal Laotian Army could never win a war against the Communist guerrillas, now considers its best hope is to make Laos into a neutral buffer...
Last week the U.S. got weary of Phoumi's rearing and backing, and hit him where it hurt: in the pocketbook. Leary of outright sanctions, the U.S. put the pressure on by failing to deposit the regular monthly aid payment of $4,000,000 with the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York. With a straight face, U.S. officials announced that "administrative snags" caused the delay. The U.S. aim: to make Phoumi and Boun Oum go to Geneva for more talks with the permanent international conference on Laos. But Phoumi was not about to buy a plane ticket for Geneva...
Meanwhile, General Phoumi Nosavan, the stoutly anti-Communist commander of the Royal Laotian army, was delighted with the stalemate and did all he could to prevent the princely meeting. His reasons: he faces almost certain loss of his post as Defense Minister under a coalition government, and he generally distrusts the idea of a neutral Laos. Phoumi argues that the Geneva accord is a trap to get U.S. troops out of Laos, while the Red cadres from North Viet Nam will simply melt into the countryside, later return to the attack. The U.S. is in the difficult position of trying...
...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...