Word: phoumi
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...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...
Peasants & Politicians. Virtually all of northern Laos that remained under government control was the Mekong River valley-and that was fast going. General Phoumi Nosavan and most of the members of Premier Boun Oum's Cabinet flew their wives and children downriver to the relative safety of Phoumi's southern headquarters in Savannakhet. Chinese merchants and those Laotians who could afford it sent their families across the Mekong into Thailand. In the villages surrounding Vientiane, peasants resignedly dug foxholes. Said one: "This war is not our business." The one thing the peasants clearly wanted...
...General Phoumi Nosavan, the one Laotian resolved to keep Communists out of the government at all costs, believes that the prince means what he says. Prince Souvanna Phouma doesn't believe him-on the ground that Souphanouvong is his half brother and therefore couldn't possibly be proCommunist...