Word: phoumi
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...threatened civil war between Kong Le and those who opposed his coup. King Savang Vatthana accepted as his Premier Kong Le's candidate for the job: Neutralist Prince Souvanna Phouma. As his part of the bargain, Prince Souvanna turned around and named as his Interior Minister General Phoumi Nosavan, leader of the anti-Kong Le faction. Everybody seemed relatively happy with the arrangement, at least for the moment...
Ranged against Kong Le and Prince Souvanna was ex-Defense Minister Gen eral Phoumi Nosavan, 40, whose hastily organized "Committee Against the Coup d'Etat" still holds the royal seat of Luang-prabang and is apparently keeping the King under something close to house arrest. Last week, after a quick trip to Thailand, whose strongly anti-Communist government loudly distrusts Kong Le & Co., General Phoumi turned up in the southern Laotian town of Savannakhet with a brand-new radio transmitter and a vow to chase Kong Le out of the capital...
...response to Phoumi's call a flurry of local army commanders hurried in to consult. Beating time to reedy pipe music as he presided over a table laden with Scotch whisky and French wines, Phoumi assured a reporter that his troops were racing the Pathet Lao Communists through the roadless jungle to the capital, added earnestly: "If you let the Pathet Lao into the government, they will organize and work hard and sooner or later they will control the whole country...
Though the new Premier was the personal choice of Laos' military strongman, General Phoumi Nosavan, he owed his job primarily to Red Prince Souphanouvong, the mustachioed Pathet Lao leader who jumped jail near Vientiane a fortnight ago and rejoined his comrades in the jungle. Facing the probable flareup of guerrilla activity, Laos' heavy-lidded politicians decided that desperate situations require desperate measures, even electing the best...
While troops stood guard through the capital city of Vientiane and three armored cars stood outside the royal palace, the military junta drove to a meeting in five sleek, black Mercedes and designated General Phoumi Nosavan, 39, Inspector of Armed Forces, as the military strongman of Laos. A government official, urging newsmen to remember that Laos was a Buddhist and basically peaceful country, said: "Please don't dramatize the situation. It's a coup d'etat Laotian style, and not on the South American level. It's all en famille. No bloodshed...