Word: souphanouvong
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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...
...attempted to start the conversation with a topical question. "Tell me," he asked: "What does the youth of today think of Anatole France?" Two Brothers. At about the same time as the future King, two other princelings returned from France. Prince Souvanna Phouma, 59, and his half brother Prince Souphanouvong, 48, belonged to a remote branch of the royal family. Both studied civil engineering in Paris and won high marks. Prince Souvanna, upon his return, slipped easily into the crowd of sleek sybarites who for the past six years have flitted in and out of office...
...Prince Souphanouvong, dazzled by his exposure to French socialism, turned left. He moved to Hanoi, married a Vietnamese girl, began consorting with the Viet Minh revolutionists, who were plotting the overthrow of Indo-China's French masters. In 1949, he set off on a 40-day trek through the northern jungles to a rendezvous with the brilliant Viet Minh ex-schoolteacher and field commander, General Vo Nguyen Giap. Over a bottle of warm champagne, which Giap bragged had been "taken from the body of a dead Frenchman," Giap explained how guerrilla warfare worked...
...peasants as your eyes and ears and your main source of supply," he urged Souphanouvong. "Before cooking each meal, peasant women must take a handful of rice and put it in a basket. Even in hard times, they won't miss it, and you'd be surprised how soon it mounts up." Even children could be trained to deliver messages or carry grenades. As for the mountain tribesmen, "Teach them to shoot, guide them in killing a French soldier and, by implicating them in a crime, you implicate them in the war." Above all, counseled Giap, keep away...
...Zeal. The history of Laos since then has revolved around the fact that the central Laotian government has never been able or energetic enough to defeat Souphanouvong in war. or to deal with him in peace. The princelings who took over in Vientiane, led most often by Prince Souvanna, were not dedicated nationalists or zealous patriots toughened in a struggle for freedom from their colonialist masters-France had simply handed Laos its independence with chaotic haste in the closing days of its Indo-China disaster. By Geneva's rosy terms, the Pathet Lao were supposed to be integrated into...