Word: souvanna
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Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D-Mont.) was another softliner on a number of issues. The day after Kennedy's inauguration, Mansfield relayed to him Laotian Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma's complaints about U.S. overreaction to Laotian communists and obstruction of Phouma's neutralist policy. "These shortcomings, in my opinion, exist not only in Laos but elsewhere in comparable situations around the world," Mansfield added...
...affairs, information, public works and transportation, economic planning, tourism and religion. (Nearly all Laotians are Buddhist, including most of the Communists.) The top post of Premier will go to an individual who is "not affiliated with either one of the two parties." He is certain to be neutralist Prince Souvanna Phouma, 72, who has ruled Laos, if anyone can be said to have done so, for 17 of the past 20 years. A permanent government is to be chosen in general elections, though no date is mentioned. King Savang Vatthana, who is revered by leftists and rightists alike, will remain...
Both Communist and non-Communist Laotians are looking to Souvanna Phouma for guidance. He is expected to shortly announce the convening of a joint commission charged with carrying out the peace agreement. According to Souvanna, the coalition government will be formed by Oct. 10. He believes that the threat of a Communist takeover in Laos has been exaggerated. "The Laotian people," he confided to friends, "are too easygoing to be Communists...
Hard-lining Thao Ma found himself nearly alone. Instead of rallying to him, the army and its officers at first were confused and disorganized. America's chargé d'affaires, John Gunther Dean, exploited this hesitation with quick, decisive action. He saw that Souvanna was rushed to a secure and secret hiding place. Then Dean sped from one group of generals to another, consulted with the Pathet Lao, and even confronted Ma at the airport. Everywhere his message was the same: the U.S. would not abandon Souvanna and would not support the rebels. Since the Laotian armed forces...
...open truck. Later, he was executed by an officer who fired a .45-cal. bullet into his temple. The government rounded up eleven other plotters and also shot them. Ironically, the coup's failure could hasten the kind of Laotian peace that it sought to prevent. Souvanna has emerged with his position strengthened by the firm support of the U.S. and the army...