Laos: The Three Princes

Laos last week teetered between hope, farce and failure.

In Geneva, the 14-nation conference on Laos (which includes Red China and the U.S.) reached surprising agreement on 1) withdrawing all “foreign forces” from Laos; 2) the guaranteeing of the withdrawal by Great Britain and the Soviet Union; and 3) the granting of more authority to the International Control Commission (Poland, Canada, India) in investigating violations of neutrality. The major catch: the agreement cannot go into effect until Laos gets a new government, and attempts to form one were mired in petty haggling and intrigue.

King Savang Vatthana had designated three princes to form a coalition: Communist Prince Souphanouvong, “Neutralist” Prince Souvanna Phouma, and pro-Western Prince Boun Oum. Boun Oum invited the others to meet with him in the capital city of Vientiane; they agreed, on condition each could bring no troops and 30 advisers, but Boun Oum would allow a total escort of only 120, soldiers included. And so it went.

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 to back both a neutralist course for Laos and General Phoumi, who in turn would undoubtedly get a more respectful hearing for his uncompromising stand if in a year of fighting, his U.S.-equipped army had not been badly whipped by the much smaller Russian-equipped Pathet Lao. A U.S. official gave his version of General Walter Bedell Smith’s diplomatic axiom: “You don’t win at the conference table what you’ve lost on the battlefield.”

At week’s end “Neutralist” Prince Souvanna Phouma, who has already been named Premier of the still-to-be-formed coalition government, entertained visitors at his country house near Xiengkhouang. His victory, says the prince, is “inevitable,” and he has already invited Russian technicians to study a 100,000-kw. power plant for Xiengkhouang, and asked Red North Viet Nam to build him a small hotel and houses for the diplomatic corps. He added genially: “I am encouraged by U.S. and Russian agreement on a neutral Laos.” As he spoke, grey Ilyushin transports lumbered overhead on their way to land oil and military supplies.