Losing Vietnam: How America Abandoned Southeast Asia

6. Laos

6 Laos On 21 February 1973, not a month after the 28 January signing of the Vietnamese cease-fire agreement, the Royal Laotian government (RLG) and the communist-inspired Lao Patriotic Front (LPF) signed an agreement on the restoration of peace and reconciliation in Laos. The agreement ushered in a period of major political and military changes in Laos. The most dramatic consequence was the rapid diminution of both the frequency and intensity of military hostilities.280 Conflicts, which had totaled 225 in the first week following the agreement, were reduced to only five per week by August. Casualties of the RLG armed forces were reduced from sixty killed in the first week to two per week by April. T-26 aircraft sorties lowered from 610 in March to only 6 in December . However, in the LPF zone the North Vietnamese maintained an estimated fifty thousand troops, who had full control over the upgrade and maintenance of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. North Vietnam was the major supporter of the LPF troops. Politically, the agreement prescribed a framework for settlement. It stipulated that a new provisional government of national unity (PGNU) and a joint national political council would be formed. Working deliberately and steadily the RLG and LPF improved prospects for the general acceptance of a new coalition government. Ultimately, Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma, a neutralist, moved to form a coalition government; he formed a PGNU cabinet on 5 April 1974, and there appeared to be an even balance of forces. The Vientiane side (RLG) blocked several communist initiatives, such as the recognition of Sihanouk’s GRUNK and the Viet Cong Provisional Revolutionary Government. One aspect of the agreement was to authorize the LPF to station twenty-five hundred Pathet Lao troops in both Vien- 318 Losing Vietnam tiane and Luang Probang, to neutralize the situation there. The LPF took advantage of its lawful presence in the capital to cultivate students and labor organizations and to foster and exploit dissatisfaction. In early 1975, the coalition government appeared to be operating satisfactorily, with cooperation between the Vientiane side and the LPF in carrying out the various governmental projects.281 However, the LPF managed to covertly spread student dissension in Ban Houei Sai and Thakhek (just across the Mekong River from Nakhon Phanom), where the LPF used its forces to quell student demonstrations although they were within the Vientiane side’s zone. But generally, the situation was quieter and both sides were making progress in the effective functioning of the PGNU. In Laos, the developments in Cambodia and South Vietnam, although they had no immediate military consequences for the nation, did embolden the LPF with the possibility of adopting much tougher positions and produced a serious despondency on the Vientiane side.282 The subsequent falls of Phnom Penh and Saigon very negatively affected the morale of the Force Armée Royales officers.283 Since the agreement, U.S. military assistance had fallen from $274.7 million in FY 73 to about $80.0 million in FY 74. Junior RLG officers were more concerned with the lack of strong leadership in the army than the reduction of U.S. aid and presence. Just as in Cambodia, here they also contrasted what appeared to be a disciplined communist force supported by the North Vietnamese with their own less disciplined organization. As anticipated, LPF militant actions did increase. On the morning of 9 May, several organizations had assembled in Vientiane at the Monument for War Dead, when a group of 150 students began marching around it with signs and banners chanting slogans, among them, “Americans Go Home, Down with the CIA.” They marched to the American embassy, where, under cover of rocks and bricks, several scaled the embassy gates and tore down the American flag.284 That started a series of events that culminated on 13 May with an attack on the USAID compound in Luang Probang, where the protesters broke windows and destroyed whatever they could get their hands on.285 All Americans employed by our government left that city. On the same day, demonstrations spilled over to Savannakhet, where USAID employees and dependents were held hostage. Laos 319 At a 14 May PGNU cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Phouma accepted the resignations of most of the key Vientiane cabinet members: the foreign minister, defense minister, deputy public works minister, and deputy foreign affairs minister. Additionally, Gen. Vang Pao (the MR-2 commander...