Living with the Pathet Lao
ABRAMS, ARNOLD
THE UNEASY COALITION Living with the Pathet Lao by Arnold Abrams Vientiane The mountain Kingdom of Laos, long known to natives as the "Land of a Million Elephants" but often mocked by foreigners...
...Upon his return, Souphanouvong established residence in Luang Pra-bang, the royal capital 125 miles to the north, and an estimated 1,800 of his troops were stationed in and around Vientiane...
...Fine," said the official, "but on the bill you put a higher figure, okay...
...All this has boosted morale among Rightists, who have rallied in a political grouping called the Vientiane Front, and their American supporters, who at one time envisioned a decade's efforts and untold millions of dollars going down the drain within a few months...
...The 72-year-old Prince, a genuine neutralist who commands both sides' respect, is considered the only figure capable of keeping some semblance of balance between them...
...He has named the ranking Leftist member of his Cabinet, Foreign Minister Phoumi Vongvichit, as acting Premier until he recuperates...
...The change has been dramatic here in Vientiane, now the seat of Laos' third coalition government...
...Why, we'll be able to live with these people after all," he said...
...Indeed, the extent to which most Laotians support the current effort to restore national unity was vividArnold Abrams regularly reports in these pages from Southeast Asia...
...THE UNEASY COALITION Living with the Pathet Lao by Arnold Abrams Vientiane The mountain Kingdom of Laos, long known to natives as the "Land of a Million Elephants" but often mocked by foreigners as the "Land of a Million Irrelevants," has emerged as the envy of Indochina: the only nation of that strife-torn area where peace has taken hold...
...They are Lao," says one dealer...
...Though his recovery-like the country's future-remains in doubt, little concern abotu Laos' labyrinthine political affairs is evident among the populace...
...The question concerned their physical presence...
...Nor do the Vientiane policemen who serve on joint patrols with them...
...Moreover, the Front's chances of ultimately taking total political control, good from the outset, were boosted by Premier Souvanna Phouma's heart attack in mid-July...
...Watching the Laotians' emotional outpouring for the titular head of the enemy faction, one recalled that many South Vietnamese also mourned the death of Ho Chi Minh...
...This has become an emotional issue with us, especially for the students," explains one Vientiane resident...
...More significantly, it is felt, Pathet Lao authorities seem to be gradually cultivating a taste for the capitalistic perquisites of high office, like air conditioners, large cars and fat salaries, and they are learning how to acquire them...
...Many Laotians resent these obviously evasive tactics, and their inability to influence Hanoi's policy has only fueled their resentment of the continued North Vietnamese troop presence...
...Many students had their fathers and olders brothers killed in the war, and they know who did most of the killing...
...Recognition of this popular sentiment has almost certainly influenced relations between Souvanna and Souphanouvong, his 62-year-old half-brother...
...Clad in baggy combat fatigues, soft caps and sneakers, the Communist troops initially jarred Vientiane with their tough appearance and combat capability: They carry newly issued Chinese AK-47 automatic rifles, sometimes with fixed bayonets, and grenades...
...The Communists, questioned at length about their widely known failure to live up to their end of the bargain, were forced into clumsy dodges...
...No right-thinking Lao could criticize such fine national goals...
...After presenting the program, the Pathet Lao sent their troops and political cadres to work in small villages surrounding Vientiane and Luang Prabang...
...The occasion-capping 13 months of negotiations and marking the start of the new coalition-saw thousands of normally placid citizens mob the airport for his arrival, surge along his motorcade route and cheer him with a heartfelt zeal that stunned Vientiane officialdom and the entire foreign diplomatic corps...
...In their words, they were introducing themselves and explaining the 18-point manifesto to rural inhabitants...
...When the Ambassador looks out his office window," notes an official, "he sees an armed Pathet Lao guard staring back at him...
...At first, the Pathet Lao's apparently austere ways and honest outlook caused as much consternation here as their armed presence...
...Pathet Lao ministers in the evenly divided Cabinet backed the request, of course, but they could not push the measure past their aroused, suddenly stubborn opponents...
...Under the official title of Lao Patriotic Front, the Leftists have gained considerable control over the governmental machinery and formulated coherent domestic and foreign policies...
...The proprietor, uncertain how to handle this new customer, gave him a reasonable price...
...In practice, it has sought a far more powerful role...
...But a serious flaw soon appeared in the Pathet Lao political facade: the continued presence of an estimated 30,000 North Vietnamese troops on Laotian soil...
...ly demonstrated by the rousing reception given Prince Souphanou-vong, the Pathet Lao leader, when he returned here last April after 10 years in retreat near the North Vietnam border...
...It has been basically a matter of bending with prevailing political winds, for the diligent and disciplined Pathet Lao have seized the initiative against their illorganized opponents in the uneasy coalition...
...If Vientiane residents have not come to love their long-time enemies, they at least have learned to live with them...
...If human frailties of this kind are being given undue weight, it is perhaps because the Pathet Lao chiefs have shown themselves to be adroit political maneuverers...
...Are there North Vietnamese troops in Laos...
...It turned out, however, that the incident signaled something less than an all-out drive against crime...
...Thus in mid-May the Council presented an 18-point program calling for a "peaceful, independent, neutral, democratic, united, and prosperous Laos...
...later, recounting the incident to close friends, he roared with laughter...
...A. No...
...In theory, the JNPC, headed by Souphanouvong, is merely supposed to furnish broad policy recommendations for the Cabinet, headed by Souvanna...
...Such fears peaked in early June, when a joint patrol raided a Vientiane hotel noted less for luxurious accommodations than for its gambling facilities, and arrested 42 persons...
...Yet the shifting of the conflict this spring from the military battlefield to the political arena was welcomed by virtually all Laotians, a people not noted for its martial spirit...
...Now the 18-point JNPC program seems unlikely to clear the Cabinet-whose meetings were suspended after Souvanna's heart attack-without major revisions, and so it remains to be seen what form the Leftist proposals will ultimately take...
...But thus far they have generally kept to themselves, maintained a low profile, and caused no trouble...
...paramilitary personnel were gone, along with some 20,000 American-paid Thai mercenaries...
...Typical were the responses of Chanpheng Bounnaphol, an English-speaking Pathet Lao official in the Ministry of Information, who recently submitted to questioning by this corresepondent: Q. Are there North Vietnamese troops in Laos...
...One of those caught was the wife of a high-ranking Army officer who, as is common here, was supplementing his income with illegal activities...
...Such sentiments ultimately produced an indirect rebuke of Hanoi by the coalition government in June...
...Long accustomed to lax law enforcement, participants in the capital's many shady enterprises went into near-panic, wondering how they would be able to operate under the revamped police, half of whom actually took their work seriously...
...A long-time local resident, the printer assented without batting an eyelid...
...The atmosphere is coolly correct as the six-to-eight-man teams make their rounds...
...By dint of military power (mainly North Vietnamese) and negotiating ability, they had gained control over nearly half of the population and three-quarters of the landlocked nation's territory...
...If all the U.S...
...Q. Have you looked...
...Today pro-Communist Pathet Lao ministers hold half of the Cabinet seats while their soldiers serve with local police on joint patrols along the city's streets...
...Embassy...
...Both men, despite their ideological convictions, have been popularly regarded as above all else nationalists dedicated primarily to the cultural and political integrity of their homelands...
...A. The principal question really concerns U.S...
...now they were trying to win over the remaining populace, most of it concentrated on the Vientiane plain...
...This restraint preserved the framework of Laotian unity established by the 1962 Geneva Accords...
...But they didn't, and while nobody can say for sure that they won't win in the long run, at least it's still a ballgame...
...They now occupy five large villas here, some of them near the U.S...
...If the Pathet Lao had gotten their way in these debates," observes one American official, "the whole ball-game would have been pretty much over...
...We have no problem getting along with them...
...We just want what the peace agreement says-All foreign troops out...
...policy...
...Overt friendship is not evident, but neither is outright hostility-which represents progress...
...While no love has ever been lost between the two, Souvanna—unlike South Vietnam's President Nguyen Van Thieu and Cambodia's President Lon Nol-never outlawed his pro-Communist opposition...
...Yet reading between the proposal's high-sounding lines, most analysts concluded that its implementation would produce, among other things: press censorship, increased economic control, a Communist-style militia, and diplomatic recognition of the liberation movements in Vietnam and Cambodia...
...Q. But that was not the question...
...The action came in response to a North Vietnamese request for Laotian support of Hanoi's demand that American troops and planes be pulled out of neighboring Thailand...
...Following several heated Cabinet sessions, it too was shelved because the Rightists once again would not yield...
...Within only months of entering the government they forced postponement of the National Assembly session, gained control of the 42-member Joint National Political Council (JNPC), and began pressuring it to assume the legislative functions of the Rightist-dominated Assembly...
...In any case, the Pathet Lao did their work well, keeping their efforts low-key, careful not to behave like an occupation force...
...Q. Well, they reportedly are still stationed in this country...
...A. I believe the North Vietnamese are not the aggressors in Laos...
...According to their opponents, the Communists were indoctrinating unsophisticated peasants (who constitute the majority of Laos' approximately 3 million people...
...To be sure, tensions still run high, internal stability remains tenuous, and there is clear danger of a Communist takeover...
...The raid had resulted from a tip to police by a fellow officer with personal grievances against his casino-operating colleague...
...when the time came to stop shooting and start compromising, both sides could create a third coalition from the ashes of the two previous attempts...
...It was the North Vietnamese, not Pathet Lao, and we don't want them remaining here...
...The dusty administrative capital's languid pace of life was never directly affected by the decade-long war, but its traffic flow was being increasingly interrupted by flag-draped funeral processions bearing the bodies of young men killed in the fighting...
...Do you believe those reports...
...Shortly afterward, a request for diplomatic recognition by South Vietnam's Provisional Revolutionary Government suffered a similar fate...
...In their off-duty hours, they occasionally saunter along the capital's streets-Always in groups of two or three-stopping to exchange small talk with sidewalk merchants...
...Under the terms of the peace agreement, ail foreign troops were to have been withdrawn from the country by June 5; by that date, several hundred U.S...
...A. I haven't seen any...
...For example, a Communist official recently ordered a batch of business cards from a printing shop in Vientiane...
...and Thai military would withdraw, there would be no problems at all...
Vol. 57 • September 1974 • No. 17
