Neutralist leader and the last royal prime minister of Laos
In November 1975 the monarchy's last prime minister, with his half-brother Souphanouvong, went to King Savang Vatthana to ask for his abdication.
A Lao royal and politician who led the neutralist faction and repeatedly headed coalition governments between the right and the Pathet Lao. As the monarchy's last prime minister he led the third coalition government from 1974. In November 1975 he flew with Souphanouvong to Luang Prabang and persuaded King Savang Vatthana to abdicate, then resigned as the National Congress of People's Representatives opened. He remained an adviser to the new government and died in Vientiane in 1984.
Also known as: Prince Souvanna Phouma
Activities and affiliations
-
1950–1958
Lao National Progressive Party
Political and party leadership -
1951–1975
Laos state institutionsPrime MinisterMain
Government and administration
Career Timeline
- 1945Minister of Public Works, Lao Issara provisional government
- 1951–1954Prime Minister
- 1956–1958Prime Minister (national-reconciliation coalition)
- 1960National Assembly president and prime minister
- 1962Prime minister of the national-union government (Three Princes accord)
- 1974–1975Prime minister of the third coalition government
- 1975Resigned; adviser to the new government
Related historical events
- 1955–1975The Second Indochina WarNeutralist prime minister of LaosSought to keep Laos neutral but depended on US aid and consented to the bombing of the Ho Chi Minh trail from 1964.
- 1973–1975Establishment of the Lao PDRprocedural agent of the monarchy's endOn November 29 he flew with Souphanouvong to Luang Prabang to persuade the king to abdicate, and he resigned just after the congress opened on December 1.
Neutralism and coalition governments
Souvanna Phouma returned as prime minister in 1956, leading a coalition that included rightist representatives and members of the Pathet Lao. Souphanouvong, who headed the Pathet Lao, was his half-brother. The coalition collapsed in 1958, and civil war broke out between the right and the Pathet Lao. Souvanna briefly served as prime minister in 1960 and returned to the office during a truce in 1962. In the 1960s and early 1970s he sought to maintain Laos’s neutrality, but the widening Vietnam War constrained that effort, and the Vientiane government came to depend on U.S. military assistance. In February 1973 the Vientiane government and the Pathet Lao agreed to a cease-fire. A coalition government was formed in April 1974, and Souvanna remained prime minister until the Lao People’s Democratic Republic was established in December 1975.