- Kaysone Phomvihane
Kaysone Phomvihane (
December 13 ,1920 –November 21 ,1992 ) was the leader of theLao People's Revolutionary Party from 1955, thoughSouphanouvong served in a figurehead role. He served as the first Prime Minister of theLao People's Democratic Republic from 1975 to 1991 and then as President from 1991 until his death in 1992.Biography
Phomvihane was born in
Na Seng village ,Khanthabouli district nowKaysone Phomvihane District ,Savannakhet Province , Laos. His mother was Vietnamese, his fatherLaotian .cite web |url=http://www.nndb.com/people/365/000095080/ |title=Kaysone Phomvihane |accessdate=2007-09-10] [ [http://countrystudies.us/laos/85.htm Lao People's Revolutionary Party - LPRP] ]Phomvihane attended law school at Hanoi University in
Hanoi, Vietnam . He dropped out of law school to fight the French colonialists who were in Vietnam. Later, he joined thePathet Lao , which was also fighting the French colonialists.He died in
Vientiane , Laos. After his death, the Laotian government built an eight million dollar gold-plated museum in his honor, in Vientiane, partially funded by Vietnam,cite web |url=http://www.culturalprofiles.net/laos/Units/163.html |title=Former President Kaysone Phomvihane Memorial Museum |accessdate=2007-09-10 |work=Visiting Arts, Laos Cultural Profile] with a 30 foot, cast-iron, statue of Phomvihane as a middle-aged pot-bellied gentleman in a tight-fitting suit in front of the building. cite news |first=Owen Bennett |last=Jones |title=Laos: 25 years of communism |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/1092752.stm |publisher=BBC News |date=Saturday, 30 December, 2000, 13:16 GMT |accessdate=2007-09-10 ]He became an active revolutionary while studying in the Indochinese capital of Hanoi during the 1940s. In 1955 he was instrumental in setting up the LPRP at Samnuea in northern Laos, and subsequently served as the Pathet Lao leader, although Souphanouvong served as the figurehead. In the years which followed he led communist forces against the Kingdom of Laos and the Americans. After their victory he served as Prime Minister from the founding of the Lao PDR in 1972 until 1991. He married to Thongvinh Phomvihane, an ethnic Vietnamese. They were childless, but had adopted a son. After his death, the Lao communist party relieved his wife of her party membership, over allegations of heroin trafficking, apparently using her diplomatic status to transport heroin into Vietnam several times.
Phomvihane displayed expert skills in handling relations with Vietnam. On occasions there were disagreements over Lao-Viet border issues. Lao and Vietnamese forces almost clashed over their common border. The Lao communist party chose the tactic of ignoring and delaying over Lao/Viet border issues. The demarcation process started in 1977 and just finished in 2007. According to western journalist the Lao/Viet borderline is "very close" to the 1945 border between Laos and Tonkin and Annam, respectively.
According to Vatthana Pholsena, Assistant professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, the author of the book "Post-war Laos" Kaysone Phomvihane was the top policy maker in LPDR, and a strongman. He created Sekong province to honor the southern minority for their support on the war effort.
References
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