ABSTRACT
We left Laos in Chapter 3 at the point when the coalition had been reconstituted, but on terms unusually favourable to the Pathet Lao, in the shadow of a pending US withdrawal from South Vietnam. Under the agreement signed at Vientiane on 21 February 1973 the ministries of the Provisional Government of National Union (PGNU) were distributed 50:50 between the two sides (and whatever side a minister belonged to, his deputy would be from the other). Prince Souvannaphouma was to remain Premier. There was to be a forty-two member National Political Consultative Council (NPCC), also divided equally between the two sides, and empowered to make proposals for legislation (though not to insist on their acceptance if PGNU gave sufficient reasons for not accepting). PGNU and NPCC were described as two ‘independent and equal’ organs cooperating under the King. The two capitals – the administrative (Vientiane) and the royal (Luang Prabang) – were to be jointly policed.1 The prediction of one academic observer2 that Prince Souphanouvong (Chairman of the Lao Patriotic Front) would become head of NPCC, not a Vice-Premier in the cabinet, was borne out when finally, over a year later, after barracks had been built for the PL police and army units and a balance of forces established in the capitals, the ‘Red Prince’ arrived at Vientiane to an emotional airport reunion with his half-brother.3
