The Lao Elite

Author : Ryan Wolfson-Ford
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 567 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (123 download)

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Download or read book Ideology in the Royal Lao Government-era (1945-1975) written by Ryan Wolfson-Ford and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 567 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation presents a revisionist history of the Royal Lao Government (RLG) that seeks to reclaim Lao agency during a pivotal era in modern history. The Lao elite of the RLG were not merely instruments of foreign powers, but had their own set of complex motivations, rationales, and beliefs which shaped their thoughts and actions in a difficult period in Lao history. To fully understand the RLG one must take account of these important actors. One must also take domestic politics seriously. Finally, this study aims to contextualize key political movements which emerged in the RLG period to show these were not isolated groups, but were rooted in and a part of wider trends in society. This dissertation argues that democracy and anti-communism were central to the RLG. It locates the indigenous roots of both in the 1945 independence movement which emerged at the end of World War II, the Lao Issara. It then turns to a consideration of new elites who formed the Committee for Defense of National Interests (CDIN). The CDIN not only fundamentally altered democracy and anti-communism in the RLG, but also played a central role in the origins of the Second Indochina War in Laos. Finally, after 1962 it was the neutralists under Souvanna Phouma who took a leading role in the conduct of the war and the search for peace. While Souvanna Phouma is most often remembered as the champion of the neutralization cause of the 1950s he played a central role in all aspects of the war, including the US bombing campaign that devastated the country. Thus the Second Indochina War was a Lao war that the RLG elite fought to save the country from foreign invasion and defend the democracy they had built since 1945. This study thereby seeks to rehabilitate the Issara, the CDIN, the neutralists after 1962 as well as the rightwing more generally in the history of the RLG. These movements were fundamentally important, although misunderstood, actors of the period. This dissertation focuses on how cultural and intellectual trends influenced politics throughout the RLG period. The hypothesis elaborated in this dissertation is that there was an "RLG ideology" that was subscribed to by the elite of the civilian government and military. This ideology consisted of a belief in a Lao race that must be modern and foundational values of anti-communism and democracy. To study this ideology, I examine central themes in the RLG period including anti-communism, democracy, modernity, neutralism and post-colonial nationalism. Finally, by 1975 there were major forces within RLG society itself that supported the revolutionary overthrow of the government. These new elites coalesced around a coterie of young government civil servants and former Mittasone members to form a new political party, the Movement for the New Way, that played a leading role in the downfall of the RLG. Those who supported the revolution rejected the racialist regime in favor of a cosmopolitan tolerance of ethnic minorities touted by the Pathet Lao. Those sympathietic of the revolution also rejected close ties with the US in favor of peaceful coexistence with China and North Vietnam. Finally, they rejected anti-communism for neutralism. Yet behind each major social change of the RLG period there was a deeper generational conflict, which emerged in the late 1940s, late 1950s and early 1970s. This study above all attempts to write the history of the RLG on its own terms from the silenced voices of an anti-communist and democratic Lao past. Due to the nature of the sources available, this research necessarily privileges the perspective of the Lao elite, who were most prolific in authoring texts, thus leaving an important, though largely ignored, written record of the time. More importantly the Lao elite played a leading role in RLG history, which has been neglected in studies of the period, which prefer to focus almost exclusively on the US or France. One cannot fully understand the RLG without careful consideration of the elite. The West missed several important opportunities to collaborate closer with the elite that undermined the only anti-communist democracy in the history of the country.