Souphanouvong

Prince Souphanouvong ( born July 13, 1909 in Luang Prabang; † 9 January 1995) was a Laotian politician. He was from 1950 head of the anti-colonial and pro-Communist Pathet Lao and 1975 to 1991 the first President of the Democratic People's Republic of Laos.

Life

He was born the son of the viceroy of Luang Prabang in Laos, Boun Khong, and his concubine Kham On. He was the younger half-brother of Prince Phetsarat and Prince Souvanna and shaped how these political events in his home country Laos crucial. Impressed by a meeting with Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi, he joined in the fight against Laos after the Second World War, returning to Indochina to French. He was a leader of the Lao Issara movement - and foreign ministers of the resistance government. After the Battle of Thakhek on March 21, 1946, when he was trying to escape on a boat across the Mekong, he was severely wounded by low-flying aircraft. He could still escape to Bangkok though.

He became famous under the name " The Red Prince" the leader of the pro-Communist Pathet Lao movement. In this role he was a member of the three coalition governments in Laos in the 1950s to the 1970s.

After the Pathet Lao in 1975 had taken power in the kingdom Laos, Souphanouvong became the first president of the Democratic People's Republic of Laos. In the Politburo of the Communist Party ( Lao People's Revolutionary Party, LPRP ) he had only held a low rank. The decision-making power lay rather in the hands of the Prime Minister and General Secretary of the party Kaysone Phomvihane.

Since 1986 Phoumi Vongvichit led the office as Acting President for the permanently sick Souphanouvong. After the adoption of the new Constitution on August 14, 1991 Kaysone Phomvihane was officially succeeded him as president.

Souphanouvong was married to the Vietnamese woman Nguyen Thi Ky Nam, with whom he had 10 children. One of his sons, Khamsay (* 1943), was from 1991 to 1995 Minister of Finance and member of the Central Committee of the LPRP. However, he fell out of favor with the party leadership in 2000 and fled to New Zealand.