Up for auction "Prime Minister of Laos" Prince Souvanna Phouma Signed First Day Cover Dated 1964.
ES-3097D
Prince Souvanna Phouma (7
October 1901 – 10 January 1984) was the leader of the neutralist faction
and Prime Minister of
the Kingdom of Laos several
times (1951–1954, 1956–1958, 1960, and 1962–1975). Souvanna Phouma was the son
of Bounkhong, the last vice-king of Luang Prabang and a nephew of King Sisavang Vong of Laos, given a French education in Hanoi, Paris and Grenoble, where he obtained his degree in architecture and engineering. He returned to his homeland in
1931, married Aline Claire Allard, the daughter of a French father and a Lao
mother, and entered the Public Works Service of French Indochina. Souvanna
Phouma, together with his brother, Prince Phetsarath Rattanavongsa (1891–1959)
and his half-brother, Prince Souphanouvong (1909–1995), around the end of World War
II, joined the Lao Issara (Free
Laos) movement established to counter the French occupation and its provisional
Vientiane government (1945–46). When the French reoccupied Laos, Souvanna fled
to exile in Bangkok, but returned to Laos in 1949 as France began
conceding autonomy to Laos. Souvanna Phouma and his wife had four children
including Mangkra Souvanna Phouma and
Princess Moune, who married Perry J. Stieglitz, cultural-affairs attaché of the
U.S. embassy. In 1951, Souvanna became Prime Minister of Laos under
the National Progressive Party banner
with a landslide victory, winning 15 of the 39 seats in the National Assembly. He was
prime minister until 1954. After elections in December 1955, Souvanna Phouma
returned to the prime ministership on a platform of national reconciliation. In
August 1956 Souvanna and the Communist Pathet Lao, which his half-brother Souphanouvong headed agreed on broad proposals for a
‘government of national union’. Elections for 21 extra assembly seats were
finally held in May 1958, with parties aligned with the Pathet Lao acquiring
13. Souphanouvong entered
the government as Economic Minister. Another Pathet Lao leader, Phoumi Vongvichit, also acquired a Ministry. In June 1958
Souvanna was again forced to resign by the rightists. The king accepted the
vote as legal the next day when he signed Royal Ordinance No. 282, dismissing
Souvanna Phouma's government and giving powers provisionally to the
Revolutionary Committee. Royal Ordinance No. 283, approved a provisional
government formed by Prince Boun Oum, who acted as front man for Phoui Sananikone. He was one of the Three Princes, whom Sisavang Vatthana appointed to form a coalition
government between the rightists and Pathet Lao but it collapsed, and the Laotian Civil War began.