In 1957 America spent more per head on Laos than anywhere else
The Kingdom of Laos existed for less than three decades, from 1947 until 1975. In that short life it drew extraordinary American support: in 1957 US aid worked out at $150 for every Laotian, double the typical yearly income. The monarchy still ended when its last king gave up the throne.
Laos sits at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, sharing borders with Burma, China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. A constitution in 1947 made it a self-governing kingdom inside the French Union, and the Franco-Lao Treaty of 1953 granted full sovereignty, with independence dated to 22 October 1953. Sisavang Vong became king of the new constitutional monarchy and Prince Souvanna Phouma prime minister.
The treaty left open the question of who should actually govern, and three princes competed for the answer. Souvanna Phouma led the neutralists, Prince Boun Oum of Champassak the right, and Prince Souphanouvong, allied with Kaysone Phomvihane, the leftist Pathet Lao backed by North Vietnam. A first unity government in 1958 lasted only two months. Under its terms the communists received two cabinet posts, with Souphanouvong made minister of planning, and 1,500 of his 6,000 fighters were to join the royal army.
The royal government leaned heavily on Washington. Part of the 1957 aid went to back pro-American election candidates and part to prop up the kip, the national currency. Between 1962 and 1971 the United States supplied roughly $500 million in military aid, including river patrol boats and landing craft for a small navy, and King Savang Vatthana met President Kennedy in 1963. France, Australia, Thailand, Burma and Japan also offered support. The state had a two-chamber legislature and an army, navy and air force run from Vientiane across five military regions.
None of it held back the Pathet Lao, which won the civil war. On 2 December 1975 King Sisavang Vatthana surrendered the throne, and the victors abolished the monarchy in favour of the Marxist-Leninist Lao People's Democratic Republic.
Source: Kingdom of Laos
