Lao Issara - The Weaknesses of The Lao Issara Government

The Weaknesses of The Lao Issara Government

For six months, the Lao Issara government attempted to exercise its authority by establishing a defense force under the command of Phetsarath’s younger half-brother Souphanouvong, with the assistance from the Viet Minh government of Ho Chi Minh and the Chinese forces.

However, two events opened the way for the French reconquest of Laos: the modus vivendi agreed between Ho Chi Minh and the French government on 6 March 1946, and the agreement of withdrawal of Chinese forces. This left the Lao Issara government alone to fend for itself, and it became militarily weaker in comparison to the French.

Besides the inability to receive foreign aid, the Lao Issara was also crippled by other internal weaknesses.

The Lao Issara was a small urban-based movement, and was therefore unable to gain mass support from a tribal-oriented population. Its ideas of an independent Laos failed to appeal to the masses.

“As for the population, it was mostly silent, used to the established order and did not appear hardly concerned by this aspiration for the country’s independence, and personally I think that it was mostly loyal to the ancienne administration, that is to say, the French.” - Houmphanh Saignasith, the Secretary to the Minister of Economy

The Lao Issara also did not manage the finances of the country appropriately. The army itself incurred a high cost for its maintenance, and Souphanouvong refused to account for it. Within a very short period of time, the Issara government ran out of money to pay for its own running, let alone anything else. In an attempt to reign in fiscal expenditure and inflation, the Minister of Finance, Katay Don Sasorith, issued new money in early 1946, which quickly became known as ‘Katay’s dried banana leaves’ for the poor quality of the paper on which is was printed and its uselessness.

The Lao Issara, bankrupt and ill equipped, could only await the inevitable French return. At the end of April 1946 the French took Vientiane, by May they had entered Luang Prabang, and the Lao Issara leadership fled into exile in Thailand.