Kaysone Phomvihane

Biography

Kaysone was born Nguyễn Cai Song (although he also used the name Nguyễn Trí Mưu for a short period in the 1930s) in Na Seng village, Khanthabouli district, French Indochina (now Kaysone Phomvihane District, Savannakhet Province, Laos). His father, Nguyễn Trí Loan, was Vietnamese and his mother, Nang Dok, was Lao. He had two sisters: Nang Souvanthong, living in Thailand, and Nang Kongmany, who lived in the USA.

He attended law school at the University of Indochina in Hanoi alongside fellow future revolutionary Nouhak Phoumsavan, but dropped out to fight the French colonialists in Vietnam. Later, he joined the Pathet Lao movement.

He became an active revolutionary while studying in Hanoi during the 1940s, establishing the Lao People's Liberation Army (LPLA) on 20 January 1949 and becoming the Minister of Defense of the Resistance Government (Neo Lao Issara) from 1950. In 1955, he was instrumental in setting up the LPRP at Xam Neua in the north, and subsequently served as the Pathet Lao leader. For several years, he mostly stayed in the background, with Prince Souphanouvong serving as the Pathet Lao's figurehead. In the years which followed, he led communist forces against the Kingdom of Laos and U.S. forces.

Kaysone came out of the shadows in December 1975, shortly after the Pathet Lao took Vientiane, and seized control of the country. At a National Conference of People's Representatives that opened on December 1, Kaysone declared the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic. The following day, on a motion by presiding officer Kaysone, the National Conference accepted King Sisavang Vatthana's abdication, abolished the monarchy, and proclaimed the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Kaysone nominated Souphanouvong as first president, while he was named prime minister, which he held until becoming president in 1991. Along the way, he married Thongvin Phomvihane.

Under Kaysone's watch, the process of demarcating the border between Laos and Vietnam started in 1977 and finished in 2007. According to Western journalists, the border is "very close" to the 1945 French-made border between Laos and Annam.

According to Vatthana Pholsena, assistant professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore and author of the book "Post-War Laos", Kaysone was "the top policy maker and a strongman in the LPDR". He created Sekong Province to honour the southern minority for their support in the war effort.

Kaysone died in Vientiane on 21 November 1992, after spending the last year of his life with cancer. After his death, the government of Laos gave him a state funeral with Buddhist rites and built a museum in his honor, partially funded by Vietnam.

In 2012, his cremated ashes were transferred from their original resting place to the newly built National Cemetery. The cemetery is not open to tourists.