|
The fragile cease-fire declared on May 3, 1961 did not prevent the Pathet Lao from capturing Xépôn, an important crossroads on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, or put an end to the fighting in the Hmong country. By June
1961 an international crisis developed over the North Vietnamese-Pathet Lao cease-fire violations at the besieged Hmong outpost of
Padong. The Hmong abandoned Padong in early June and established a new base at Long
Chieng.
Meanwhile, rogue General Phoumi, leading
the further demonstrated his intransigence by building up his forces at Nam
Tha, a town in northwestern Laos without strategic importance, thereby inviting attack. When the North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao attacked, camouflaging their violation of the cease-fire with the usual propaganda about mutinies in the opposing ranks, the defenders fled toward the Mekong, leaving most of their weapons behind. Phoumi may have hoped the debacle would precipitate Thai or United States armed intervention, but it did not.
In the end, he agreed to the coalition. The 1962 Declaration on the Neutrality of Laos in Geneva,
signed by fourteen nations including North Vietnam and the United States, halted the Laotian
civil war, but only temporarily.
|
