466. Memorandum From the Deputy Director of the Office of Southeast Asian Affairs (Kocher) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Robertson1
SUBJECT
- Formation of Cabinet in Laos
Souvanna Phouma succeeded today, August 9, in forming a six-man Cabinet, by a vote of 26 for (he needed 24), 8 against, and one abstention. Thus ended the 72-day Cabinet crisis in Laos. The lineup is as follows:
- Prime Minister, Defense and Veterans Affairs, Information—Souvanna Phouma
- Interior, Economy and Social Welfare—Katay
- Foreign Affairs, Public Works, Reconstruction, Urbanism—Phoui
- Finance and Planning, Justice and Religion—Leuam
- Education, Sports and Youth—Nhouy
- Public Health, Post and Telecommunications—Oudom
Reducing the Cabinet from 15 to 6 was a last effort to get around the constitutional provision which prohibits members of a prospective government from participating in the investiture vote. This provision, coupled with the requirement for investiture of a favorable two-thirds majority of Assembly members present (an abstention thus counting as a negative vote), gives disproportionate power to small parties and the double-cross. In this way Bong and his leftists and the minor Democrat party were able to defeat Katay or cause him to renounce the investiture attempt. Souvanna, by compressing his slate to the point where it contained only three Deputies (the three others are not Assembly members), increased the number of Nationalist (Katay and Souvanna) and Independent (Phoui) Deputies eligible to vote, thereby assuring a comfortable majority despite leftist and Democrat opposition.
Many Assembly members have told our Embassy at Vientiane that one of the first items of business will be revision of the unworkable article in the Constitution concerning the investiture vote, the Cabinet to be subsequently broadened to normal size. We cannot, however, count on this, since Souvanna in his investiture speech imposed on himself a deadline of about October 1 for presentation of a coalition government including the Pathet Lao to the Assembly. He [Page 964] may therefore wish to give first priority or at least simultaneous consideration to the Pathet Lao problem.
We of course want, and our Embassy will be working for, revision of the Constitution first as a means of bringing greater stability to the Lao Government and of staving off dangerous developments on the Pathet Lao score. But in any event, we may be permitted some small encouragement in that five of the six Cabinet members, all except Souvanna, are generally opposed to a soft policy toward the Pathet Lao, and Katay and Phoui particularly may be expected to rein Souvanna in.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 751J.13/8–957. Confidential. Drafted by Byrne.↩