Phoumi Nosavan (27 January 1920-1985) was a Laotian military strongman who, as a Major-General in the Royal Lao Army, dominated the anti-communist government of Laos during the Laotian Civil War.
Biography[]
Phoumi Nosavan was born in Savannakhet, French Indochina in 1920, and he served as a French civil servant before taking part in the resistance movement against the Japanese occupiers during World War II. From 1946 to 1949, he was exiled for his opposition to the French return to Laos, but he returned to Laos in 1950 and became Chief of Staff of the Royal Lao Army in 1955. From 1957 to 1958, he was educated in France, where he made his first CIA contact.
On 25 December 1959, he took over Vientiane in a bloodless coup and became the military strongman in charge of the country, using his power as Defense Minister to dominate Laotian politics for the next six years. From 1961 to 1963, he annoyed the United States by assuming that they would support his brash military operations, and his army's performance deteriorated.
In 1964, he was stripped of troop command after attempting to come back to power in a military coup, and he went into exile in Thailand in 1965 after another failed coup. He died in Bangkok in 1985.