Kong Le

Captain (later Major General) Kong Le (Lao: ກອງແລ; 6 March 1934 – 17 January 2014 ) was a paratrooper in the Royal Lao Army.

Kong Le was born on 6 March 1934 to Lao Theung parents and spoke Phu Tai.

He stood 1.57m tall and was a slender but muscular man.

His ethnic origin showed in his wide cheekbones and dark skin.

He acquired an excellent command of French, as well as knowing functional English.

His father died in 1940, leaving the six-year-old to farm rice.

He received a little formal education at the Savannakhet Lycee before enlisting in the Royal Lao Army circa 1951.

He showed enough martial promise to be included in the third Officer Candidate School class at Dong Hene.

In 1957, he underwent Scout Ranger training at Fort William McKinley, the Philippines.

After returning to Laos, he was trained by Kopassus.

Upon his return to Laos in 1958, he joined 2ème bataillon de parachutistes (Parachute Battalion 2) as its second in command.

During his early paratroop service, he befriended two other officers who would become important in Laotian history, Vang Pao and Thao Ma.

He led the premier unit of the Royal Lao Army, 2ème bataillon de parachutistes (Parachute Battalion 2), which campaigned relentlessly during 1959 and 1960.

In December 1959, Captain Kong Le was approached by his uncle-in-law, General Ouane Rattikone while the commanding officer of BP 2 was in the United States, leaving Kong Le in charge.

On 25 December 1959, the term of the National Assembly expired.

General Phoumi Nosavan convinced Kong Le of the necessity to fill the political vacuum.

The 25 December coup in Vientiane succeeded without harming anyone.

General Phoumi became the Minister of Defense and held actual power over the Royal Lao Government thanks to the captain.

Kong Le's unit, 2ème bataillon de parachutistes (Parachute Battalion 2), was considered the cream of the Royal Lao Army.

As such, they were constantly deployed for a year, went unpaid for months at a time, and lacked time to even build themselves barracks for shelter.

The paratroopers became mutinous.

The same vital points were seized as in the 1959 coup, with the addition of the arrest of General Sounthone Pathammavong, the Chief of Staff, as Kong Le seized power for the second time.

Kong Le's aims in seizing the capital became apparent in his radio broadcasts:

"What leads us to carry out this revolution is our desire to stop the bloody civil war; eliminate grasping public servants and military commanders ... whose property amounts to much more than their monthly salaries can afford. ... It is the Americans who have brought government officials and army commanders, and caused war and dissension in our country."

Phoumi Nosavan did not acquiesce.

On 10 August, he flew to Bangkok.

He solicited support from his first cousin, Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat, the dictator of the Kingdom of Thailand.

The idealistic young American-trained Lao Theung officer became known worldwide when on 10 August 1960 he and his mutinous paratroopers overthrew the Royal Lao Government in a coup d'état.

He declared he aimed at an end to government corruption; to the shock of American officials, he declared U.S. policies were responsible for the ongoing fraud.

Once ousted by the U.S.-backed 14 December 1960 countercoup by General Phoumi Nosavan, Kong Le and his paras retreated to the strategic Plain of Jars, gathering recruits to the neutralist cause along the way.

Once established on the Plain as the Forces Armées Neutralistes (Neutral Armed Forces), this third side in the Laotian Civil War would begin to splinter as neutralists began to favor either the Communist or Royalist forces.

On 10 August 1960, Kong Le led the paras in a coup that saw only six killed.

In April 1963, the Patriotic Neutralists broke off to ally themselves with the communist Pathet Lao, while Kong Le engineered a rapprochement with the Royalists for FAN.

Over the next couple of years, FAN's battle performance in support of the Royalists was poor; especially striking was their inability to overcome a Vietnamese communist stronghold overlooking the FAN main base at Muang Soui's all-weather airfield.

As Kong Le's subordinates became increasingly dissatisfied, and FAN units began to mutiny, he was forced to leave Laos on 17 October 1966.

He would remain in exile in Indonesia, Hong Kong, the United States, and France.

He died in the latter on 17 January 2014.

He graduated 19th in his class of 21.

He was noted for his changeable temperament and rapid mood swings.

Kong Le's first assignment after OCS subordinated him to Captain Ouane Rattikone in Luang Prabang.