Phoumi Vongvichit

▪ 1995

      Laotian political leader (b. April 6, 1909, French Indochina?—d. Jan. 7, 1994), was a longtime communist and a leader in the Pathet Lao (Land of Lao) revolutionary movement against French colonial rule; he eventually became acting president (1986-91) of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Phoumi reportedly was born into an affluent family and educated at Vientiane College. He joined Lao Issara (Free Laos) in 1950, and when the movement split in two in the mid-1950s, he was named deputy leader of the more radical Stalinist faction, Pathet Lao. In 1961 he represented the Pathet Lao in negotiations at the international peace conference in Geneva. For more than a decade thereafter, he served a series of coalition governments in such posts as deputy prime minister, foreign minister, and minister of culture and fine arts. When the Pathet Lao seized power in 1975, Phoumi became education minister, with jurisdiction over the "reeducation" of thousands of royalist supporters of the previous government. He was named interim president in 1986 after Prince Souphanouvong resigned that office, and he retired five years later.

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