Patriotic Neutralists

The Patriotic Neutralists were indirectly created by the 1960 coup d'état led by Kong Le. When the paratrooper captain captured control of the Kingdom of Laos in August 1960, he founded Forces Armee Neutraliste (Neutral Armed Forces) as a non-aligned third side in the Laotian Civil War; the other sides were the Communists and the Royalists. Captain Kong Le would subsequently lose both the Battle of Vientiane and control of Laos in December 1960, and retreat to the Plain of Jars. Once there, he was originally helped by the Pathet Lao communists, but turned away from them toward the Royalists. Dissatisfaction within his ranks would lead to a split in the neutralist movement in April 1963. The new pro-communist faction was the Patriotic Neutralists. ==Origin==

In April 1963, Lieutenant Deuane Sunnalath would lead a defection that established itself as a pro-communist neutralist force, the Patriotic Neutralists, as opposed to the pro-Royalist FAN. ==Joining the communists==

By the time of the 1964 coup, the Patriotic Neutralists had been largely absorbed into the Pathet Lao, although the two sides held the first of its biannual cooperative mock political congresses in 1964. On the Plain of Jars, the coup sparked further dissension in the Neutralist movement. Two of FAN's paratroop battalions—BP 4 and BP 6—favored siding with the communists. On 27 April 1964, as the Royalist garrison withdrew from Phou San, it was attacked and defeated by communist forces as nearby FAN units deigned to intervene. However, when Pathet Lao occupied the vacated strongpoint overlooking Kong Le's headquarters at Muong Phan, his Bataillon Parachutistes 5 unsuccessfully assaulted the mountaintop. Six days later, the third mountaintop position, on Phou Nong, also fell. The defeated troops split into two columns escaping in opposite directions, with the Royalists retreating southeast while FAN withdrew to the northwest. The American Special National Intelligence Estimate of 5 August 1965 credited the Patriotic Neutralists as an ineffectual force of 2,600 men. The Patriotic Neutralists established their headquarters within a known no-strike zone so that it could not be bombed by air strikes. The rules of engagement followed by the American forces within the Kingdom of Laos posited a 16 kilometer wide sanctuary along the border of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to avoid inadvertent attacks on the DRV. However, in October 1969, the American ambassador changed the rules of engagement; the protected border area was cut to eight kilometers. The Patriotic Neutralist headquarters lay in the newly exposed zone. At 0600 hours on 13 October 1969, one of the Raven FACs flying a T-28 Trojan directed a pair of F-4 Phantoms in a devastating raid on the headquarters. All of Deuane's subordinate officers were killed; however, he was in the DRV at the time. As the communists gained power toward the end of the Laotian Civil War, the Patriotic Neutralist front was still recognized as a separate organization. Some of its leaders were appointed to positions in the communist-dominated Provisional Government of National Union. Deuane Sunnalath was appointed as Deputy Minister for Education on 9 April 1974. That same day, Khamouane Boupha was named as Deputy Minister of Defense. ==Notes==