Kong Le

Captain Kong Le (Lao: ກອງແລ; 6 March 1934 – 17 January 2014) was a Laotian military officer and prominent military figure in Laos during the 1960s. He led the premier unit of the Royal Lao Army, the 2nd Parachute Battalion, that played a significant role during the first phases of the Laotian Civil War. The idealistic young American-trained officer became known worldwide when, on 10 August 1960, he and his mutinous paratroopers overthrew the Royal Lao Government in a coup d'état. Le declared that he aimed to end the 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 fellow putschist officers retreated to the strategic Plain of Jars, gathering recruits to form a rebel group that would be known as the Neutral Armed Forces (FAN). However, this rebel group would begin to splinter as its members began to favor either the Communist or Royalist forces in the Laotian Civil War. 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.