Laos, 1965 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
On 31 January 1965 two separate and simultaneous coups struck the Kingdom of Laos against the Royal Lao Government of Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma. General Phoumi Nosavan, the rightist strongman who had been stripped of troop command after earlier failed attempts, secretly assembled forces for a comeback, while Colonel Bounleut Saycocie independently mounted his own protest coup, briefly seizing the Vientiane radio station and infrastructure before his effort fizzled and his troops rejoined the government. General Kouprasith Abhay, the military region commander loyal to Souvanna Phouma, suppressed both risings.
He then turned on the national police force under Phoumi's protege Siho Lamphouthacoul, whom he distrusted, defeating and disbanding it in fighting that used artillery and improvised air strikes around Vientiane in early February. Both Phoumi and Siho ended their careers in exile in Thailand, removing the last serious rightist challenge to Souvanna Phouma's neutralist government.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
81201311965
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma's government survived; Phoumi Nosavan and Siho were defeated and driven into exile.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
Luttwak
Wikipedia
New York Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →