Prince Souphanouvong was the first President of the People's Democratic Republic of Laos, from its establishment in December 1975 until March 1991, when he left office. Souphanouvong had been a prominent figure in the Laotian revolutionary movemen t fromthe end of the Pacific war, when through an initial association with the Vietnamese Communist leader, Ho Chi Minh, he sought to mobilise opposition to the return of French colonial rule.
Souphanouvong was a most unlikely revolutionary. He was born in Luang Prabang in 1909, the youngest of the 22 sons of Prince Boun Khong, the uparat or regent in the royal house. His best-known half-brother was the late Prince Souvanna Phouma, who enjoye d a parallel career until 1975 on the anti-Communist side of Laotian politics. The two half-brothers served as interlocutors for their respective constituencies, holding out the hope during the 1960s and into the early 1970s that their fraternal link migh t provide a basis for political compromise to end the Laotian civil war. Prince Souphanouvong never wavered, however, in his commitment to the Laotian revolutionary movement and to its special relationship with its mentor, the Communist Party of Vietnam.