1973 Laotian coup

Part of Laotian Civil War

Date	20 August 1973
Location	Wattay International Airport, Vientane, Laos
Result	Coup fails, Thao Ma executed

Belligerents

Thao Ma loyalists

Souvanna Phouma loyalists

Commanders and leaders

Thao Ma

Bounleuth Saycocie

Sourith Don Sasorith

Strength

Appx. 60

Unknown

Casualties and losses

10 killed
14 captured

10 killed

The 1973 Laotian coup was a final attempt to stave off a communist coalition government of the Kingdom of Laos. Exiled General Thao Ma returned from the Kingdom of Thailand on 20 August 1973 to take over Wattay International Airport outside the capital of Vientiane. Commandeering an AT-28, he led air strikes upon the office and home of his hated rival, General Kouprasith Abhay. While Thao Ma was unsuccessfully bombing Kouprasith, loyal Royalist troops retook the airfield. Shot down upon his return, Thao Ma was hauled from his airplane's wreckage and executed. The coalition agreement was signed 14 September 1973.

Political factionalism within the upper ranks of the Royal Lao Army led to a series of coups in the Kingdom of Laos during the Laotian Civil War of the 1960s. When Phoumi Nosavan was forced into exile in February 1965, he could no longer use his influence to shield the officers in his rightwing faction. General Thao Ma, commander of the Royal Lao Air Force was one of those officers; he also went into exile in the neighboring Thailand, after his unsuccessful 1966 coup failed to take over the kingdom.

In 1973, former Laotian General Thao Ma was living in exile in Bangkok, Thailand, where he worked as an air dispatcher for Air France for $270 per month. By the beginning of August, a deal was being thrashed out for a coalition government that would include the Laotian communist insurrectionists. Several Royal Lao Army officers traveled to Bangkok to keep Thao Ma posted on events. Rumors of a potential coup by Thao Ma began to surface in the Laotian capital of Vientiane.

Despite the advance warnings, Thao Ma managed to surprise the populace of Vientiane. At 05:00 on 20 August 1973, he and about 60 of his followers boated across the Mekong River into the capital. Thao Ma was greeted enthusiastically by RLAF personnel at Wattay Airport, and began handing out blue and white scarves of allegiance to his followers. While Bounleut Saycocie took an armored car into town to secure the radio station, other rebels captured the bank and Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma's vacant house. At 07:00, Bounleut began broadcasting anti-communist communiques from the insurrectionists.

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Wikipedia