Major General Sourith Don Sasorith was a Royal Lao Government commanding officer during the Laotian Civil War. Appointed to command the Royal Lao Air Force on two occasions, he was also entrusted two other times with command of a Military Region. At the war's end in 1975, Sourith Don Sasorith was condemned to a communist re-education camp.
Background
The colonial army in the French Protectorate of Laos was one of Lao recruits and French officers and noncommissioned officers. Those few Lao promoted out of the ranks rose no further than command of a company. After the Kingdom of Laos gained its freedom in 1953, the few Lao with military experience were speedily promoted to much higher command positions than they were accustomed to. Many officers were also commissioned into the upper ranks from civilian life; they tended to gain their posts through family influence rather than training or ability. The few urban elite families who dominated Lao society felt it advantageous to have family members or friends in the military command.
Biography
Major General Sourith Don Sasorith was of Vietnamese-Lao heritage. He owed his appointment as a military officer to family connections; Katay Don Sasorith, his cousin, was the former prime minister of the Kingdom of Laos. Sourith commanded Bataillon Parachutistes 1 (Battalion of Parachutists 1) and Bataillon Parachutistes 2 (Battalion of Parachutists 2) of the Royal Lao Army. He also took command of the Lao Army Air Force in January 1958. Despite its name, it consisted of only a single composite squadron of mixed types of aircraft. A French major had been in charge; however, the language barrier between French and Lao had hindered training, as had the low educational level of the Lao airmen. Sourith was appointed because he was strict on discipline. His aviation command was additional to that of the paratroopers. At the time, there was one Lao pilot trained, but 36 more still in training; Sourith was not one of them.
Later, Sourith went to France and learned to fly light aircraft, but never progressed any further as a pilot. He flew little, and shunned advice from his American backers in the Programs Evaluation Office concerning the Royal Lao Air Force after his return to Laos. On 23 May 1960, the communist Prince Souphanouvong and his supporters fled imprisonment by the Royal Lao Government; Sourith and two companies of his paratroopers unsuccessfully pursued them. When Captain Kong Le took over the kingdom for General Phoumi Nosavan three months later, Sourith supported Phoumi.
In the wake of the Battle of Vientiane, Kong Le retreated from combat with the Royal Lao Army to the Plain of Jars. Appointed to command of Military Region 2, Sourith commanded forces attempting to contain Kong Le's Forces Armee Neutraliste (Neutral Armed Forces, or FAN) on the Plain. His failure to do so saw him relieved of that command on 13 January 1961.
He would play a similar role following the Battle of Luang Namtha. On 8 May 1962, he joined the routed RLA troops that had just fled Luang Namtha for Ban Houayxay. Sourith ordered the local ammunition dump blown up to prevent its capture by communist troops. The already demoralized Royalist soldiers panicked; some of them fled further south, into the Kingdom of Thailand. The senior American military adviser from the U.S. Embassy, which was supporting the RLA, concluded that the Royalist army completely lacked the urge for combat. However, Sourith continued command of Military Region 1 despite the defeat.