Prince Souvanna Phouma, neutralist premier of Laos, gives speech sponsored by the South and Southeast Asia Center in the Clements. In what was his first speech in an American university, Prince Souvanna attacked communism and called for neutralism. The Laotian government were fighting the communist-dominated Pathet Lao rebellion at the time. Souvanna expressed gratitude to the US for helping “resist the insidious tide which is unfurling over that part of Asia and threatens to engulf all of us.”
