UN General Assembly
1963

48. The events that have since taken place, I regret to say, have confirmed my worst fears. The coalition regime has proved itself a precarious one. The Pathet Lao leaders have shown no intention of abiding by the Geneva agreement. Fighting has been going on since last April. The Laotian Prime Minister, Prince Souvanna Phouma, in his speech before this Assembly on 21 September, made this abundantly clear when he said: "This war, willed and maintained from abroad, has been of a devastating nature. It is planned and promoted in quarters characteristic of the fact that certain countries have an interest in seeing our country a prey to disorder because, with such disorder, it would be possible to set up an authoritarian regime which nobody in Laos wants." [1210th meeting, para. 17.] Prince Souvanna Phouma said further: "Attempts to divide and undermine the purely symbolic forces placed under my authority have been organized and carried out by persons hostile to Laotian neutrality, the internal consolidation of which might run counter to their political ambitions." [Ibid., para. 23.]