Lao Issara
Phetsarath and other Lao nationalists then created the Lao Issara ("Free Laos") movement and took control of the country. The Lao Issara provisional assembly under Phetsarath proclaimed the deposition of the King and appointed Phetsarath as "Head of State". As the French retook control of Laos, Phetsarath fled in April 1946 to Thailand, where he led the Lao Issara government-in-exile. The group was dissolved in 1949 and its former members were allowed to return to Laos under amnesty.