Kou Voravong
The attack occurred at approximately 22:15, at Phoui Sananikone's, an official residence nearby the Voravong family's. The attackers launched three grenades by one of the windows on the ground floor, in the dining room. They fired three or four pistol shots and then run away. Kou voravong, sitting with his back to the window, was directly hit by a bullet which came in by the kidney and out through the navel, after cutting the vena cava and crossed the liver and intestines. His dead is declared shortly after admission to hospital. A dozen people were injured by the explosion of the grenades, slightly for most of them.
Kou Voravong
Negotiations to form the 5th Royal Government were long and difficult. For more than a month, emotions ran high and exacerbated. The positions were violent, and some did not hesitate to exploit the recent attack and the Kou Voravong's murder to threaten their opponents. A two-thirds majority was necessary for a nomination, but no major political party came to get it. A compromise was reached between the two major parties: half members of former neutralist government – pro-French, favoring the strict application of the agreements signed at Geneva – and half members of the progressive opposition – pro-American, opposed to this same agreements – knowing that neither side was intending to grant concessions to the other. The Prime Minister's choice fell on the progressive Katay Don Sasorith to the detriment of his neutralist opponent Chao Souvanna Phouma, considered « far too leftist » by Americans who, recently, took over French in Lao political circles.