Kou Voravong
Kou Voravong grew up in Savannakhet and pursued a primary education there. He obtained the « certificat d'études primaires complémentaire indochinois » - Certificate of Indochinese Additional Primary Studies - (CEPCI) in 1930, went afterward to Vientiane and began his first-secondary-school year at the Collège Auguste Pavie. But because of a conflict which opposed him to French Colonial administration, his adopted father was sentenced to prison that same year. As reaction to this situation, Kou Voravong left school and returned to Savannakhet. As an out-of-school teenager, he practiced sports, especially soccer.
Kou Voravong
During the confrontations in 1946, Phoumi Nosavan had sided with Chao Phetsarath's Lao Issara Government. And then in the aftermath of the defeat, he took refuge in Thailand. Upon his return from exile in 1949, he joined the newly formed Lao National Army, created in March of the same year.