Kou Voravong
The political crisis caused by his assassination, barely two months after the Geneva Agreements which prepared to restore peace in Indochina, contributed to bring down the current neutralist government (pro-French) which was replaced by a progressive one (pro-American) in extremely tense atmosphere of the Cold War between Russia and the United States. From 1955 indeed, the political history of this small landlocked country fell trapped inexorably in the ideological confrontation between the capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union, annihilating any hope of national unification.
Kou Voravong
On September 8, 1954, at the initiative of the United States, a military organization SEATO was created. Equivalent of NATO in Southeast Asia, its official goal was to form a "quarantine line" against Communist expansion. It was decided by the authority that Cambodia, and Laos, considering their strategical position, belonged automatically to its protection zone. The defense minister Kou Voravong, supporter of strict application of the Geneva Agreements on the principle of neutrality prohibiting any military alliance, declined the protection of his country by the SEATO and refused to ratify the treaty, thereby blocking the American policy of containment towards the Communist expansion in Asia.