Oudone Sananikone

Major general Oudone Sananikone (Ûdon Xananikôn), was a Laotian senior officer of the Royal Lao Army (French: Armée Royale du Laos – ARL), the land component of the Royal Lao Armed Forces (French: Forces Armées du Royaume – FAR), the official military of the Kingdom of Laos from 1950 to 1975.

Life and career A member of the aristocratic Sananikone family, he was born in 1919 in Vientiane. In 1945, he joined the Lao Issara movement. Returning to Vientane in 1950, he joined the Lao National Army. He supported General Phoumi Nosavan's 1960 coup. In 1969, Sananikone was promoted to the rank of Major general. He fled Laos in May 1975, shortly before the communist takeover. He settled in the United States, where he died in 1984.