actions led to further tensions between the government and the Sangha. This was quickly exploited by the Pathet Lao. Two underground movements, with Pathet Lao support was founded to fight against American and government influence in the affairs of the Sangha. They were the "Movement of Young Monks against the Thai Thammanyut monks" and the "Movement of Novices to Demand their Rights". In addition, many members of the Sangha were already pre-disposed to anti-government propaganda of the Communists due to the "inverse class structure" of the Sangha. Under the French administration, the Lao elite was educated in secular schools. The poor could only be educated in the monasteries. Jobs in the government were offered to the French-educated elite; those who were educated in monasteries were denied jobs in the government on the grounds that their religious education was irrelevant for government jobs. Many of those students who were educated in the monasteries had to remain as monks and they harboured grudges against the government. This was aggravated by the fact that many members of the Sangha, especially those in rural areas only received a rudimentary education and were ill-disciplined. They only had a flimsy knowledge of the Dhamma and were susceptible to Marxist manipulations of Buddhism. Sangha as an organ of propaganda During the Lao Civil War, the Pathet Lao actively used members of the Sangha in their propaganda campaign. For example, a seized Pathet Lao document dated 14 January 1968 reports how the Pathet Lao had sent out thirty-three monks "to preach revolutionary ethics….to protect Buddhism, to revive the real morality, to explain the revolutionary tasks to the people, and to resist the psychological warfare of the American imperialists and their reactionary lackeys". According to the Pathet Lao, members of the Sangha could be transformed into revolutionaries. This is because the monk has renounced material possessions and is no longer motivated by selfish personal interests. The monk was seeking the betterment of humanity. As such, the monk could not stand idly by and allow the oppression of the common people. To allow such injustice was a betrayal of Buddhism. The Pathet Lao also officially accepted Buddhism in the zones under their control. With the proclamation of the Lao People's Democratic Republic on 2 December 1975, the Pathet Lao needed to establish their legitimacy to rule, especially in zones that used to be controlled by the rightists. They actively promoted