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On 2 December 1975, the Pathet Lao firmly took over the government, abolishing the monarchy and establishing the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Shortly thereafter, the Pathet Lao signed an agreement with Vietnam that allowed Vietnam to station part of its army in the country and to send political and economic advisors into Laos.
The change in emphasis can be judged by the fact that in 1967, the U.S. sank 431,000 troops into the Vietnam theater, at a fiscal cost about 700 times as great as the budget for the Lao war. As the Hmong irregulars joined the Royal Lao Army regulars in joint operations, the role of the hill tribes guerrillas began to mutate into that of light ...
The Laotian Civil War was waged between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government from 23 May 1959 to 2 December 1975. The Kingdom of Laos was a covert theater during the Vietnam War with both sides receiving heavy external support in a proxy war between the global Cold War superpowers.
In August 1950, Souphanouvong convened the first congress of the Lao Freedom Front (Neo Lao Issara), more generally known as the Pathet Lao, which served as the vehicle for the communist challenge to French rule. It emerged from the radical wing of the Lao Issara in 1950 after the split and was supported by North Vietnam.
The Vientiane Treaty was in some sense a corollary to the Paris Peace Accords, signed the month before, which had ended U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Just as the Paris Accords had mandated the withdrawal of all US forces in Vietnam, the Vientiane Treaty called for the removal from Laos of all foreign forces allied to each side.
North Vietnam supported the Pathet Lao to fight against the Kingdom of Laos between 1958 and 1959. Control over Laos allowed for the eventual construction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail that would serve as the main supply route for enhanced NLF (the National Liberation Front, the Viet Cong) and NVA (North Vietnamese Army) activities in the Republic of Vietnam.
A second Provisional Government of National Unity formed by Prince Souvanna Phouma in 1962 was unsuccessful, and the situation turned into civil war between the Royal Laotian government and the Pathet Lao. The Pathet Lao were backed militarily by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Viet Cong. [47] [46]
The raid on Ban Naden of 9 January 1967 was a successful rescue of prisoners of war during the Vietnam War. [1] The raid was improvised after local Central Intelligence Agency officers induced a Pathet Lao deserter to lead a rescue party back to the prison camp.