Laotian Civil War

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. The fighting also involved the North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese, American and Thai armies, both directly and through irregular proxies. The war is known as the "Secret War" among the American CIA Special Activities Center, and Hmong and Mien veterans of the conflict.

The Franco–Lao Treaty of Amity and Association (signed 23 October 1953) transferred remaining French powers to the Royal Lao Government (except control of military affairs), establishing Laos as an independent member of the French Union. However, this government did not include representatives from the Lao Issara anti-colonial armed nationalist movement. The following years were marked by a rivalry between the neutralists under Prince Souvanna Phouma, the right wing under Prince Boun Oum of Champassak, and the left-wing Lao Patriotic Front under Prince Souphanouvong and half-Vietnamese future Prime Minister Kaysone Phomvihane. Several attempts were made to establish coalition governments, and a "tri-coalition" government was finally seated in Vientiane.

The North Vietnamese Army, in collaboration with the Pathet Lao, invaded Laos in 1958 and 1959, occupying the east of the country to use for its Ho Chi Minh trail supply corridor and as a staging area for offensives into South Vietnam. There were two major theatres of the war, one for control over the Laotian Panhandle and the other was fought around the northern Plain of Jars. From 1961 onward, the US trained Hmong tribesmen to disrupt North Vietnamese operations and in 1964, the US began bombing North Vietnamese supply routes.

The North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao eventually emerged victorious in December 1975, following from North Vietnam's final victory over South Vietnam in April 1975. The conflict killed tens of thousands of people including many thousands of North Vietnamese soldiers. and Hmong rebels began an insurgency against the new government. The Hmong were persecuted as traitors, with the Laotian government and its Vietnamese allies carrying out human rights abuses against Hmong civilians. The incipient conflict between Vietnam and China also played a role with Hmong rebels being accused of receiving support from China. Over 40,000 people died in the conflict. The Lao royal family were arrested by the Pathet Lao and sent to labor camps, where most of them died in the late 1970s and 1980s, including King Savang Vatthana, Queen Khamphoui and Crown Prince Vong Savang.

Overview

The 1954 Geneva Conference established Laotian neutrality. The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), however, continued to operate in both northern and southeastern Laos. There were repeated attempts from 1954 onward to force the North Vietnamese out of Laos, but regardless of any agreements or concessions, Hanoi had no intention of withdrawing from the country or abandoning its Laotian communist allies.

North Vietnam established the Ho Chi Minh trail as a paved highway in southeast Laos paralleling the Vietnamese border. The trail was designed to transport North Vietnamese troops and supplies to South Vietnam, as well as to aid the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong).

North Vietnam also had a sizable military effort in northern Laos, while sponsoring and maintaining an indigenous communist rebellion, the Pathet Lao, to put pressure on the Royal Lao Government.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in an effort to disrupt these operations in northern Laos without direct U.S. military involvement, responded by training a guerrilla force of about 30,000 Laotian hill tribesmen known as Special Guerrilla Units (SGUs). Consisting mostly of local Hmong (Meo) tribesmen along with the Mien and Khmu, they were led by Royal Lao Army General Vang Pao, a Hmong military leader. This army, supported by the CIA's proprietary airline Air America, Thailand, the Royal Lao Air Force, and a covert air operation directed by the United States ambassador to Laos, fought the People's Army of Vietnam, the National Liberation Front (NLF), and their Pathet Lao allies to a seesaw stalemate, greatly aiding U.S. interests in the war in Vietnam.

The status of the war in the north throughout the year generally depended on the weather. As the dry season started, in November or December, so did North Vietnamese military operations, as fresh troops and supplies flowed down out of North Vietnam on newly passable routes, either down from Dien Bien Phu, across Phong Saly Province on all-weather highways, or on Route 7 through Ban Ban, Laos on the northeast corner of the Plain of Jars. The CIA's covert operations clandestine army would give way, harrying the PAVN and Pathet Lao as they retreated; Raven Forward Air Controllers would direct massive air strikes against the communists by USAF jets and RLAF T-28s to prevent the capture of the Laotian capitals of Vientiane and Luang Prabang. When the rainy season six months later rendered North Vietnamese supply lines impassable, the Vietnamese communists would recede toward Vietnam.

The war in the southeastern panhandle against the Ho Chi Minh trail was primarily a massive air interdiction program by the USAF and United States Navy because political constraints kept the trail safe from ground assault from South Vietnam. Raven FACs also directed air strikes in the southeast. Other Forward Air Controllers from South Vietnam, such as Covey FACs from the 20th Tactical Air Support Squadron and Nail FACs from the 23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron, also directed strikes. Other air strikes were planned ahead. Overall coordination of the air campaign was directed by an Airborne Command and Control Center, such as those deployed in Operation Igloo White.

The existence of the conflict in Laos was sometimes reported in the U.S., and described in press reports as the CIA's "Secret War in Laos" because details were largely unavailable due to official government denials that the war existed. The denials were seen as necessary considering that the North Vietnamese government and the U.S. had both signed agreements specifying the neutrality of Laos. U.S. involvement was considered necessary because North Vietnam had effectively gained control over a large part of the country. Despite these denials, however, the civil war was the largest U.S. covert operation prior to the Soviet–Afghan War, with areas of Laos controlled by North Vietnam subjected to years of intense U.S. aerial bombardment, representing the heaviest bombing campaign in history. Overshadowing it all was the struggle of the Cold War, with the United States' policy of the containment of communism and the policies of the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union of spreading communism via subversion and insurgency.

Chronology of the Laotian Civil War

1945: Prelude to war

The end of World War II left Laos in political chaos. The French, who had been displaced from their protectorate by the Japanese, wanted to resume control of Laos, and sponsored guerrilla forces to regain control. The Japanese had proclaimed Laos independent even as they lost the war. Though King Sisavang Vong thought Laos was too small for independence, he had proclaimed the end of the French protectorate status while simultaneously favoring the French return. He let it be known he would accept independence if it should occur. Thus there was a nascent movement for independence amid the turmoil.

Underlying all this was a strong undercurrent of Vietnamese involvement. Sixty percent of the population of Laos' six urban areas were Vietnamese, with the Vietnamese holding key positions in the civil bureaucracies and the police. Since the 1930s the Indochinese Communist Party had established wholly Vietnamese cells in Laos.

Prince Phetsarath Ratanavongsa, as Viceroy and Prime Minister, established the Lao royal treasury account with the Indochinese treasury in Hanoi in an attempt to establish a functional economy.

French commandos parachuted into Laos beginning in 1945 to organize guerrilla forces. By November, they had formed the guerrillas into four light infantry battalions of the newly founded French Union Army. The officers and sergeants of the new Lao battalions were French.

In October 1945, a Lao nationalist movement called Lao Issara (Free Laos) was founded as a new government for Laos. Among Lao Issara's prominent members were three European-educated princes; brothers Phetsarath Ratanavongsa and Souvanna Phouma, and their half brother, Souphanouvong. The former became the titular founder of Lao Issara. Souphanouvong became commander in chief, as well as minister of foreign affairs. Souvanna Phouma became minister of public works. including the Chinese Nationalist 93rd Division, occupied cities as far south as Luang Prabang. The French-sponsored guerrillas controlled the southern provinces of Savannakhet and Khammouan. Prince Boun Oum, who sympathized with the French, occupied the rest of the southern panhandle.

For these, and other reasons, Lao Issara could not hold the country against the returning French colonial government and its troops. The French negotiated a Chinese withdrawal from Laos prior to their own return, removing them from the field.

1946: French return; Vietnamese arrive

In January 1946, the French began the reconquest of Laos by sweeping the Bolovens Plateau.

1947–1952: Build-up of forces

thumb|[[Pathet Lao's Laotian People's Liberation Army (LPLA) Anti-aircraft artillery crew, 1967.]]

On 11 May 1947, King Sisavang Vong granted a constitution declaring Laos an independent nation within the French Union. This began the building of a new government over the next few years, including the establishment of a national army, the Armée Nationale Laotienne, which was the first iteration of the Royal Lao Army.

The nascent army was plagued by lack of Lao leadership, and its weaponry was a hodgepodge. Thus

the new Armée Nationale Laotienne consisted of light infantry battalions officered by the French. There was one paratroop battalion included. The French began training Lao officers and non-commissioned officers even as they continued to lead and train the new army.

In opposition, the Viet Minh raised a subsidiary revolutionary movement, the Pathet Lao, starting with an initial guerrilla band of 25 in January 1949.

In October 1949, the exiled Lao Issara dissolved and the three royal brothers each chose a separate destiny.

Phetsarath Rattanavongsa chose to remain in Bangkok. His stay was temporary. He would once again become the viceroy of Laos.

Souvanna Phouma chose to return to Laos via an amnesty, believing that the Lao would soon free themselves. In 1951 he became Prime Minister for the first time and held that office until 1954.

Souphanouvong, who had spent seven years in Nha Trang This was an attempt to give a false front of authority to the Lao communist movement by claiming to represent a united non-partisan effort. Two of its most important founders were members of the Indochinese Communist Party, which advocated overthrow of the monarchy as well as expulsion of the French. This got Laos involved in the First Indochina War, but it started off mainly against the French.

On 23 December 1950, the Pentalateral Mutual Defense Assistance Pact was signed by the United States, France, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos; it was a tool to transfer American military aid to the French war effort in Indochina. This year also marked the infiltration of at least 5,000 more Viet Minh into Laos.

In February 1951, the Indochinese Communist Party decided to split in three to sponsor war against the French in Cambodia and Laos, along with the war in Vietnam. The new Laotian branch consisted of 2,091 members, but included only 31 Lao.

Also, by 1951, the Pathet Lao had mustered sufficient trained troops to join the Viet Minh in military operations.

By the end of 1952, the Royal Lao Army had grown to include a battalion of troops commanded by Laotian officers, as well as 17 other companies. They then moved aside to allow the Pathet Lao force with its mismatched scrounged equipment to occupy the captured ground, and Souphanouvong moved the Pathet Lao headquarters into Xam Neua on 19 April.

The other strike, moving from Điện Biên Phủ and aimed downriver at Luang Prabang, was thwarted by oncoming monsoons and resistance by the French.

The United States used Civil Air Transport, which later morphed into Air America, in a covert operation to fly supplies to the embattled French in Điện Biên Phủ. The PAVN also launched a diversionary thrust at Seno, Laos aimed at cutting away the panhandle from the main body of Laos. This thrust was foiled by paratroopers from the French Union's Army of the Republic of Vietnam.

When the relief troops failed to lift the siege in time, the French and their local allies lost the bastion of Điện Biên Phủ. One of the troopers in the relief column marching from Luang Prabang was a young Hmong named Vang Pao.

The French loss at Điện Biên Phủ marked the end of the First Indochina War; the French were driven to negotiate for peace. On 20 July, the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Laos was signed, ending French rule. Two months later, the North Vietnamese established a support group for Pathet Lao forces at Ban Nameo, well within northeastern Laos.

thumb|250px|The [[Geneva Conference (1954)|Geneva Conference of 1954]]

The Agreement radically changed the geography of Indochina, resulting in independence for Laos. On 1 August 1954 the French army withdrew from Laos declaring independence for the nation alongside North Vietnam, South Vietnam and Cambodia which ended the First Indochina War but the Laotian Civil War was still ongoing. The northern half of Vietnam became independent of the French imperialist enterprise and was ruled by an independent Vietnamese Communist government. Lao French Union troops joined the military of independent Laos, however France kept two military bases in Laos and maintained its "military advisors" in the new Lao military. The Royal Lao government military also received its first aircraft from the French in 1954; nine Morane-Saulnier MS-500 Criquets were supplied for support and medevac. The United States paid 100% of the Lao military budget.

In February, 1957, the PEO personnel began supplying training materials to the French Military Mission that was charged with training the Royal Lao Army. The rationale was that improved training would better fit the army with defending its country. As part of this process, the United States even took over paying the Royal Lao Army's salaries.

Beginning in March, 1957, the Royal Lao Army began shuttling arms to Hmong guerrillas, to enable them to fight on the side of the RLA.

In November, 1957, a coalition government incorporating the Pathet Lao was finally established. Using the slogan, "one vote to the right, one vote to the left to prevent civil war", pro-communist parties received one-third of the popular vote and won 13 of 21 contested seats in the elections of 4 May 1958. With these additional seats, the left controlled a total of 16 seats in the 59 member National Assembly. The National Assembly responded by confirming a right-wing government led by Phuy Xananikôn in August. This government included four members of the U.S.-backed Committee for the Defence of the National Interest (none of them National Assembly members).

Also in May, the long-awaited integration of 1,500 Pathet Lao troops into the national army was scheduled. The U.S. embassy told the Lao government that it would be difficult to gain congressional approval of aid to Laos with communists serving in the army. The Pathet Lao stalled.

The North Vietnamese government (Hanoi) deployed about 30,000-40,000 NVA soldiers to penetrate northern Laos to assist the battalions of Pathet Laos forces beyond major military campaigns.

Under orders from Souphanouvong, the Pathet Lao battalions refused to be integrated into the Royal Lao Army. Souphanouvong was then arrested and imprisoned, along with his aides. The two Pathet Lao battalions, one after the other, escaped during the night with no shots fired, taking their equipment, families, and domestic animals with them. On 23 May, Souphanouvong and his companions also escaped unscathed.

In July, U.S. Special Forces Mobile Training Teams from the 77th Special Forces Group, working under the code name Hotfoot, began training the Royal Laotian army. The Green Berets were attached to the Programs Evaluation Office, and like other PEO employees, were nominal civilians and dressed as such.

The RLA was being formed into Groupement Mobilesregimental-sized units of three battalions. The training teams were assigned one per GM, with some battalions also meriting a team.

On 28 July, PAVN units attacked all along the North Vietnamese-Lao border. As they took ground from the Royal Lao Army, they moved in Pathet Lao as occupation troops.

In September, Group 100 was succeeded by Group 959; the North Vietnamese were upgrading their military mission to the Pathet Lao, just as the Americans had expanded PEO. Both sides were raising larger client armies, in hopes the Lao would fight. while Prime Minister Tiao Samsanith, government officials, and military leaders met in Luang Prabang. His stated aim for the coup was an end to fighting in Laos, the end of foreign interference in his country, an end to the consequent corruption caused by foreign aid, and better treatment for his soldiers. However, Kong Le's coup did not end opposition to him, and there was a scramble among unit commanders to choose sides. If one was not pro-coup, then he had the further decision to make as to whom he would back to counter the coup. The front runner was General Phoumi Nosavan, first cousins with the prime minister of Thailand, Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat.

With CIA support, Field Marshal Sarit set up a covert Thai military advisory group, called Kaw Taw. Kaw Taw supported a counter-coup against the new Neutralist Lao government in Vientiane, supplying artillery, artillerymen, and advisers to Phoumi's forces. It also committed the CIA-sponsored Police Aerial Reinforcement Unit (PARU) to operations within Laos. This air bridge flew in PAVN artillery and gunners to reinforce the Neutralist/Pathet Lao coalition.

On their side, the United States flew four B-26 Invader bombers from Taiwan into Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base, poised to strike into Laos. They were later joined by an additional eight B26s. With a dozen guns, half a dozen rockets, and a napalm canister apiece, they were a potent threat, but were never used.

On 13 December, Phoumi's army began a three-day bombardment of Vientiane. Five hundred civilians and seventeen of Kong Le's paratroopers were killed by the shellfire. On the 14th, a U.S. carrier task force went on alert, and the Second Airborne Brigade stood by to seize selected Laotian airfields. The U.S. was poised to rescue its paramilitary and diplomatic advisers in Laos.

Kong Le and his Neutralists finally withdrew northward to the Plain of Jars. Their withdrawal was covered by artillery fire from the PAVN 105 mm howitzers rushed in from Hanoi, and supported by Soviet airdrops of crucial supplies of rations, munitions, and radios. In the retreat, Kong Le picked up 400 recruits, swelling his force to 1,200 men.

1961: Superpowers' involvement deepens

thumb|300px|An [[Auto Defense Choc|Auto Defense de Choc (ADC) Hmong guerrilla company assembles at Phou Vieng, Spring 1961.]]

Beginning on 1 January, a new coalition of Kong Le's Neutralists, Pathet Lao, and PAVN drove 9,000 Royal Lao Army troops from the Plain of Jars.

On 3 January, the Royal Laotian Air Force (RLAF) received its first counter-insurgency aircraft, American-built T-6 Texans, via the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF). These four reconfigured trainers were armed with two .30 caliber machine guns and five-inch rockets, and could carry 100-pound bombs. Four previously trained Lao pilots undertook transition training in Thailand; on 9 January, the pilots flew the new RLAF fighter-bombers to Vientiane. Two days later, they flew their first combat sorties, against PAVN and Pathet Lao covering Kong Le's retreat into the Plain of Jars.

Russian Soviet air supply continued, bringing in heavy weapons to supplement the light arms previously delivered. On 7 January, the North Vietnamese presence was escalated by an additional four battalions; two of the battalions immediately moved to the point of conflict, on Route 7, which connected to Vientiane. A third PAVN battalion moved into action at Tha Thom, south of the Plain of Jars.

The U.S. decided to counter-escalate by airdropping arms to a force of 7,000 Hmong guerrillas later in the month.

An inter-agency task force set up by the incoming Kennedy administration in early February undertook a two-month study of possible American responses to the Laotian civil war. Even as the French ended their training mission, American training efforts were ramped up: Sixteen H-34 helicopters were transferred from the U.S. Marine Corps to Air America; maintenance facilities were established at Udorn in northern Thailand, about 85 kilometres south of Vientiane. The most drastic alternative the task force envisioned was a 60,000-man commitment of American ground troops in southern Laos, with a possible use of nuclear weapons. These latter options were not elected.

On 9 March, the communists captured the only road junction between Luang Prabang and Vientiane. When RLA troops were ordered to counterattack and retake the junction, they dropped their weapons and ran. Special Forces Team Moon was assigned as advisers to the RLA unit. On 22 April 1961, Team Moon was overrun. Two sergeants were killed, and team leader Captain Walter H. Moon was captured; he was later executed while trying to escape captivity. Another sergeant was released sixteen months later.

The Operation Millpond B-26s had been scheduled to strike at Kong Le, but the strike was stayed by an event on the far side of the world. The Bay of Pigs Invasion failed, and that failure gave pause to U.S. actions in Laos. A ceasefire was sought. Simultaneously, the PEO shed its civilian guise and went above ground to become a Military Advisory Assistance Group. Emblematic of the change, the Hotfoot teams donned their U.S. uniforms and became White Star Mobile Training Teams.

The truce supposedly went into effect the first week of May, but was repeatedly breached by the communists. With the Royal Lao Army ineffective, the Hmong guerrillas were left as the only opposition to the communists. In early June, they were forced from their beleaguered position at the Ban Padong by an artillery barrage followed by a ground assault. Under command of General Vang Pao, they fell back to Long Tieng.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had begun secretly recruiting Lao montagnards into 100-man militia companies.

By summer, the CIA had mustered 9,000 hill tribesmen into the ranks of the Armée Clandestine. It was aided by nine CIA agents, nine Special Forces augmenters, and 99 Thai Special Forces troopers from the Police Aerial Resupply Unit.

By autumn, the future course of American involvement was set. Paramilitary trainers would train guerrilla units, with resupply coming via airdrops, and specialized short takeoff and landing aircraft using makeshift dirt airstrips. Other trainers would try to mold the Royalist regulars into a fighting force. Fighter-bombers would serve as flying artillery to blast the communist forces into retreat or submission.

In December, the Royalists decided to assert control over the provincial capital of Nam Tha, which was on the northwestern border, almost in southern China. Laotian Army Groupement Mobiles (GMs) 11 and 18 were stationed there, and soon came under pressure from the communists.

Several companies of hill tribes irregulars were sent to Hua Hin, Thailand for training.

1963: Stasis

By the middle of the year, the Pathet Lao and Neutralists had begun to squabble with one another. The neutralist group was soon divided between right-leaning neutralists (headed by Kong Le) and left-leaning neutralists (headed by Quinim Polsena and Colonel Deuane Sunnalath). On 12 February 1963 Kong Le's second in command, Colonel Ketsana, was assassinated. Shortly afterwards Quinim Polsena and his deputy were also assassinated. The neutralist camp was split with some going over to the Pathēt Lao. Fighting between the Pathet Lao and government troops soon resumed.

Vang Pao gathered three SGU battalions into Groupement Mobile 21 and spearheaded a drive into Sam Neua against the Pathet Lao. His offensive was resupplied by supplies airdropped by the civilian aircraft of Air America and Bird and Sons.

In the meantime, the United States re-established a Military Assistance Advisory Group to support its efforts in Laos, basing it in Bangkok. The Requirements Office of the U.S. Embassy in Vientiane was staffed by civilians and monitored the need for U.S. military aid to Laos.

In August, the Royal Laotian Air Force received its first four T-28 Trojans that had been adapted for counter-insurgency warfare.

The irregular companies trained the previous year in Thailand were now formed into a battalion called SGU 1. Irregular forces proliferated throughout the country. In Military Regions 3 and 4, action, intelligence, and road watch teams infiltrated the Ho Chi Minh trail.

In December, Vang Pao was promoted to Brigadier General by King Sisavong.

1964–1965: Escalation and U.S. Air Force involvement

thumb|250px|[[Operation Barrel Roll|Barrel Roll operational area, 1964]]

On 1 April, the USAF set up Project Waterpump, which was a pilot training program at Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base to supply Lao pilots for the Royal Laotian Air Force. The RLAF also began augmenting its ranks with Thai volunteer pilots in 1964.

Run by a 41-man team from Detachment 6 of the 1st Air Commando Wing, this facility was an end run around the treaty obligation that forbade training in Laos. Besides training pilots, Waterpump encouraged cooperation between the RLAF and the Royal Thai Air Force. It was also tasked, as a last resort, to augment the RLAF to counter a renewed Communist offensive in Laos. The United States then released the necessary ordnance for the RLAF to bomb Communist encampments, beginning on 18 May.

On 19 May, the United States Air Force began flying mid and low-level missions over the renewed fighting, under the code name Yankee Team.

1966–1967

thumb|Damage caused by a communist ground attack on Luang Prabang airfield, 1967.

thumb|left|North Vietnamese troops march through the [[Ho Chi Minh trail in southern Laos, 1967.]]

In the far northwest, Team Fox, an intelligence team of Mien hill tribesmen began long range reconnaissance of southern China.

In July, Royal Lao Government (RLG) forces seized the Nam Bac Valley. Three Infantry Regiments, one independent infantry battalion, and one artillery battalion took Nam Bac and established a defensive line north of Luang Prabang.

On the Plain of Jars, the Pathet Lao advance gradually slowed due to the destruction of its supplies by airpower, and Laotian troops then counter-attacked. By August 1966, they had advanced to within 45 miles of the DRV border. North Vietnam then sent thousands of its regular troops into the battle and once again the Laotians were forced to retreat.

Steel Tiger operations continued down the length of the panhandle in 1966, with special emphasis upon the Tiger Hound area. Since most of the communist truck traffic was at night, the Air Force developed and began using special equipment to detect the nighttime traffic.

thumb|250px|Barrel Roll, Steel Tiger and [[Operation Tiger Hound|Tiger Hound operational areas.]]

In eastern Laos, U.S., Royal Laotian, and VNAF aircraft continued their attacks on traffic along the Ho Chi Minh trail. During 1967, B-52s flew 1,718 sorties in this area, almost triple their 1966 record. The major targets were trucks which had to be hunted down and destroyed one-by-one. This seemed to be irrational thinking to many Americans flying these combat missions for these trucks could have been destroyed en masse before, during, or after their unloading from the freighters that had hauled them to North Vietnam if bombing of Haiphong had been permitted. The presence of Soviet, British, Greek and Panamanian neutral ships in Haiphong prevented any United States bombing for the duration of the war.

In northern Laos, the Communists continued their slow advance across the Plain of Jars in 1967. Laotian victories were few and far between, and by the end of the year, the situation had become critical even with the air support which had been provided by the Royal Lao Air Force.

Laotian tribal irregulars were operating out of Nam Bac, under CIA direction from Luang Prabang, some 60 miles south of the guerrilla base. In midyear, over the objections of Lao colonels, American advisors pressured Royal Lao troops into forming their smaller units into combat battalions. Despite the poor training of the Lao soldiers, some of whom had never fired a weapon, these raw new units were moved northward out of Luang Prabang over a several month period to garrison Nam Bac. By mid-October, some 4,500 government troops held the valley to secure the air strip for their resupply. The American intent was the establishment of Nam Bac as the keystone of an "iron arc" of defensive positions across northern Laos.

In response, the PAVN 316th Infantry Division was dispatched to Laos to assault Nam Bac. The Royalist garrison was soon surrounded. They had American-supplied 105 mm howitzers for artillery support. They could also call on Royal Lao Air Force T-28s for close air support. U.S. Air Force fighter-bombers struck the Communist supply lines. Communist gunfire closed the Nam Bac airstrip to fixed wing resupply. Air America copters flew in supplies and evacuated the wounded; American C-123s parachuted supplies ferried from Udorn RTAFB to the beleaguered government troops. The Royalist troops would not launch a clearing attack to regain use of the runway for resupply. On 25 December, a Vietnamese artillery barrage kicked off their offensive. The heavy weapons and scale of the PAVN attack could not be matched by the national army and it was effectively sidelined for several years.

Most of the government soldiers scattered into the surrounding hills; about 200 of the defenders were killed in action. Of the 3,278 Royalist soldiers, only about a third returned to government service. The Royalists had suffered such a staggering defeat that their army never recovered; the government was left with only tribal irregulars using guerrilla tactics fighting on its side.

At the beginning of 1970, fresh troops from North Vietnam advanced through northern Laos. The Air Force called in B-52s and, on 17 February, they were used to bomb targets in northern Laos. The enemy advance was halted by Laotian reinforcements, and for the remainder of the year it was a "seesaw" military campaign.

On 1 May, elements of SVN PAVN units (28th and 24A regiments) joined with North Vietnamese Army and Pathet Lao to seize Attapeu.

Although communist movements down the Ho Chi Minh trail grew during the year, the U.S. war effort was reduced because authorities in Washington, believing the U.S. objectives in Southeast Asia were being achieved, imposed budget limits, which reduced the number of combat missions the USAF could fly.

Because of significant logistical stockpiling by PAVN in the Laotian Panhandle, South Vietnam launched Operation Lam Son 719, a military thrust on 8 February 1971. Its goals were to cross into Laos toward the city of Tchepone and cut the Ho Chi Minh trail, hopefully thwarting a planned North Vietnamese offensive. Aerial support by the U.S. was massive since no American ground units could participate in the operation. On 25 February, PAVN launched a counterattack, and in the face of heavy opposition, the South Vietnamese force withdrew from Laos after losing approximately a third of its men.

On 18 December, PAVN and Pathet Lao forces launched counteroffensive (Campaign Z) to recover the Plain of Jars. Volunteer forces included the 312th and 316th Divisions, the 335th and 866th Infantry Regiments, and six artillery and tank battalions. Xam Thong fell and the push continued toward Long Tieng.

Lower Laos – the 968th Infantry Regiment and Pathet Lao forces reclaimed the Tha Teng and Lao Nam areas, and captured the Bolaven Plateau.

When PAVN launched the Nguyễn Huệ Offensive (known in the West as the Easter Offensive) into South Vietnam on 30 March, massive U.S. air support was required inside South Vietnam and its air strikes in Laos dropped to their lowest point since 1965.

In northern Laos, the communists made additional gains during the year but failed to overwhelm government forces. In November, the Pathet Lao agreed to meet with Laotian government representatives to discuss a cease-fire.

The war had resulted in a large number of refugees with a peak number of 378,800 internally displaced persons under government control in October 1973. North Vietnam was not required to remove its forces under the terms of the treaty.

The national government was forced to accept the Pathet Lao into the government.

During 1974 and 1975 the balance of power in Laos shifted steadily in favour of the Pathēt Lao as the U.S. disengaged itself from Indochina. Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma was tired and demoralised, and following a heart attack in mid-1974 he spent some months recuperating in France, after which he announced that he would retire from politics following the elections scheduled for early 1976.

thumb|[[Hmong people|Hmong woman and child at Long Tieng, Laos military base in 1973.]]

The anti-communist forces were thus leaderless, and also divided and deeply mired in corruption. Souphanouvong, by contrast, was confident and a master political tactician, and had behind him the disciplined cadres of the communist party and the Pathēt Lao forces and the North Vietnamese army. The end of American aid also meant the mass demobilization of most of the non-Pathēt Lao military forces in the country. The Pathēt Lao on the other hand continued to be both funded and equipped by North Vietnam.

In May 1974 Souphanouvong put forward an 18-point plan for "National Reconstruction", which was unanimously adopted – a sign of his increasing dominance. The plan was mostly uncontroversial, with renewed promises of free elections, democratic rights and respect for religion, as well as constructive economic policies. But press censorship was introduced in the name of "national unity", making it more difficult for non-communist forces to organise politically in response to the creeping Pathēt Lao takeover. In January 1975 all public meetings and demonstrations were banned. Recognising the trend of events, influential business and political figures began to move their assets, and in some cases themselves, to Thailand, France or the U.S.

Fall of Vientiane

In March 1975 the North Vietnamese began their final military offensive in South Vietnam, which by the end of April carried them to victory with the fall of Saigon. Thirteen days earlier the Khmer Rouge army had captured Phnom Penh. The Pathēt Lao now knew that victory was within reach, and with the Vietnam War over the North Vietnamese authorised the seizure of power in Laos. Pathēt Lao forces on the Plain of Jars supported by North Vietnamese heavy artillery and other units began advancing westward.

In late April, the Pathēt Lao took the government outpost at Sala Phou Khoum crossroads which opened up Route 13 to a Pathēt Lao advance toward Muang Kassy. For the non-Pathēt Lao elements in the government, compromise seemed better than allowing what had happened in Cambodia and South Vietnam to happen in Laos. A surrender was thought to be better than a change of power by force.

In the city of Savannakhet, on the border with Thailand along the Mekong River, several Pathet Lao underground organization members launched an uprising against its right-wing leaders. The uprising started shortly after the Laotian New Year festivity. Around late May 1975, after the South Vietnamese government collapsed to the communists, Savannakhet residents, as well as college students, joined the political rally to praise the support of new political shift toward Pathet Lao. Most of Royal Laotian troops were unable to quell the main demonstrations. On May 31, 1975, the largely Pathet Lao troops arrived at Savannakhet without bloodshed at the provincial capital. Presumably, a handful of residents from Savannakhet, as well as right wing political members, fled to Thailand by boat either before or during a swift Pathet Lao takeover. The Pathet Lao soldiers and high-ranking officials marched north to target Vientiane as anti-monarchy protests raged in Vientiane.

Demonstrations broke out in Vientiane, denouncing the rightists and demanding political change. Rightist ministers resigned from the government and fled the country, followed by senior Royal Lao Army commanders. A Pathēt Lao minister took over the defence portfolio, removing any chance of the Army resisting the Pathēt Lao takeover. Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma, dreading further conflict and apparently trusting Souphanouvong's promises of a moderate policy, gave instructions that the Pathēt Lao were not to be resisted, and the U.S. began to withdraw its diplomatic personnel.

The Pathēt Lao army entered the major towns of southern Laos during May, and in early June occupied Luang Phrabāng. Panic broke out in Vientiane as most of the business class and many officials, officers and others who had collaborated with the U.S. scrambled to get their families and property across the Mekong to Thailand. Recognising that the cause was lost, Vang Pao led thousands of his Hmong fighters and their families into exile – eventually about a third of all the Lao Hmong left the country. Pathēt Lao forces took over Vientiane in August 23.

For a few months the Pathēt Lao appeared to honour their promises of moderation. The shell of the coalition government was preserved, there were no arrests or show-trials, and private property was respected. Diplomatic relations with the U.S. were maintained, despite an immediate cut-off of all U.S. aid. (Other western countries continued to offer aid, and Soviet and eastern European technicians began to arrive to replace the departed Americans.) Most Western countries, including the United States, closed their embassies either shortly before or after the establishment of the Laos PDR.

In September 1975, during an interview, Prime Minister Phouma stated his wish to stay in office until 1976 so he could plan the major steps needed for the long-term reunification process, and to ensure the Pathet Lao did not take away some of the political powers of the monarchy. Phouma hoped that the 1976 election will select a new head of state from the majority faction, assumed to be the Pathet Lao, who will create the new nonprovisional government, with the promise of retaining some liberties and potentially be more open diplomatically with non-communist Thailand.

On 2 December, the day after the Pathet Lao-organized National Conference of People's Representatives voted to immediate abolition of the monarchy (on 1 December), King Savang Vatthana agreed to abdicate and Souvanna Phouma resigned. The Lao People's Democratic Republic was proclaimed, with Souphanouvong as President. Kaysone Phomvihane emerged from the shadows to become Prime Minister and the real ruler of the country. A few royal family members, including a Prince, crossed the Mekong River and evacuated to Thailand a few days before the establishment of the Laos PDR, fearing societal upheaval and persecution. With Vientiane secured by the communist Pathet Lao, the Laotian Civil War was officially declared over on December 2, 1975. Arguably by extension, the fall of Laos's capital was the technical end of the Second Indochina War.

By this point, the Pathēt Lao dropped all pretense of moderation, and no more was heard of elections or political freedoms. Non-communist newspapers were closed, and a large-scale purge of the civil service, army and police was launched. Furthermore, the communist Vietnamese government prevented the re-emergence of the Laotian Neutralist Party (LNP) and other right-wing political parties and organisations across Laos, blaming them for instigating the chaotic upheaval on behalf of "foreign imperialists" without direct evidence. Thousands were dispatched for "re-education" in remote parts of the country, where many died and many more were kept for up to ten years. The vast majority of the royal family of Laos, including the deposed king, were also sent to the "re-education camps", where most eventually died from starvation and hard labor during the totalitarian period of the 1980s.

This prompted a renewed flight from the country. About 90 percent of Laos's intellectuals, technicians, and officials left Laos following the communist takeover. Many of the professional and intellectual class, who had initially been willing to work for the new regime, changed their minds and left; a much easier thing to do from Laos than from either Vietnam or Cambodia. In proportional terms, Laos experienced the largest refugee flight of the Indochinese nations, with a full 10% of the population – 300,000 people out of a total of 3 million – crossing the border into Thailand.

Evacuation of the Hmong

A dramatic event during the takeover of Laos by the communists was the evacuation of Vang Pao and other Hmong leaders by air from Long Tieng. The end came for Vang Pao on 5 May 1975 when he was called before Souvanna Phouma, the Prime Minister of Laos, and ordered to cooperate with the communist Pathet Lao. Vang Pao took the general's stars off his collar, threw them on the desk of Souvanna Phouma, and stalked out of the room. Four days later the official Pathet Lao newspaper warned that the Hmong people would be exterminated "to the last root."

Jerry Daniels, Vang Pao's CIA case officer, was the only American remaining in Long Tieng and he began to plan an evacuation of the Hmong. However, he had only one airplane to evacuate the 3,500 Hmong leaders and families he judged to be at risk of execution by the Pathet Lao then advancing on Long Tieng. Brigadier General Heinie Aderholt in Bangkok helped to find additional planes and sent three pilots flying two C-46 and one C-130 transport aircraft to Long Tieng. The planes were "sheep-dipped" to remove any U.S. markings as the operation was carried out in secret. The pilots were American civilians: Les Strouse, Matt Hoff, and Al Rich.

With the three American planes, the evacuation began in earnest on 13 May with each transport aircraft making four flights each that day from Long Tieng to Udorn, Thailand and transporting more than 65 people per airplane on each trip – far more than the 35 maximum passengers dictated by safety conditions at mountain-ringed Long Tieng. Thousands of Hmong clustered around the airstrip at Long Tieng awaiting evacuation. On 14 May, Vang Pao and Jerry Daniels were evacuated secretly by helicopter to Thailand and the air evacuation came to an end. The next day the Pathet Lao marched into Long Tieng unopposed. Daniels accompanied Vang Pao to exile in Montana and then returned to Thailand to help the Hmong refugees there.

What nobody had anticipated was how tens of thousands of Hmong, left behind in Long Tieng and Laos, would follow Vang Pao and other Hmong leaders to Thailand. By the end of 1975, about 40,000 Hmong had succeeded to reaching Thailand, traveling on foot through the mountains and floating across the Mekong River. How many died or were killed in their attempt to escape Laos is not known, but the flight of Hmong and other Laotian highland peoples into Thailand would continue for many more years. They faced repression at home from the communist government for their collaboration with the Americans. Most of the Hmong in Thailand would eventually be resettled in the United States and other countries. Between 1975 and 1982, 53,700 Hmong and other highland Laotian refugees were resettled in the United States and thousands more in other countries.

Aftermath

thumb|Laotians hired to assist U.S. troops assigned with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command sift then move tons of dirt on a mountain near [[Xépôn, Laos (July 2004)]]

thumb|Unexploded cluster sub-munition, probably a [[BLU-26 type. Plain of Jars, Laos. 2012]]

Due to the Vietnam War, the Laotian War has been almost forgotten by the majority of people around the world, even in the United States and Vietnam.

According to the Vietnamese government, from 1994 to 2012, the remains of 14,549 North Vietnamese soldiers, who were killed during the war, were found in Laos.

Unexploded bombs

thumb|250px|Areas bombed by the US military in Laos from 1964 to 1973

The U.S. dropped 2,756,941 tons of ordnance on 113,716 Laotian sites in 230,516 sorties between 1965 and 1973 alone, making Laos the most heavily bombed country in history relative to the size of its population; The New York Times notes this was "nearly a ton for every person in Laos". By September 1969, the Plain of Jars was largely deserted.

UXO remains dangerous to persons coming in contact, purposefully or accidentally, with bombs. According to a Laotian government survey, casualties from explosive ordnance during the civil war period, between 1964 and 1975, are estimated at 30,000, while casualties since the end of the war from UXO are estimated at 20,000. They estimate 50,000 casualties from explosive ordnance in total, including 29,522 killed and 21,048 injured. Explosive remnants of war (ERW) caused most of the casualties, followed by landmines, and then cluster munitions which caused 15% of casualties. 59 people were known to have been killed or injured by UXO in 2006. So abundant are the remnants of bombs on the Plain of Jars that the collection and sale of scrap metal from bombs has been a major industry since the Civil War. Currently 50 people are killed or maimed every year from UXO.

Due to the particularly heavy impact of cluster bombs during this war, Laos was a strong advocate of the Convention on Cluster Munitions to ban the weapons and was host to the First Meeting of States Parties to the convention in November 2010.

Plight of Hmong and other U.S.-allied veterans

Many former ethnic Hmong and Laotian veterans and their families, led by Colonel Wangyee Vang of the Lao Veterans of America Institute and Lao Veterans of America, worked to establish a non-profit organization and advocate for honorary U.S. citizenship for the Secret Army veterans. In 2000, the Hmong Veterans' Naturalization Act of 2000 was passed by the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress and signed into law by US President Bill Clinton.

Many of the Hmong people came down from the mountains and surrendered to the Lao government, while others found their way to refugee camps in Thailand. In 2008, however, a repatriation agreement between the Thai and Lao governments resulted in a mass forced deportation of the people in these camps, and reports of atrocities committed against them by the Lao military spurred activist groups to try to persuade the Thai government to keep granting asylum to the refugees, but to no avail.

In 2004, following several years of pressure from a coalition of U.S. human rights activists, the U.S. government reversed its policy of denying immigration to Hmong who had fled Laos in the 1990s for refugee camps in Thailand. In a major victory for the Hmong, the U.S. government recognized some 15,000 Hmong as political refugees and afforded them expedited U.S. immigration rights.

Memorial in the US

Twenty-two years following the end of the Laotian War, on 15 May 1997, the U.S. officially acknowledged its role in the Secret War. A memorial to American and Hmong contributions to U.S. air and ground combat efforts during the conflict was established by the Lao Veterans of America, the Center for Public Policy Analysis, in cooperation with the U.S. Congress and others. The Laos Memorial is located on the grounds of the Arlington National Cemetery between the John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

References

Sources

Government documents

Histories

Memoirs

Secondary sources

External links

Undercover Armies, CIA and Surrogate Warfare in Laos, from CIA's FOIA Reading Room
CIA Declassified Air America Collection
CIA Vietnam FOIA Collection. Documents declassified by CIA under FOIA.
"'Secret War' Still Killing Thousands", Andre Vltchek, Worldpress.org correspondent, 14 November 2006.
The Secret War in Laos.
, by Michael Johns, National Review, New York City, 23 October 1995.
Air America Association web site
Online Archive Materials about Air America in the Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech
Air America by Christopher Robbins
The Ravens, Pilots of the Secret War in Laos by Christopher Robbins
Hmong In Transition by Sheila Pinkel
Bibliography: Laos (bibliography mainly devoted to the portions of the Second Indochina War that occurred in Laos)
PBS.org – The Hmong and the Secret War