Forces Armées Neutralistes

Forces Armées Neutralistes (Neutralist Armed Forces) was an armed political movement of the Laotian Civil War. Founded upon the basis of the mutinous Bataillon Parachustistes 2 (Battalion of Parachutists 2) that lost the Battle of Vientiane, FAN's original stance was that of its commander, Captain Kong Le, who espoused strict neutrality for the Kingdom of Laos and an end to governmental corruption. Withdrawing from Vientiane in defeat on 16 December 1960, FAN occupied the Plain of Jars; their major center was the all-weather airstrip at Muang Soui. The following year was spent in conflict with Royalist guerrillas. During 1961, FAN grew to a strength of 8,000; it had a company of tanks and a small air arm. However, it was hampered by inadequate supplies erratically passed along by the Pathet Lao communists.

Spring of 1963 was a season of growing dissension in Neutralist ranks; sides began to be taken. Major General Kong Le struck an alliance with the Royalists. In response, in April 1963, Colonel Deuane Sunnalath split off several battalions into a new party, the Patriotic Neutralists, which allied itself with the Pathet Lao. The April 1963 casualty list for FAN was 85 dead, 43 wounded. Given all the losses and defections, FAN was down to 2,200 men and 50 PT-76 light tanks by month's end.

In the subsequent years, FAN's battle performance would range from undistinguished to poor, in such battles as Lak Sao. From 1961 through 1966, it launched numerous unsuccessful attacks on the Phou Khout ridgeline positions of People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) troops overlooking FAN positions at Muang Soui. On occasion, Kong Le assumed the robes of Buddhist monkhood while his subordinates led the assaults. Resentment grew among both his subordinates and his troops concerning his leadership, and they mutinied and forced Kong Le into exile on 16 October 1966. After his departure, the Forces Armées Neutralistes were subsumed into the Royal Lao Army and faded into inconsequentiality.

Beginning on 23 December 1950, the United States began military aid to the French administration of the Kingdom of Laos as they fought the First Indochina War. U.S. support would increase to the point of underwriting the Lao budget in its entirety. The rationale behind the support was that it was in American interests to combat the communist insurrectionists in Laos as part of the Cold War. Banned by treaty from stationing an overt Military Assistance Advisory Group in Laos, in December 1955 the U.S instead chose to establish a "civilian" military aid office within the U.S. embassy in Vientiane. The Programs Evaluation Office was charged with channeling war material to the Lao military.

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