Laos Civil War

Laotian Civil War
Part of the Vietnam War, the Indochina Wars, and the Cold War
Laos
Date 9 November 1953 – 2 December 1975 (22 years, 3 weeks and 2 days) Location Kingdom of Laos Result Pathet Lao and North Vietnam victory Establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic
Belligerents
Kingdom of Laos  United States  South Vietnam  Thailand Supported by:  Philippines  Taiwan	Pathet Lao  North Vietnam Supported by:  Soviet Union  China
Commanders and leaders
Souvanna Phouma Phoumi Nosavan Vang Pao Boun Oum	Souphanouvong Kaysone Phomvihane Phoumi Vongvichit Võ Nguyên Giáp
Strength
50,000 soldiers (1954) 21,000 mercenaries (1963) 19,000–23,000 Hmong militiamen (1964)	8,000 (1960) 48,000 (1970)
Casualties and losses
~15,000 Royal Lao Army	3,000+ North Vietnamese troops Unknown Pathet Lao casualties
20,000-62,000 total dead

Pathet Lao and North Vietnam victory

The Laotian Civil War (1953–75) was fought between the Communist Pathet Lao (including many North Vietnamese of Lao ancestry) and the Royal Lao Government, with both sides receiving heavy external support in a proxy war between the global Cold War superpowers. It is called the Secret War among the CIA Special Activities Division and Hmong veterans of the conflict.

The Kingdom of Laos was a covert theatre for other belligerents during the Vietnam War. The Franco–Lao Treaty of Amity and Association (signed 22 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 actual fighting in Laos involved the North Vietnamese Army, U.S., Thai, and South Vietnamese forces directly and through irregular proxies in a struggle for control over the Laotian Panhandle. The North Vietnamese Army occupied the area to use for its Ho Chi Minh Trail supply corridor and as staging area for offensives into South Vietnam. There was a second major theater of action on and near the northern Plain of Jars.

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