North Vietnamese invasion of Laos
| North Vietnamese invasion of the Kingdom of Laos | |||||||
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| Part of Vietnam War and Laotian Civil War | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Kingdom of Laos
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 North Vietnam Pathet Lao
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North Vietnam supported the Pathet Lao to fight against the Kingdom of Laos between 1958–1959. Control over Laos allowed for the eventual construction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail that would serve as the main supply route (MSR) for enhanced NLF (the National Liberation Front, the Vietcong) and NVA (North Vietnamese Army) activities in the Republic of Vietnam. As such, the support for Pathet Lao to fight against Kingdom of Laos by North Vietnam would prove decisive in the eventual communist victory over South Vietnam in 1975 as the South Vietnamese and American forces could have prevented any NVA and NLF deployment and resupply if these only happened over the 17th Parallel, also known as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a narrow strip of land between North and South Vietnam that was closely guarded by both sides. It also helped the Pathet Lao win the Kingdom of Laos, although the Kingdom of Laos had American support.
Souvanna Phouma announced that, with the holding of elections, the Royal Lao Government had fulfilled the political obligations it had assumed at Geneva, and the International Control Commission (ICC) adjourned sine die. Phoui, less scrupulous about preserving Laos's neutrality than his predecessor, angered Moscow and Hanoi by admitting diplomats from Taipei and Saigon.
The Soviet Union and North Vietnam, already upset by the departure of the ICC, which they had seen as a restraining influence, protested. The United States worked out an agreement with France that reduced the role of the French military mission and enlarged that of the Programs Evaluation Office, which embarked on a major strengthening of its staff and functions.
The occupation in December 1958 by North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao security forces of several villages in Tchepone District near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North Vietnam and South Vietnam was an ominous development. The Laos government immediately protested the flying of the North Vietnamese flag on Laotian territory. Hanoi claimed the villages had historically been part of Vietnam.
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Wikipedia