The Past > Historical Background

Why did Laos and Viengxay become a battleground?

What is now the Lao People's Democratic Republic has had a turbulent history. Throughout French colonial rule of Indochina from the end of the 19th century – covering present day Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam – there was little development of the country, and life in the countryside remained traditional and largely unchanged. From the start of the 20th century, as in other countries in the region, a nationalist movement developed with the aim of achieving control of the country for its own citizens. Many Lao nationalists also believed that the small Lao elite had too much power and too large a share of the country's wealth.

Indochinese nationalism after the Second World War

After the Second World War and the beginnings of the end of colonial rule across the world, nationalist movements in Indochina were dismayed by the return of French rule, and challenged them militarily. When the French eventually retreated from Vietnam after defeat at Dien Bien Phu, the Franco-Lao Treaty of 1953 created an independent Laos with its capital in Vientiane and a constitutional monarchy based in the ancient royal city of Luang Prabang. This Treaty did not, however, create a stable political climate.

By the 1950s, with world politics defined by the sometimes conflicting movements of the Cold War and anti-colonialism, the USA and other western governments didn't want countries around the world to form socialist or communist governments. The USA saw Laos as an important buffer state between communist North Vietnam and other countries in the region, and it poured huge amounts of money into the country to influence the course of Lao politics. At that time, Laos had only 1 million citizens, who were mostly subsistence farmers. The US money didn't improve their lives, however, as massive corruption created huge wealth for just a few.

The Lao Patriotic Front / Pathet Lao

Many Lao political activists had studied in Vietnam and, with others, developed a communist ideology on which they based their plans to achieve full independence. A major Lao nationalist movement was the communist Neo Lao Haxxat or 'Lao Patriotic Front', which became known as the Pathet Lao, meaning 'Lao Nation'. Under the 1953 Treaty it established power in Houaphanh and Phongsali, two mountainous provinces in the north-east of the country. Much of the rest of Laos, including Vientiane and the fertile Mekong lowlands, was under the control of the Royal Lao Government.

While the Royal Lao Government, headed by the centrist Prince Souvanna Phouma and backed by the US, formed coalition governments including Pathet Lao and neutralist members, the USA was also spending huge amounts of money to undermine elections. Increasing US influence demonstrated to many that the Lao people still couldn't control their own destiny, and under these pressures the alliances which leaders from the different sides of the political spectrum tried to maintain could not survive.

After instability including a coup, assassinations and the arrest of several Pathet Lao and centre/left members of the coalition government, the 1963 Geneva Agreement promised some hope of stability. It established Laos, legally, as a neutral country, and all sides agreed there were to be no foreign soldiers on Lao soil.

External influences

But there were too many outside influences at work, and Laos was too closely connected to the growing Cold War military conflict between the United States and Vietnam for neutrality to be maintained.

The US government was determined to stop the spread of communism and block the North Vietnamese supply routes known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Running from north to south along the long Lao/Vietnamese border, some of the routes wound in and out of Lao territory.

At first the USA provided indirect military support, including training and arming Royal Lao Government troops and bringing in men and equipment from Thailand. They secretly built an airstrip at Long Cheng, a high plateau northeast of Vientiane protected by mountains. US fighter planes stationed there and at their huge airbase in Udon Thani in northeast Thailand, south of Vientiane, flew on bombing raids across Laos and to Vietnam. A major target was the headquarters of the Pathet Lao in Houphanh Province in the northeast of Laos, close to the Vietnam border.

» Living under bombardment - Viengxay from 1964 to 1973
» After the ceasefire - Viengxay from 1973 to 1975