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Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a socialist state and the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. At the heart of the Indochinese Peninsula, Laos is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and southwest. Its capital and largest city is Vientiane.
The Hmong people are a sub-ethnic group of the Miao people who originated from Central China. The modern Hmongs presently reside in Southwest China, as well as Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and diasporic communities in Australia and the United States.
The Pathet Lao, officially the Lao People's Liberation Army, was a communist political movement and organization in Laos, formed in the mid-20th century. The group was ultimately successful in assuming political power in 1975, after the Laotian Civil War. The Pathet Lao were always closely associated with Vietnamese communists. During the civil war, it was effectively organized, equipped and even led by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). They fought against the anti-communist forces in the Vietnam War. Eventually, the term became the generic name for Laotian communists.
Vang Pao was a major general in the Royal Lao Army. He was a leader of the Hmong American community in the United States. He was also known as General Vang Pao to the people in the Hmong community.
The Laotian Civil War (1959–1975) was a civil war in Laos which was waged between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government from 23 May 1959 to 2 December 1975. It is associated with the Cambodian Civil War and the Vietnam War, 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 American CIA Special Activities Center, and Hmong and Mien veterans of the conflict.
Edgar "Pop" Buell was a humanitarian aid worker in Laos. He worked as a farmer in Steuben County, Indiana until the age of 47, but following the death of his wife in 1958 he joined the International Voluntary Services, a precursor to the Peace Corps, which offered him a job as an agricultural adviser in Laos. Buell worked in Laos through the Laotian Civil War, organizing relief aid to refugees and isolated villages. He was forced to flee Laos in 1974 when the Communist Pathet Lao gained control of the country.
This article details the history of Laos from 1945 to the present.
The insurgency in Laos is an ongoing low-intensity conflict between the Laotian government on one side and former members of the "Secret Army", Laotian royalists, and rebels from the Hmong and lowland Lao ethnic minorities on the other. These groups have faced reprisals from the Lao People's Army and Vietnam People's Army for their support of the United States-led, anti-communist military campaigns in Laos during the Laotian Civil War, which the insurgency is an extension of itself. The North Vietnamese invaded Laos in 1958 and supported the communist Pathet Lao. The Vietnamese communists continued to support the Pathet Lao after the end of the Laotian Civil War and the establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.
Major Lee Lue was a Laotian Hmong fighter bomber pilot notable for flying more combat missions than any other pilot in the Kingdom of Laos. Lee Lue flew continuously, as many as 10 missions a day and averaging 120 combat missions a month to build a total of more than 5,000 sorties. Lee Lue was the leader of the special group of Hmong pilots flying T-28Ds from Long Tieng against the Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese positions. The group was funded by the CIA and was part of the regular Royal Lao Air Force, but took orders directly from MR2 Commander Gen. Vang Pao. He was shot down by anti-aircraft fire over Muang Soui, then his T-28 plane fell in a mountainous area near Ban Phou Pheung Noi on July 12, 1969. At the time of his death, he had flown more combat missions than any other pilot in history.
The Battle of Lima Site 85, also called Battle of Phou Pha Thi, was fought as part of a military campaign waged during the Vietnam War and Laotian Civil War by the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Pathet Lao, against airmen of the United States Air Force (USAF)'s 1st Combat Evaluation Group, elements of the Royal Lao Army, Royal Thai Border Patrol Police, and the Central Intelligence Agency-led Hmong Clandestine Army. The battle was fought on Phou Pha Thi mountain in Houaphanh Province, Laos, on 10 March 1968, and derives its name from the mountaintop where it was fought or from the designation of a 700 feet (210 m) landing strip in the valley below, and was the largest single ground combat loss of United States Air Force members during the Vietnam War.
Operation Barrel Roll was a covert U.S. Air Force 2nd Air Division and U.S. Navy Task Force 77, interdiction and close air support campaign conducted in the Kingdom of Laos between 14 December 1964 and 29 March 1973 concurrent with the Vietnam War. The operation resulted in 260 million bombs being dropped on Laos, making Laos "the most heavily bombed nation in history".
Vientiane is the capital and largest city of Laos. Vientiane is divided administratively into 9 cities with a total area of only approx. 3,920 square kilometres and is located on the banks of the Mekong, close to the Thai border. Vientiane was the administrative capital during French rule and, due to economic growth in recent times, is now the economic center of Laos. The city had a population of 948,477 as of the 2020 Census.
Vientiane province is a province of Laos in the country's northwest. As of 2015 the province had a population of 419,090. Vientiane province covers an area of 15,610 square kilometres (6,030 sq mi) composed of 11 districts. The principal towns are Vang Vieng and Muang Phôn-Hông.
Operation Momentum was a guerrilla training program during the Laotian Civil War. This Central Intelligence Agency operation raising a guerrilla force of Hmong hill-tribesmen in northeastern Laos was planned by James William Lair and carried out by the Thai Police Aerial Reinforcement Unit. Begun on 17 January 1961, the three-day Auto Defense Choc course graduated a clandestine guerrilla army of 5,000 warriors by 1 May, and of 9,000 by August. It scored its first success the day after the first ADC company graduated, on 21 January 1961, when 20 ADC troopers ambushed and killed 15 Pathet Lao.
Operation Pigfat was a crucial guerrilla offensive of the Laotian Civil War; it lasted from 26 November 1968 to 7 January 1969. Launched by Hmong tribal soldiers backed by the Central Intelligence Agency, it was based on the usage of overwhelming air power to clear the path for the guerrillas. The guerrillas were faced with the largest concentration of Vietnamese communist troops stationed outside Vietnam, and hoped to spoil that imminent attack.
The Battle of Vientiane was the decisive action of the 1960 Laotian coups. Fought between 13 and 16 December 1960, the battle ended with General Phoumi Nosavan winning control of the Kingdom of Laos with the aid of the Royal Thai Government and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Vientiane was left devastated by the fighting, with about 600 civilian dead, about the same number of homes destroyed, and 7,000 left homeless. The losing Forces Armées Neutralistes under Captain Kong Le retreated onto the strategic Plain of Jars, to begin an uneasy coexistence with the Pathet Lao and the invading People's Army of Vietnam.
The Battle of Ban Pa Dong was fought between 31 January and 6 June 1961 in Ban Pa Dong, the Kingdom of Laos. Troops from the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Pathet Lao attacked Hmong recruits being trained as Auto Defense Choc guerrillas via Operation Momentum. Although the Hmong made the tactical error of defending a fixed position, their eventual escape from the communist invaders left their fledgling L'Armee Clandestine intact and able to wage war for the Royal Lao Government. However, they abandoned four howitzers and two mortars to the victorious Vietnamese communists. The partisans had also set a deleterious precedent for themselves with their defense of a fixed position.
Kou Kiet was a major Laotian Civil War victory for the anti-communist troops of the Kingdom of Laos. Patterned after prior Operation Raindance, it depended upon extensive air strikes blasting communist units and clearing them from the path of the Royalist offensive. Powered by 150 daylight and 50 night sorties daily, with 50 to 80 day strikes directed by Raven Forward Air Controllers, Kou Kiet ran from 6 August to 30 September 1969. It was successful beyond expectations. After the Royal Lao Government troops achieved their objectives, General Vang Pao insisted on pushing forward while they had the initiative. As a result, the Royalists regained control of the entire Plain of Jars while also capturing a huge stock of munitions from the communists. Their triumph came at a cost. However successful the Royalists were, by battle's end their battle-worn forces had exhausted their pool of potential recruits, while the Vietnamese could easily replace their personnel losses.
Operation Phou Phiang III was the final offensive of the Laotian Civil War by the Royal Lao Army's L'Armée Clandestine. Central Intelligence Agency-sponsored Hmong guerrillas and Thai mercenaries formed three attacking task forces in an attempt to clear the People's Army of Vietnam from positions near the Royalist guerrillas' headquarters on the Plain of Jars. All three columns failed to move the Vietnamese invaders before the ceasefire of 21 February 1973 ended the war.
The Battles of Bouamlong came about because the valley of Bouamlong was a center of Royalist guerrilla operations during the Laotian Civil War. Located well into Communist-held territory and maintained by an air bridge, on several occasions Bouamlong served as a launching point for Royalist offensives such as Operation Raindance, Kou Kiet, Operation Counterpunch III, and Operation Strength. It was also targeted for attack by offensives by the People's Army of Vietnam during Campaign 139 and Campaign 74B. Defended by Auto Defense Choc troops led by Major Cher Pao Moua, Bouamlong held out against the Communist forces even after the War ended in a ceasefire in February 1973. There were reports of resistance into the 1990s.
References
- ↑ Vang, Thomas (2008). A History of the Hmong: From Ancient Times to the Modern Diaspora. p. 312. ISBN 9781435709324 . Retrieved 1 February 2022.
- ↑ Hamilton-Merritt, Jane (1993). Tragic mountains: the Hmong, the Americans, and the secret wars for Laos, 1942-1992. Indiana State University. pp. 359–361. ISBN 978-0-253-20756-2. |access-date=1 February 2022
- Fadiman, Anne (1998). The spirit catches you and you fall down: a Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures. Macmillan. p. 157. ISBN 978-0-374-52564-4.
- Quincy, Keith (1988). Hmong: history of a people. Eastern Washington University Press. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-910055-07-9.
- Tapp, Nicholas (2004). "Hmong Diaspora". In Ember, Melvin; et al. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World. Volume I. Springer. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-306-48321-9.
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