Pathet Lao Take Power in Laos
Laos was formally neutral under the 1962 Geneva accords, and the war fought across it was correspondingly deniable on all sides: North Vietnamese forces used its eastern corridor to supply the south, the United States responded with a bombing campaign conducted largely by the CIA rather than the air force, and a CIA-organised Hmong irregular army fought the Pathet Lao on the ground. Between 1964 and 1973 around two million tonnes of ordnance were dropped, leaving contamination that still causes casualties. When American support ended and Saigon fell in April 1975, the coalition government in Vientiane lost its external backing and the Pathet Lao moved without significant resistance. King Savang Vatthana abdicated in November and the republic was declared on 2 December. The king and much of the royal family later died in re-education camps. A large share of the educated population and most of the Hmong who had fought alongside the Americans fled, many eventually resettling in the United States.
- Year: 1975 CE
- Category: Political
