Laotian Civil War in the context of "Vietnam War"

Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. Located on the Indochinese Peninsula, it is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and southwest. Having a population of approximately 8 million, its capital and most populous city is Vientiane.

The country traces its historic and cultural identity to Lan Xang, a kingdom which existed from the 13th to 18th centuries. Through its location, the kingdom was a hub for overland trade. In 1707, Lan Xang split into three kingdoms: Luang Prabang, Vientiane, and Champasak. In 1893, these kingdoms were unified under French protection as part of French Indochina. Laos was under Japanese administration during World War II, gaining independence in 1945 before returning to French administration until achieving autonomy in 1949. The country regained full independence in 1953 as the Kingdom of Laos, with a constitutional monarchy under Sisavang Vong. A Civil War from 1959 to 1975 saw the communist Pathet Lao, supported by North Vietnam, China and the Soviet Union, oppose the Royal Lao Armed Forces, backed by the United States. The war ended with the establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic in 1975 that aligned with the Soviet Union until the latter's dissolution in 1991.

The Pathet Lao (Lao: ປະເທດລາວ, romanized: Pa thēt Lāo, lit. 'Lao Nation'), officially the Lao People's Liberation Army, was a communist political movement and organization in Laos, formed in the 20th century. It ultimately gained control over the entire country of Laos in 1975, after the Laotian Civil War. The Pathet Lao were associated and dependent on Vietnamese communists and North Vietnam since their foundation, with the group being established after advice from Hanoi to create a Laotian counterpart of the Viet Minh or Viet Cong. During the civil war, it was effectively organised, equipped and 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.Under orders from Mao Zedong, the People's Liberation Army provided 115,000 guns, 920,000 grenades and 170 million bullets, and trained more than 700 of its military officers.

The Kingdom of Laos was the form of government in Laos from 1947 to 1975. Located in Southeast Asia at the heart of the Indochinese Peninsula, it was bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, North Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and southwest. The country was governed as a constitutional monarchy beginning with its independence on 22 October 1953. It survived until 2 December 1975, when its last king, Sisavang Vatthana, surrendered the throne to the Pathet Lao during the civil war in Laos, who abolished the monarchy in favour of a Marxist–Leninist state called the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Given self-rule with the new Constitution in 1947 as part of the French Union and a federation with the rest of French Indochina, the 1953 Franco-Lao Treaty finally established a sovereign, independent Laos, but did not stipulate who would rule the country. In the years that followed, three groups, led by the so-called Three Princes, contended for power: the neutralists under Prince Souvanna Phouma, the right-wing party under Prince Boun Oum of Champassak, and the left-wing, North Vietnamese-backed Pathet Lao under Prince Souphanouvong and future Prime Minister Kaysone Phomvihane.

The Royal Lao Armed Forces (Lao: ກອງທັບຣາຊອານາຈັກລາວ; French: Forces Armées du Royaume), best known by its French acronym FAR, were the official military of the Kingdom of Laos, a state that existed from 1949 to 1975 in what is now the Lao People's Democratic Republic. First created under the French protectorate of Laos on July 1, 1949, the FAR was responsible for the defense of the Kingdom since its independence in October 1953 from France, until its dissolution on December 2, 1975. It operated notably during the North Vietnamese invasion of Laos and the Laotian Civil War from 1960 to 1975.

During the aftermath of World War II and the Cold War, the Indochina wars (Vietnamese: Chiến tranh Đông Dương) were a series of wars which were waged in Indochina from 1945 to 1991, by communist forces (mainly ones led by Vietnamese communists) against the opponents (mainly the Vietnamese nationalists, Trotskyists, the State of Vietnam, the Republic of Vietnam, the French, American, Laotian royalist, Cambodian and Chinese communist forces). The term "Indochina" referred to former French Indochina, which included the current states of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. In current usage, it applies largely to a geographic region, rather than to a political area. The wars included:

• The First Indochina War (called the Indochina War in France and the French War in Vietnam) began after the end of World War II with the War in southern Vietnam (1945–1946), which acted as the precursor to the First Indochina War. The conflict officially began in 1946 and lasted until the French defeat in 1954. After a long campaign of unsuccessful resistance against the French and the Japanese, Viet Minh forces claimed a victory in the August Revolution after Japanese forces surrendered to the Allies on 15 August 1945, leading to the fall of the Empire of Vietnam and Nguyễn dynasty. In the War in southern Vietnam (1945–1946), British forces temporarily occupied the South with the objective of disarming Japanese forces, starting from 13 September 1945, only to restore French colonial control in 1946. Meanwhile, the communist Viet Minh sought to consolidate power by terrorizing and purging rival Vietnamese nationalist groups and Trotskyist activists. In the United Nations, and through their alliance with the United Kingdom and the United States, the French demanded return of their former Indochina colony prior to agreeing to participate in the NATO alliance (founded in 1949) opposing Soviet expansion beyond the countries of the Warsaw Pact (founded in 1955) in the Cold War. With support from China and the Soviet Union, the communist Viet Minh continued fighting the French Union, including the anti-communist State of Vietnam, ultimately forcing the NATO-backed French out of North Vietnam as a result of 1954 Geneva Conference.
• The Second Indochina War (called the Vietnam War in the United States and the Anti-American War by North Vietnam) began as a conflict between the United States-backed South Vietnamese government and its opponents, both the North Vietnamese-based communist Viet Cong (National Liberation Front) and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), known in the West as the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). The conflict began in 1955 and lasted until 1975 when the North Vietnamese army conquered South Vietnam. The United States, which had supported France and its native vassal during the First Indochina war, backed the Republic of Vietnam government in opposition to the communist Viet Cong and PAVN. The North benefited from military and financial support from China and the Soviet Union, members of the communist bloc, Fighting also occurred during this time in Cambodia between the US-backed government, the PAVN, and the communist-backed Khmer Rouge, which also fought alongside deposed King Sihanouk's government in exile (known as the Cambodian Civil War, 1967–1975) and in Laos between the US-backed government, the PAVN, and the communist-backed Pathet Lao (known as the Laotian Civil War or Secret War, 1959–1975).
• The Third Indochina War was a period of prolonged conflict following the Second Indochina War. The conflict began in 1978 and lasted until the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements on 23 October 1991, in which several wars were fought:

Hmong Americans (RPA: Hmoob Mes Kas, Pahawh Hmong: 𖬌𖬣𖬵 𖬉𖬲𖬦 𖬗𖬲) are Americans of Hmong ancestry. Many Hmong Americans immigrated to the United States as refugees in the late 1970s, with a second wave in the 1980s and 1990s. Over half of the Hmong population from Laos left the country, or attempted to leave, in 1975, at the culmination of the Laotian Civil War.

During this period, thousands of Hmong were evacuated or escaped on their own to Hmong refugee camps in neighboring Thailand. About 90% of those who made it to refugee camps in Thailand were ultimately resettled in the United States. The rest, about 8 to 10%, resettled in countries including Canada, France, the Netherlands, and Australia.