The
Pathet Lao (
Lao ປະເທດລາວ, "Lao State") was a
communist political movement and
organization in
Laos, formed in the mid-20th century. The group was ultimately successful in assuming political power after a
civil war, or
insurgent revolution, lasting from the 1950s to 1975. The Pathet Lao were always closely associated with Vietnamese communists. During the civil war, it was effectively organized, equipped and even led by the
army of North Vietnam.
The Pathet Lao were the
Laotian equivalent of the
Viet Minh and the
Viet Cong of
Vietnam. Eventually, the term was the generic name for Laotian communists. The political movement of the Pathet Lao was called first the Lao People's Party (1955-1972) and later the
Lao People's Revolutionary Party (1972-present). After the Pathet Lao militarily won power, they were the government, rather than a nationalist insurgency, and the term was dropped. Unlike the
Khmer Rouge, they were pro-
Vietnam. Key Pathet Lao include Prince
Souphanouvong,
Kaysone Phomvihane,
Phoumi Vongvichit,
Nouhak Phoumsavanh and
Khamtay Siphandone.
History
The organization under this name first appeared in 1950, when it was adopted by Lao forces under Prince
Souphanouvong, who joined the
Viet Minh's revolt against the colonial
French authorities in
Indochina during the
First Indochina War. In 1953, Pathet Lao fighters accompanied an invasion of Laos from Vietnam led by Viet Minh forces; they established a government at
Viengxay in
Houaphan province in northeast Laos. The communists began to make incursions into central Laos with the support of the Viet Minh, and a civil war erupted; the Pathet Lao quickly occupied substantial sections of the country.
The 1954
Geneva Conference agreements required the withdrawal of foreign forces, and allowed the Pathet Lao to establish itself as a regime in Laos' two northern provinces. The Viet Minh/North Vietnamese, in spite of the agreement, never really withdrew from the border areas of Laos and the Pathet Lao continued to operate almost as a branch organization of the Viet Minh. Two months after the conference, the Viet Minh/North Vietnam formed the unit
Group 100 with headquarters at
Ban Nameo. The unit effectively controlled and directed the Pathet Lao movement.
It was formed into an official party, the
Lao Patriotic Front (Neo Lao Hak Sat), in 1956. Its stated goal was to wage the communist struggle against
capitalism and Western
colonialism and
imperialism. Unstated was its subordination to
Vietnamese socialism. In 1956 a legal political wing, the Lao Patriotic Front (Neo Lao Hak Xat), was founded and participated in several coalition governments. A coalition was established in 1957 between the monarchists and communists, but it collapsed in 1959, bringing about a resumption of fighting.
By the late 1950s, North Vietnam had occupied areas of eastern Laos. The area was used as a transit route for men and supplies destined for the insurgency in
South Vietnam. In September 1959, North Vietnam formed
Group 959 in Laos with the aim of building the Pathet Lao into a stronger counterforce against the Lao Royal government. Group 959 openly supplied, trained and militarily supported the Pathet Lao. The typical strategy during this era was for North Vietnamese regulars to attack first but then send in the Pathet Lao at the end of the battle to claim "victory".
In the 1960s, more attempts at neutrality agreements and coalition government were attempted but as North Vietnam had no intention of withdrawing from Laos, these agreements all failed. By the middle 1960s, the country had fallen into proxy warfare between pro-US and pro-Vietnamese irregular military groups. In 1968, the Army of North Vietnam launched a multi-division invasion of Laos. The Pathet Lao were pushed to the side in the conflict and reduced to the role of an auxiliary force to the North Vietnamese army. Unable to match the heavy
Soviet and Chinese weapons in addition to the numerical strength of the Vietnamese forces, the
Royal Lao Army took itself out of the conflict after heavy losses.
The communist forces battled the Royal Lao Army,
U.S. irregular forces (including
Air America and other contract employees and
Hmong commandos), and
Thai "volunteer" forces in Laos winning effective control in the north and east. The government itself was effectively powerless, for the most part, and manipulated by both sides. The Pathet Lao held hundreds of US "detaineess" as
prisoners of war during and after the
Vietnam War (Second Indochina War).
Shortly after the
Paris Peace Accords ended US involvement in the Vietnam war, the Pathet Lao and the government of Laos signed a cease-fire agreement, the
Vientiane Treaty, in February 1973.
The coalition government envisaged by the treaty did not long outlast it. The Pathet Lao refused to disarm and the
North Vietnamese Army did not leave the country. In 1975, the Pathet Lao with the direct assistance of the North Vietnamese Army began attacking government strongholds. With
the fall of the South Vietnamese government in April 1975 in their minds, the non-communist elements of the national government decided that allowing the Pathet Lao to enter power would be better than to have them take it by force. In November 1975, the Pathet Lao took over Laos, abolishing the
monarchy and establishing the
Lao People's Democratic Republic. Shortly thereafter, the Pathet Lao signed an agreement with Vietnam that allowed Vietnam to station its army in the country and to send political and economic advisors into the country. Vietnam afterward forced Laos to cut any remaining economic ties to its other neighbors. For the next 15 years, the Pathet Lao ran the country almost as a Vietnamese
colony. A systematic program of forcefully removing and exterminating
Hmong people was begun within Laos, which resulted in complaints by
United Nations member countries of attempted
genocide and other human rights abuses by the government of Laos. The Lao government's response has been to label the
Hmong people and former Royal Lao Army
Major General Vang Pao as "
international terrorists".
Expansion of Pathet Lao influence
There were two rival royal governments in Laos from the beginning of 1961, the Boun Oum-Phoumi Nosavan government at Vientiane and the Souvanna Phouma government at Khang Khay. The Pathet Lao, protected by the presence of thousands of North Vietnamese troops, constituted a third faction in what became a rightist-Neutralist-leftist division.
The idea of neutralism had been expressed by Kong Le in his earliest speeches in Vientiane, which described the goals of his coup d'état as stopping the fighting among the Laotians and enacting a policy of friendship with all foreign countries, especially Laos's neighbors. At Khang Khay, Soviet diplomats mingled with officials of missions from
Beijing and
Hanoi, with which relations had been established on May 5. Kong Le's troops readily adopted the unofficial name Neutralist Armed Forces. Souvanna Phouma seized the opportunity of having a sizeable number of adherents on hand at Khang Khay, including many Lao students returned from abroad, to form the Neutralist Party, (Lao Pen Kang-- known as the Neutralists). He was confident the party would outpoll the Pathet Lao's LPF in a free election.
Although publicly deferring to Souvanna Phouma on matters of government policy, the Pathet Lao secretly extended their influence at the grassroots level, using their proven methods of propaganda and organization. In villages under their control, the Pathet Lao installed their own personnel alongside the existing administration--for example, a khana muang (liberated district) alongside a chao muang (district chief), a khana seng (liberated subdistrict) alongside a pho tasseng (subdistrict chief), and a khana ban (liberated village) alongside a pho ban or nai ban (village chief). Access to the Pathet Lao-administered areas was forbidden to outsiders, even after the formation of the coalition government.
A hierarchy of politico-military participation and responsibility tied the villagers to a chain of command. All resources in villages under Pathet Lao control were mobilized into both a horizontal and a vertical structure that included organizations of women, youth, and monks. Villagers were easily susceptible to Pathet Lao control, making a Pathet Lao village a world unto itself. Children acted as couriers and lookouts; young people joined the village self-defense units, the lowest level of
guerrilla organization; adults acted as porters for the regular guerrilla units; and women made clothing, prepared food, and looked after the sick and wounded.
See also
