Brief
For centuries Laos has been a pawn in the strategic games between neighbouring states, and more recently, between world powers. Perhaps due to the Lao people's devout Buddhism and tolerance, nationalist aspirations were slow to develop and the shaping of Laos as a modern nation state did not begin until WW II and the Japanese occupation of French Indochina. Laos gained independence from France in 1949 and in the 1950s Laos became a stage in the global struggle between left and right wing ideologies, with the USA and opposing Communist countries funding sides in the contest for Laos's allegiance. After the Vietnam War, the Prathet Lao (PL) revolutionary movement set up the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR) and remains in power today.
|Prehistory & Austro-Thai Migration|Tai Dominance|
|Lan Na and Lan Xang|Fragmentation and war with Siam|French Rule|
|Rise of the Pathet Lao|Coalition & Dissolution|Coup & Counter-Coup|
|War of Resistance|Revolution & Reform|
|Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR)|
Prehistory & Austro-Thai Migration
The Mekong River valley and the Korat Plateau, which encompass substantial parts of Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, were inhabited as long as 10.000 years ago. Although data on these prehistoric cultures is limited, evidence shows that production of bronze and glazed ceramics began here earlier than elsewhere in the world.
Many ethnic groups in these areas, both indigenous and immigrant belong to the Austro-Thai linguistic family. In Laos, most of these subgroups are identified with the Thai-Kadai and Hmong-Mien (Miao-Yao) linguistic families. The Thai-Kadai, have historically comprised the most significant cultural Diaspora from Southern China and Eastern Tibet to South-East Asia.
The predecessors of the current Lao came south during periodic migrations along several geo-graphic lines. A linguistic map of southern China, North-western India and South-East Asia shows clearly that the main access routes of the Thai subgroups (usually referred to as ‘Tai’ by scholars) into what is now Laos and Thailand, were river valleys: from the Red River (Yuan Jiang) in Southern China and Vietnam to the Brahmaputra River in Assam and Northeastern India. Areas lying between these points were intermediate migrational zones and far less populated.
One such intermediate zone was The Mekong River valley dividing Thailand and Laos. Others were the Nam Ou, Nam Seriang and other river valleys in modern day Laos. Linguistic and anthropological evidence indicates that Austro-Thai peoples in southern China and North Vietnam began migrating southward and westward in the 8th century AD. These groups established local administrations according to their traditional system. Meuangs were districts ruled by a Jao Meuang , a hereditary position. The Tai people preferred basing their meuangs in river valleys, sometimes grouping into loose alliances. Around them, in roughly concentric circles, developed small vassal states known as monthon, from the Sanskrit Mandela. One of the largest of these early alliances of monthons developed in the region of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam. Sikhotabong, situated on the Lao side of the Mekong near present day Tha kaek, was one of the first known monthons.
Tai Dominance
The Mongols rise to power in China in the 13th century under Genghis Khan spurred a huge migration of Tai peoples south. Described by one historian as more of an inundation than a migration, the advancing Tais gradually displaced or assimilated the indigenous Austro Burman and Austro Asiatic groups that controlled the area between Vietnam and Assam in Northwest India. This was made easier by forming alliances with other Tai peoples already in the area.
Lao legend relates how the mythical figure, Khun Borom cut a gourd open in the vicinity of Dien Bien Phu. From it issued seven sons who followed separate paths to found seven Tai kingdoms from the Red River in North Vietnam, west to the Brahmaputra, which suggests that the Tais may have originated in Northern Vietnam, not Southern China as previously believed.
Southern Laos was at the time an early center of the Mon-Funan kingdom from the first to sixth centuries, superceded by the Chenla kingdom, from the 6th to 8th centuries. Both kingdoms extended from Champasak to Northwestern Cambodia. Srigotapura (near present day Tha Kaek) and Muang Sawa (now Luang Prabang) were two other early Mon kingdoms. They were absorbed first by the Khmer empire and later by Siamese and Lao principalities.
Lan Na and Lan Xang
In what is today Laos and Northern Thailand, several small independent Tai and Mon meuangs existed until the 13th century, when The Tais rebelled against the Khmers, resulting in a coalition of several meuangs which formed the foundation of the Sukhothai Kingdom in Northern Thailand. Sukhothai was ruled by King Ramkhamheng who supported Chao Mengrai of Chiang Mai and Chao Khun Ngam Muang of Phayao in founding of Lan Na Thai (Million Thai Rice fields). Lanna extended from Northern Thailand as far as Luang Prabang, down to Vientiane. Debate continues today whether this kingdom was essentially Thai or Lao as the people of that kingdom described themselves as both.
As the kingdom of Ayuthaya gained dominance in the 14th century, the power of Lanna waned. Fa Ngum and his father, who had seduced one of his father’s wives, had been expelled from Muang Sawa and took refuge at Angkor. Eventually he married the Khmer ruler’s daughter Nang Kaew Kaeng Nya.
With the support of 10,000 Khmer troops, Prince Fa Ngum captured Xieng Khouang, the Korat Plateau, and Vientiane before finally taking Muang Sawa and vanquishing his grandfather in 1353. He declared himself king of those areas and called his country Lan Xang Horn Khao (a Million Elephants and White Parasol).
While Lan Xang was clearly a client state of Angkor, it is also the real beginning of Lao history. Areawise, Lan Xang was one of the largest kingdoms in mainland Southeast Asia at that time but it was thinly populated.
Theravada was made the state religion and the Phra Bang, a gold Budddha image cast in Si Lanka was given by Angkor to be enshrined In Muang Sawa. It became, and has remained to be regarded as a talismanic symbol of the Kingdom of Laos. Muang Sawa changed its name to Luang Prabang.
Within 20 years after its founding, Lan Xang’s borders extended to Champa and the Annamite mountains in the east. Preoccupied with warfare, his ministers, unable to further tolerate his ruthlessness, drove him into exile to what is today Nan province in Northern Thailand. He died there 5 years later.
His eldest son, Oun Heuan, succeeded him, taking upon himself the name Phaya Samsaenthai – the Lord of 300,000 Thais. Having married princesses from Chiang Mai and Ayuthaya, he reorganized the administration of his country along Siamese lines and built temples and schools. During his reign of 43 years Lan Xang prospered and became an important trade center. Upon his death in 1421, warring factions kept Lan Xang in turmoil for the next 100 years. Twelve different rulers came and went during this time – many of them lasting no longer than a year or two.
Samsenthai’s daughter, Nang Kaew Pimpha, better known as the Maha Devi, installed 7 of those kings before finally claiming the throne for herself. These were bloody years in Laos. Disgusted, her ministers had her bound with her young lover to a stone and left her to starve and become food for the carrion birds.
King Phothisarat came to power in 1520 and moved the capital to Vientiane to avoid aggression from Burma in the west. Having conquered Lanna, he set his son Setthirat upon the throne there. 5 years an elephant killed later King Phothisarat as he was trying to show off his elephant roping skills and his son assumed the throne of Lan Xang as well. From Lanna he brought the Phra Kaew - the Emerald Buddha - to Vientiane, and to house it, built Wat Phra Kaew. He also ordered the construction of That Luang, the largest Buddhist stupa in the Kingdom.
Although great in area and powerful, the rulers of Lan Xang were never able to subjugate the numerous highland tribes of Laos. Mountainous states in the northeast maintained their independence or were subject to Chinese or Annamite influence. King Setthirat disappeared on a military campaign to the mountains of the northeast in 1571, never to be heard of again. It is thought that rebellious highlanders destroyed him and his troops.
Lanna declined rapidly from this point. Internal warring factions and intermittent Burmese domination brought Lanna 60 years of chaos until in 1637 King Surya Vongsa ascended the throne. For 57 years (the longest reign of any Lao king) he ruled, bringing peace and prosperity. This was the pinnacle in Lao history in terms of territory, power and prestige.
Fragmentation and war with Siam
Upon the death of the heirless Surya Vongsa, a three-way stuggle for the throne preceded the breakup of Lan Xang. Surya’s nephew, by the early seventeenth century, controlled the middle Mekong valley around Vientiane, under the Stewardship of Annam. Luang Phrabang became a second independent state under Surya’s grandsons. To the south, in Champasak, another kingdom, under Siamese influence, emerged.
The powerful Burmese, between 1763 and 1769, overran Northern Laos and annexed Luang Phrabang and at the same time the Siamese captured Champasak.
The Siamese, by the end of the 18th century, had expanded their influence to Vientiane and exacted tribute from Luang Phabang. Chao Anou was a Lao prince, educated in Bangkok. The Siamese court as the vassal king of Vientiane installed him. The capital was restored and Anou encouraged a renaissance of art and literature. In the 1820s, Anou, forced to pay tribute to the rulers of Annam as well as to Siam, rebelled unsuccessfully against Siam and consequently Vientiane was razed to the ground. Its inhabitants, who weren’t slaughtered outright, were led in captivity to Siam to live in slave settlements. Luang Phrabang and Champasak fell too to the Siamese. Most of the central Mekong region, east to the Annamite mountains by the late 19th century had been defeated and depopulated by the Siamese. What had been Lan Xang was now a number of states, vassals to Siam.
The neutral states of Xieng Khouang and Hua Phan, in 1885 agreed also to Siamese protection, in the face of repeated incursions of looting Annamese and Chinese Haw who were a loose affiliation of Yunnanese, French Army deserters and Thai Dam. The Siamese were only too happy to give protection, as they were concerned with the expanding French influence in Vietnam.
French Rule
Having established protectorates in Tonkin and Annam, the French, with Siamese consent, opened a consulate at Luang Phrabang. Soon thereafter, they convinced Laos to apply for protectorate status as well. It was probably the only feasible choice at the time, though the monarch Oun Kham has been vilified since for giving up Lao sovereignty. To avoid being carved up between China and Vietnam, Laos had essentially two choices – the French or the Siamese.
French-Siamese treaties between 1893 and 1907 relieved Siam of all her territory east of the Mekong. Uniting the remaining Lao principalities into one colonial territory, the French had little fear of dissatisfied entities uniting. They named the country Laos, apparently abbreviated from les Laos, the plural of Lao.
The treaty of 1896-97 as they stand today established the boundaries of Laos during a joint commission with China, Britain and Siam. Frances disregard for cultural differences on either side of the Annamite Mountain Range proved to be a major blunder, as aggression immediately broke out between them when the French left.
Except as a buffer state between British influence in Burma and the economically important French colonies of Tonkin and Annam, Laos was of little importance to the French. It was simply too isolated to make exploitation of natural resources viable. The Mekong could not be navigated and the majority of the country was comprised of rugged mountains.
Corvees and draft labor were nevertheless instituted. Each male was forced to contribute 10 days labour a year to the colonial government. While producing tin, rubber and coffee, Laos only accounted for about 1% of French Indochina exports.
Laos became known as the Land of the Lotus Eaters, due to the dissolute reputations of French Civil servants who adopted native mores and indulged in their vices shamelessly. The presence of the French undermined the fabric of traditional Lao interpolitical flexibility and cut off the most populated area of the Champasak kingdom – Isan – on the Korat plateau by ceding it to Thailand. Through peaceful means, the French effectively weakened Laos more than would have been achieved by war. Furthermore, the French, by imposing a Vietnamese staffed civil service upon Laos, effectively slowed down modernization to a snails pace.
With the support of the Vichy regime, in 1945, the Japanese occupied French Indochina The Lao mounted little resistance, and gained more local autonomy than they had had under the French. Near the end of the war, the French-installed King Sisavang Vong was forced by the Japanese to declare independence, in spite of his loyalty to France. Prince Phetsarat, the prime minister and viceroy, did not trust Sisavang Vong and formed the Lao Issara (Free Lao) resistance movement to ensure colonial rule once the Japanese left.
In 1945, When French paratroopers arrived in Vientiane and Luang Prabang, Prince Phetsarat was relieved of his official positions and once again Laos was declared a French protectorate. Phetsarat and the Lao Issara formed the Committee of the People. In October 1945, they drew up a new constitution, proclaiming Laos independent of French rule. The National Assembly deposed Sisavang Vong when he refused to recognize the new document.
In April 1946, Sisavang Vong was re-instated as king (the first time a Lao monarch actually ruled all of what is today called Laos), after having came around to the Lao Issara view of things. Two days after the coronation, French and Lao guerrillas, calling themselves the 'Free French', captured Vientiane and destroyed the Lao Issara forces, as well as forces sent from Vietnam by Ho Chi Minh. Phetsarat and many of his comrades fled to Thailand. They set up a government-in-exile with Phetsarat acting as regent. This brutal suppression of the Lao Issara sent many recruits to join Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh movement.
Financially in a shambles the French by late 1946, were willing to concede autonomy to Laos and bid the Lao Issara to enter into formal negotiations. But three factions split the Lao Issara. Phersarat’s faction refused to negotiate with the French, insisting on immediate independence on Lao Issara terms Phetsarat's half-brother, Prince Souvanna Phouma, headed the second faction. He wanted to negotiate with the French in forming an independent Laos. Another half-brother, Prince Souphanouvong, wanted to work out a deal with the Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh.
In 1949, the French proceeded without the cooperation of the Lao Issara and held a French-Lao convention which recognised Laos as an independent associate state, but remained part of the French Union. For the first time Laos was recognised by the world as a separate nation. The treaty gave Laos the right to become an independent member of the United Nations. The Lao Issara dissolved, and Phetsarat remained in exile in Thailand for most of his remaining years. France granted full sovereignty to Laos Four years later with the Franco-Laotian Treaty of October 1953. By this time heavily preoccupied with the Viet Minh offensives in Vietnam, the French were looking to reduce their colonial burden.
Rise of the Pathet Lao
In 1948, Prince Souphanouvong went to Hanoi to enlist support from the Viet Minh for a Lao communist movement. Kaysone Phomvihane (who later became Secretary-General of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and Prime Minister of the LPDR), was at the same time making headway among tribal minorities in the mountain districts of Eastern Laos on behalf of Ho Chi Minh's ICP – the Indochinese Communist Party
In 1950, the Free Lao Front (FLF), supported by the Viet Minh and the Lao Resistance Government under Prince Souphanouvong were founded in Eastern Laos culminating in the 1975 Lao Communist takeover. Those 25 years encompassed a bewildering succession of political changes. First, the ICP reconstituted itself as the Vietnamese Workers Party in 1951. In 1954 an international communiqué released by the FLF referred specifically to the Pathet Lao (country of the Lao) and tactical forces of the FLF (and later the Patriotic Lao Front). The name was changed to the Lao People's Liberation Army (LPLA) in 1965, but the international media generally applied the term Pathet Lao to the Vietnamese- supported liberation movement in Laos.
The kingdom of Laos was governed along European lines by a constitutional monarchy in 1953-54. A French-educated elite ran the government, but following the defeat of the French by Viet Minh troops at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, Lao resistance in the countryside increased. Anxious to counter the Viet Minh influence in South-East Asia, the US government began pouring aid into Laos to bolster loyalty to the 'democratic cause'. Following the Geneva Conference of 1954, which sanctioned the takeover 'pending political settlement', Viet Minh and PL troops claimed the North-Eastern Lao provinces of Hua Phan and Phongsali during this same period.
In 1955, a clandestine communist party was officially formed in Sam Neua (Hua Phan Province) under the name Lao People's Party (LPP), consisting of 25 former ICP members. The LPP set up a national front in early 1956 called the Lao Patriotic Front (LPF; known in Lao as Neo Lao Hak Sat or NLHS). Like its counterpart in Cambodia, the LPP was a member of the Indochinese United Front, which was led by the Vietnamese Workers Party.
Coalition & Dissolution
The participants at the Geneva Conference had finally reached a settlement by 1957. LPF and the Royal Lao Government (RLG) agreed to a coalition government (under the RLG’s Prince Souvanna Phouma)) known as the Government of National Union.Two LPF ministers and their deputies were admitted at the national level.
The 1500 PL troops in the northeast were to be absorbed into the Royal Lao Army, According to the Geneva agreement, but disagreements over rank made a successful merge impossible. In 1958, the National Assembly election in two northeastern provinces clearly showed large LPF support among the general populace (13 out of 21 seats). A right-wing reaction led to the arrest of LPF ministers and deputies, and the PL troops re-entrenched themselves in the countryside. Undoubtedly this government action following the electoral results was heavily influenced by the United States withdrawal of all aid to Laos, which by that point formed the bulk of the Lao national budget.
The fall of the Government of National Union was followed by the dominance of the Committee for the Defence of National Interests (CDNI), made up of extreme right-wing military officers and French-educated elites, in the Vientiane government. With powerful US backing The CDNI had Phoui Sananikone installed as prime minister. Souvanna Phouma was made the Lao ambassador to France. Within a year of their arrest, Prince Souphanouvong and his LPF colleagues escaped and were again leading the resistance in the countryside.
The Vientiane government was strongly advised to adopt a more neutral policy towards the LPF when in 1959 a UN investigation declared that the PL was not using regular North Vietnamese troops. (Since then, it has come out that the PL was receiving North Vietnamese support in the form of political and military advisers during this period. the North Vietnamese assisted the PL In the mountains of the north and northeast, in gaining control over the tribal groups.)
The USA renewed aid to Laos to counter the North Vietnamese presence – this time mostly for direct military use. Fighting broke out between the PL (and its North Vietnamese military advisers) and the RLG on the Plain Of Jars during the summer of 1959. US Special Forces teams were sent to Laos to train government troops, and in March 1960 the CIA's Air America took delivery of the first four helicopters to Laos.
Coup & Counter-Coup
The neutralist military faction led by Kong Le In August 1960, seized Vientiane in a coup d'etat. Souvanna Phoum was recalled from France to serve as prime minister. Rightist General Phoumi Novasan agreed at first to support the new government and to allow LPF participation. He later withdrew with his troops to Southern Laos. Enjoying US support, in December he attacked Vientiane and then took over control from the neutralists in a CIA-rigged election. Kong Le retreated to Xieng Khuang, where he and his troops joined forces with the PL and North Vietnamese. This new coalition was supplied with armaments by the USSR and by 1961 they controlled virtually all of Northern and Eastern Laos.
When US president John F Kennedy, first announced that he would intervene with US troops to prevent a communist takeover of Laos, a superpower confrontation threatened to erupt. In May 1961, a 14-nation conference convened in Geneva to try and thwart the crisis. In July 1962, a set of agreements was signed after lengthy negotiations, which provided for an independent, neutral Laos. The International Commission for Supervision & Control (ICSQ) was to monitor the observance of these agreements.
A second Government of National Union was formed the following month, a coalition of Prince Boun Ouen representing the rightist military, Souphanouvong for the PL and Souvanna Phouma for the neutralist military. Meanwhile the US pulled out all of its 666military advisers
and support staff. Completely ignoring Geneva and the ICSC, seven thousand North Vietnamese ground troops remained in Laos.
The second attempt to form a coalition didn't last long. Skirmishes occurred between PL and neutralist troops over the administration of the communist controlled northeast. With an unprovoked attack against Kong Le's neutralist headquarters, the PL seriously upset the three party balance of power. Kong Le reacted by allying himself with the rightists.
A rapid series of coups and counter-coups in 1964 resulted in the final alignment of the neutralist and right-wing factions on the one side, and the PL on the other. From then on, the leadership of the PL refused outright to consider any offers of coalition or national election. They did not believe they would be given a voice in governing the country if either of the other two factions were in power. Instead in direct contravention of the Geneva accord, they continued to look to the North Vietnamese for support, which eventually resulted in allowing seven North Vietnamese Army (NVA) divisions into North-Eastern Laos.
War of Resistance
From 1964 to 1973, the war in Indochina escalated. From US air bases established in Thailand, US bombers were soon trans-secting Eastern and North-Eastern Laos, North Vietnam and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail on bombing missions. In order to fulfill their orders to release all bombs, B-52 captains would arbitrarily empty their bomb bays over civilian areas in Laos when returning from Vietnamese air strikes; On a per capita and tonnage basis, Laos is the most heavily bombed nation in the history of warfare. Saturation bombing of PL and NVA strongholds was carried out intensely, but the PL simply moved their headquarters into cave complexes near Sam Neua.
With growing guerrilla resistance in South Vietnam, the US military began forming a special CIA-trained army in Laos to counter the growing power of the PL. Largely comprised of Hmong tribesmen under the command of the Royal Lao Army (RLA) General Vang Pao - himself a Hmong - this army of 10,000 was a division of the RLA, trained for mountain warfare. The troops were not mercenaries in the true sense of the term. They were however, US and Thai trained, and US paid. There were more Thais and Lao Theung than Hmong in the RLA by the end of the 1960s.
There were, as well, a rotating number of US Air Force pilots, stationed in Long Tieng and Savannakhet, that flew regular missions as forward air controllers, spotting targets for bombing and fighter strikes in Laos and Vietnam.
By 1971 Chinese troops in Laos were in evidence, comprised mostly of an air defence force of 6000 to 7000, mostly concentrated along a complex of roads the Chinese were building in Luang Nam Tha, Udomxai and Phongsali Provinces. As many as 16,000 Chinese road workers laboured in Laos during the war.
Revolution & Reform
A ceasefire agreement was reached in Laos as the USA began negotiating its way out of Vietnam in 1973, (via the Paris agreements, leaving the country was effectively divided into PL and non-PL zones, just as it had been in 1954, only this time under communist control. The Provisional Government of National Union (PGNU) formed and the two sides once more tried to forge a coalition government. Meanwhile as the non-PL Vientiane leadership showed signs of manipulation and corruption by the US, popular support for the PL was growing. Finally the US began withdrawing from Laos. In June 1974 the last Air America plane flew across the Mekong to Thailand.
The rapid fall of Saigon and Phnom Penh immediately after US the withdrawal in April 1975 led the PL to attack Metrang Phu Khun, The loss of the strategic crossroads between Luang Prabang and Vientiane, defended by RLG and Hmong was a terrible defeat for the US-backed forces, and a symbolic final victory in the PL's drawn out struggle.
By 4 May 1975, after concerted LP pressure, four non-LP ministers and seven generals resigned and an exodus of the Lao political and commercial elite began across the Mekong into Thailand. PL forces took Pakse, Champasak and Savannaket without opposition and on 23 August they took Vientiane in the same manner.
Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR)
In December, the PGNU was quietly dismantled over the following months and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) was declared the ruling party of the LPDR in December. It was a bloodless takeover; the US embassy closed down for only one day. Kaysone Phomvihane, a protege of the Vietnamese communists, became prime minister, serving until his death in November 1992. Kaysone was born to a Lao mother and a Vietnamese father in Savannakhet in 1920. Much of his early life was spent in Hanoi, where he studied law. In the 1940s, with Viet Minh assistance, he helped to organize the Lao Issara resistance movement. Kaysone's was a key figure in modern Lao politics. Fluent in Lao, Vietnamese, Thai, Shan, French and English, he was a highly pragmatic ruler, able to learn from his mistakes. He was succeeded by former deputy prime minister and Defence minister Kharmay Siphandone. Kharmay was elected president in 1996, a position he still maintains.
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