Laotian Civil War

The Laotian Civil War was fought from 1959 to 1975 between the Royal Lao Government, backed by the United States, and the communist Pathet Lao movement, supported by North Vietnam, as a direct extension of the wider Vietnam War fought largely through a covert American air and paramilitary campaign that came to be known as the Secret War. Heavy and sustained American bombing devastated large parts of the Laotian countryside over the course of the conflict. The war ended in 1975 as communist forces triumphed across all of Indochina, with the Pathet Lao completing its takeover of the country and establishing the Lao People's Democratic Republic later that year.