Hmong Insurgency
The insurgency in Laos is an ongoing low-intensity conflict between the Laotian government on one side and former members of the " Secret Army", Laotian royalists, and rebels from the Hmong and lowland Lao ethnic minorities on the other. These groups have faced reprisals from the Lao People's Army and Vietnam People's Army for their support of the United States-led, anti-communist military campaigns in Laos during the Laotian Civil War, which the insurgency is an extension of itself. The North Vietnamese invaded Laos in 1958 and supported the communist Pathet Lao. The Vietnamese communists continued to support the Pathet Lao after the end of the Laotian Civil War and the establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. While severely depleted, the remnants of an early 1980s-era, and 1990s-era, Royalist insurgency has been kept alive by an occasionally active guerrilla force of several thousand or so successors to that force. In June 2007 Vang Pao was arrested in the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Third Indochina War
The Third Indochina War was a series of interconnected armed conflicts, mainly among the various communist factions over strategic influence in Indochina after Communist victory in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in 1975. The conflict primarily started due to continued raids and incursions by the Khmer Rouge into Vietnamese territory that they sought to retake. These incursions would result in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War in which the newly unified Vietnam overthrew the Pol Pot regime and the Khmer Rouge, in turn ending the Cambodian genocide. Vietnam had installed a government led by many opponents of Pol Pot, including former Khmer Rouge most notably Hun Sen. This led to Vietnam's occupation of Cambodia for over a decade. The Vietnamese push to completely destroy the Khmer Rouge led to them conducting Vietnamese border raids in Thailand, border raids in Thailand who had provided sanctuary. China strongly objected to the invasion of Cambodia. Chinese armed forces launched a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Laos
Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist state and the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. At the heart of the Indochinese Peninsula, Laos is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and southwest. Its capital and largest city is Vientiane. Present-day Laos traces its historic and cultural identity to Lan Xang, which existed from the 14th century to the 18th century as one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. Because of its central geographical location in Southeast Asia, the kingdom became a hub for overland trade and became wealthy economically and culturally. After a period of internal conflict, Lan Xang broke into three separate kingdoms: Luang Phrabang, Vientiane and Champasak. In ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vang Pao
Vang Pao ( RPA: ''Vaj Pov'' , Lao: ວັງປາວ; 8 December 1929 – 6 January 2011) was a major general in the Royal Lao Army. He was a leader of the Hmong American community in the United States. He was also known as General Vang Pao to the people in the Hmong community. Early life Vang, an ethnic Hmong, was born on 8 December 1929, in a Hmong village named Nonghet, located in Central Xiangkhuang Province, in the northeastern region of Laos, where his father, Neng Chu Vang, was a county leader. Vang began his early life as a farmer until Japanese forces invaded and occupied French Indochina in World War II. His father sent him away to school from the age of 10 to 15 before he launched his military career, joining the French Military to protect fellow Hmong during the Japanese invasion. While taking an entrance examination, the captain who was the proctor realized that Vang knew almost no written French. The captain dictated the answers to Vang so he could j ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Domino Theory
The domino theory is a geopolitical theory which posits that increases or decreases in democracy in one country tend to spread to neighboring countries in a domino effect. It was prominent in the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s in the context of the Cold War, suggesting that if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow. It was used by successive United States administrations during the Cold War to justify the need for American intervention around the world. Former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower described the theory during a news conference on 7 April 1954, when referring to communism in Indochina as follows: Moreover, Eisenhower’s deep belief in the domino theory in Asia heightened the "perceived costs for the United States of pursuing multilateralism" because of multifaceted events including the " 1949 victory of the Chinese Communist Party, the June 1950 North Korean invasion, the 1954 Que ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Battle Of Dien Bien Phu
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu (french: Bataille de Diên Biên Phu ; vi, Chiến dịch Điện Biên Phủ, ) was a climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War that took place between 13 March and 7 May 1954. It was fought between the French Union's colonial Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist revolutionaries. The United States was officially not a party to the war, but it was secretly involved by providing financial and material aid to the French Union, which included CIA contracted American personnel participating in the battle. The People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union similarly provided vital support to the Viet Minh, including most of their artillery and ammunition. The French began an operation to insert, and support, their soldiers at Điện Biên Phủ, deep in the autonomous Tai Federation up in the hills northwest of Tonkin. The operation's purpose was to cut off Viet Minh supply lines into the neighboring Kingdom of Laos (a Fre ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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First Indochina War
The First Indochina War (generally known as the Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam) began in French Indochina from 19 December 1946 to 20 July 1954 between France and Việt Minh (Democratic Republic of Vietnam), and their respective allies. Việt Minh was led by Võ Nguyên Giáp and Hồ Chí Minh. Most of the fighting took place in Tonkin in Northern Vietnam, although the conflict engulfed the entire country and also extended into the neighboring French Indochina protectorates of Laos and Cambodia. At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, the Combined Chiefs of Staff decided that Indochina south of latitude 16° north was to be included in the Southeast Asia Command under British Admiral Mountbatten. The Japanese forces located south of that line surrendered to him and those to the north surrendered to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. In September 1945, Chinese forces entered Tonkin, and a small British task force landed at city of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Touby Lyfoung
Touby Lyfoung ( RPA: Tub Npis Lis Foom , Pahawh: : 1917–1979) was a Hmong political and military leader. Born in 1917 in Nong Het, Laos, he became the first Hmong politician to achieve national prominence. During his long career, which began under French colonial rule and extended to the communist takeover in 1975, he supported the Royal Lao Government and American involvement in the Secret War. Under French rule Touby Lyfoung was the son of Ly Xia Foung, a very well respected man among the Hmong community of Laos, and the grandson-in-law of Lo Bliayao, one of the first Hmong to gain leadership position in the Laotian government. Coming from a rich and well known family, Touby was able to attend schools in the lowlands of Laos and sent to study in Vietnam as well. Touby studied at the French Lycée, School of Law, and the Administration in Vientiane. The French were impressed by his education, for he was the only Hmong to have attained such an education in the French col ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sisavang Vong
King Sisavangvong ( lo, ພຣະບາທສົມເດັຈພຣະເຈົ້າມະຫາຊີວິຕສີສວ່າງວົງສ໌, 14 July 1885 – 29 October 1959) Born Prince Khao , was one of the last kings of Luang Prabang ruling from 28th of April 1904 until his death on the 29th of October 1959. According to Lao customs, while being crowned khao would be given a Courtesy name Sisavangvong and be addressed by his courtesy name until his death. Early life Prince Khao was born in the Golden Palace (during his father's reign) on 14th July, 1885, as the eldest surviving son of His Majesty King Zakarinth and second wife Her majesty Queen consort Thong-sy. However, in boyhood Khao was sent to study at Lycée Chasseloup-Laubat, Saigon and l'École Coloniale, where he would return to ascend the throne. Ascension Prince Khao was named heir apparent on 15th of April 1904, upon his father's death on the 26th of March 1904, Khao was to ascend the throne at ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Phetsarath
Prince Phetsarath Ratanavongsa (''Somdej Chao Maha Uparaja Petsaraj Ratanavongsa ''( lo, ສົມເດັຈເຈົ້າ ມຫາ ອຸປຣາຊ ເພັຊຣາຊ ຣັຕນວົງສາ) (19 January 1890 – 14 October 1959) was the 1st Prime Minister of Luang Phrabang in French Laos from 21 August 1941 to 10 October 1945, and Head of State of Laos between 12 October 1945 and 4 April 1946. Biography Early life Phetsarath was born on 19 January 1890 in the Kingdom of Luang Phrabang, the second son of Oupahat Bounkhong and his second wife, Princess Thongsy. One of his younger brothers was Souvanna Phouma. Bounkong's eleventh wife was the mother of Souphanouvong. Luang Phrabang became a French protectorate in 1893. Phetsarath went to study at the colonial Lycée Chasseloup-Laubat in Saigon and continued on in 1905 at the Lycée Montaigne and to the École coloniale in Paris. He returned to Laos in 1912, married Princess Nhin Kham Venne in 1913, and sta ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Souvanna Phouma
Prince Souvanna Phouma (; 7 October 1901 – 10 January 1984) was the leader of the neutralist faction and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Laos several times (1951–1954, 1956–1958, 1960, and 1962–1975). Early life Souvanna Phouma was the son of Bounkhong, the last vice-king of Luang Prabang and a nephew of King Sisavang Vong of Laos, given a French education in Hanoi, Paris and Grenoble, where he obtained his degree in architecture and engineering. He returned to his homeland in 1931, married Aline Claire Allard, the daughter of a French father and a Lao mother, and entered the Public Works Service of French Indochina. Souvanna Phouma, together with his brother, Prince Phetsarath Rattanavongsa (1891–1959) and his half-brother, Prince Souphanouvong (1909–1995), around the end of World War II, joined the Lao Issara (Free Laos) movement established to counter the French occupation and its provisional Vientiane government (1945–46). When the French reoccupied Laos, S ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Souphanouvong
Prince Souphanouvong (13 July 1909 – 9 January 1995; ), nicknamed the Red Prince, was along with his half-brother Prince Souvanna Phouma and Prince Boun Oum of Champasak, one of the "Three Princes" who represented respectively the communist (pro-Vietnam), neutralist and royalist political factions in Laos. He was the President of Laos from December 1975 to August 1991. Early life Souphanouvong was born in Palace Sisouvanna, Xieng Dong, Luang-Prabang. He was one of the sons of Prince Bounkhong, the last viceroy of Luang Prabang. Unlike his half-brothers, Souvanna Phouma and Phetsarath Ratanavongsa, whose mothers were of royal birth, his mother was a commoner, Mom Kham Ouane. He attended the Lycée Albert Sarraut in Hanoi and then studied civil engineering at the École national des ponts et chaussées in Paris, and worked at a port in Le Havre. After graduating in 1937, he returned to Indochina and worked at the public works bureau in Nha Trang, where he was responsibl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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French Indochina
French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China),; vi, Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, , lit. 'East Ocean under French Control; km, ឥណ្ឌូចិនបារាំង, ; th, อินโดจีนฝรั่งเศส, officially known as the Indochinese Union; vi, Liên bang Đông Dương, , lit. 'East Ocean Federation'; km, សហភាពឥណ្ឌូចិន; lo, ສະຫະພາບອິນໂດຈີນ and after 1947 as the Indochinese Federation,; vi, Liên đoàn Đông Dương; km, សហព័ន្ធឥណ្ឌូចិន; lo, ສະຫະພັນອິນດູຈີນ was a grouping of French colonial territories in Southeast Asia until its demise in 1954. It comprised Cambodia, Laos (from 1899), the Chinese territory of Guangzhouwan (from 1898 until 1945), and the Vietnamese regions of Tonkin in the north, Annam in the centre, and Cochinchina in the south. The capital for most of its history (1902–45) was Hanoi; ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |