AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
![]() ![]() Ultimately, the CIA believed that the Hmong force would be best placed to attack groups of Communist Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese enemies, as a result of their extensive geographic and cultural understanding, as well as their unconventional warfare capabilities. The CIA saw significant opportunity in the guerrilla-style fighting capabilities of the Hmong people, which was already adapted to unconventional rural and jungle warfare. ![]() ![]() With a rich cultural history through the occupation of remote regions, the Hmong people were almost entirely self-sufficient. The Hmong people are an ethnic minority group that settled in mountainous regions of Laos and Vietnam. Accordingly, the US stepped up its efforts in the war on Communism, with Laos in the line of fire. In the US, Red Scare hysteria grew domestically, considering the increasing prowess of the Soviet Union. Although Laos had been overtaken by a politically ‘neutralist’ party, the war between the communists and monarchy supporters intensified. The series of successful coups – beginning a year after the outbreak of civil war – only destabilised the Laotian political system further. For the Kingdom of Laos, this would be the US, and for the Communist forces, sympathisers from Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Often called the ‘Secret War’, the Laos Civil War had both sides receiving significant clandestine support from Cold War adversaries. The political stability of Laos crumbled on the outbreak of the Laotian Civil War in 1959 a war waged by the communist Lao People’s Liberation Army against the Royal Lao Government. (Img Hmong People Crossing the Laos-Vietnam Border in 1971 via Flickr ) ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |