Laos - Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Northern Thailand - page 751

a multitude of CIA operatives secretly entered the country to train anticommunist Hmong
fighters in the jungle. From 1964 to 1973, the US, in response to the Viet Minh funnelling
massive amounts of war munitions down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, devastated eastern and
northeastern Laos with nonstop carpet-bombing (reportedly a plane load of ordnance
dropped every eight minutes). The intensive campaign exacerbated the war between the
Pathet Lao and the US-backed Royal Lao Army and, if anything, increased domestic sup-
port for the communists.
The US withdrawal in 1973 saw Laos divided up between Pathet Lao and non-Pathet
Lao, but within two years the communists had taken over completely and the Lao People's
Democratic Republic (PDR) was created under the leadership of Kaysone Phomvihane.
Around 10% of Laos' population fled, mostly to Thailand. The remaining opponents of
the government - notably tribes of Hmong who fought with and were funded by the CIA
- were suppressed or sent to re-education camps for indeterminate periods. It's alleged
that two of these camps still endure in the far north, though this is hotly denied.
A New Start
Laos entered the political family of Southeast Asian countries known as Asean in 1997,
two years after Vietnam. In 2004 the USA promoted Laos to Normal Trade Relations, ce-
menting the end to a trade embargo in place since the communists took power in 1975.
Politically, the Party remains firmly in control. And with neighbours like one-party China
and Vietnam, there seems little incentive for Laos to move towards any meaningful form
of democracy. While still heavily reliant on foreign aid, Laos has committed to income-
generating projects in recent years in a bid to increase its prosperity. Ecotourism is flour-
ishing and the country is enjoying more Western visitors every year. China has recently
pulled the financial reins on its extensive high-speed rail network across Southeast Asia,
with Laos now stepping in and picking up the cost in the form of a US$7.2 billion loan
from China. It's a big gamble, but the hope is that it will improve trade, with the rail sys-
tem passing through the likes of Luang Prabang and Vientiane.
In 2012 the international press started asking embarrassing questions over the disap-
pearance of Sombath Somphone, an award-winning civil society activist and land rights
campaigner, with fingers directly pointed at the Lao government as the main culprit. In
2013, in an effort to counterbalance China's growing influence over the region, the
Obama administration sent then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to broker tighter rela-
tions with Laos.