Pathet Lao Case Study Analysis

The Geneva Peace Agreement in May 1954 set the foundation for the developments in the next coming years in Vietnam. The Agreement accorded that Vietnam was to be divided at the 17th parallel into communist North and democratic South Vietnam giving each country independence, a 200 day legal migration period and general elections to be held at both zones in 1956 to reunify Vietnam. The division would cause developments in each country including economic development through the growing nationalism in North Vietnam, political developments through political ineptitude and corruption in South Vietnam and social changes

The SEATO Treaty was formed in 1954. The South-East Asia Collective Defence Treaty provided for defensive action to be taken in the event of an attack on the United States Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, the Philippines or Pakistan. South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were also guaranteed protection under the treaty’s security arrangements. (see appendix II). The generalized view of the Vietnam War from the people of the world saw a defiant and definite collection of Western countries (‘Western Bloc’, fighting for freedom against a primitive evil Eastern organism of countries (‘Eastern Bloc’).

Assess the consequences of the Vietnamese victory against the French for Indochina in the periods 1954-1964.

The US has been known to diverge from its once-isolationist state, engaging in international affairs like World War I and several other events alike. It’s therefore no surprise that the US intervened in the Vietnam War during the 1960’s. At the time, President Lyndon B. Johnson put forth new ideas, plans and tactics to help and protect the South Vietnamese and surrounding countries from communist influence. However, the United States’ initial goals and plans didn’t always go the way they had expected. Indeed, Johnson’s Vietnam policies failed because of his unreasonable military strategies and his inefficient political actions.

The Vietnam conflict began long before the U.S. became directly involved. Indochina, which includes Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, was under French colonial rule. The Vietnam communist-nationalist, also known as the Vietminh, fought for their freedom from the French. The French were being slaughtered, and were doing little to keep the communist North Vietnamese out of South Vietnam. The U.S. sent financial aid to France to help them eliminate the communist threat. At the Geneva Conference in 1954, the major powers tried to come to an agreement on Indochina. There would be a temporary division on the 17th parallel in Vietnam. The Vietminh would control North Vietnam, and South Vietnam would be ruled under the emperor Bao Dai. There was to be an election held in two years to set up the permanent

They quickly started to take control of Laos and forced their way into power. The Laotian government, instead of continuing a losing war, surrendered to prevent any further casualties, under an agreement that no one oppose the Pathet Laos forces and no one harmed. They handed over control. With the new change, the Hmong refugees flee Laos in fear of their safety. United States tried to help evacuate refugees into Thailand. The problem was that there were limited resources to accomplish this, leaving many Hmong refugees still in Laos. With the Pathet Lao, now in control and not forgetting, or forgiving the Hmong people for fighting alongside of the Americans. They now started to carry out their revenge, on the betrayers to their country. There have been stories of the Pathet Lao exacting attacks on the Hmong people by murders or gunfire. Nevertheless, that will change around the summer of 1975. Reports start coming to the United State, Stating that chemical weapon used on Hmong people in Laos. In order to move the Hmong people out of their strongholds in the mountains, The Pathet Lao had used Chemical weapons received from their communist ally Russia. This information was coming from relief workers stationed in Thailand working with Hmong Refugees. As time went on, more and more similar reports started to generate. These stories passed on from refugees making it into Thailand refugee camps. Most of who lived in the Phu Bia Mountains.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the Pathet Lao (PL) created the “Liberated Area”. Many scholars have already showed that the PL developed it as the military, economic or cultural base with the assistance of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) during the Second Indochina War. However, no studies have ever tried to clarify when the PL gained the area.

“I lost 17,000 men, almost 10 percent of the total Hmong population," General Vang Pao said. "The Hmong sacrificed the most in the war and were the ones who suffered the most” (Vietnam War 'secret Army' Chief Vang Pao Dies in US). The C.I.A. recruited the Hmong as their allies when the communist Pathet Lao joined the Laotian government because the U.S. feared that the neighboring countries would fall into communism too. During the Vietnam War, negotiators from different countries agreed that Laos would remain neutral under the Geneva (Thompson). But because the United States feared the spread of communism, the C.I.A. directed a covert operation in Laos known as the Secret War. The Hmong people were abandoned, forgotten and treated poorly after

The Vietnam War’s initial purpose seemed to be clear: to destroy and prevent the spread of Communism to Vietnam and neighboring nations. This notion was backed by the belief that Communism’s spread was similar to falling of dominoes. The belief was named the “Domino Theory”, as Communism spread to one country; each neighboring country would fall to the clutches of Communism, one by one like toppling

Until the First Indochina War, the region was a colony of France, known as Indochina, part of the French Union – in the war, troops were drawn from elsewhere in the French Union to fight in the war against the Viêt Minh (lead by Hô Chí Minh). Later, between the years 1955 & 1965 – the Americans were supporting Ngô Đình Diêm, a puppet President they had helped install. However, the Americans didn’t realise what a problem he would become. He ran his authoritarian and

The existence of democracy and communism in both Vietnam and Laos urged the United States to take action and immediately support the Southern Vietnamese and the Hmong people. Both groups of people experienced devastating results from the war. However, the outcome for each group was different. In Vietnam, the Southern

They had proper strategic analysis with adequate information were available at the end of the First Indo-China War in 1954. However, there was a combination of factors that caused the leaders to dismiss the analysis including lack of understanding of Vietnamese nationalism. Unfortunately, the Vietcong had a far greater appreciation for these factors than the U.S leaders, that resulting in the communists forged a far more effective strategy for the achievement of their goals. In order to do so, they enforced some extremely burdensome and potentially lethal constraints. In 1956, the North Vietnamese communist party called for the organization of a mass-based party infrastructure in South Vietnam whose purpose was to provide three things: intelligence, manpower and logistical support for mobile military forces through the Lao Dong Party (working class). The Lao Dong party’s primary concern was to secure North Vietnam from invasion. Then they appealed through the extensive global propaganda system of communist, socialist and other leftist organizations’ influence public opinion against US. With extensive support from the U.S.S.R and China, the Vietcong was able to build a modern military capable of regional power projection to defeat the U.S and overthrow the Vietnam

“Why did the Vietnamese invade the Khmer Rouge and liberate the people?” After all the research and analyzation, I have finally solved this question. During this adventure, there were many captivating facts about this conflict. I learned that this war commenced by Khmer Rouge arrogance. Democratic Kampuchea aggravated Vietnam by

The history of recent years in the Indochina conflict has been an eventful one. It will exhibit to the eyes of the future student some of the most remarkable instances of a ruthlessness and indifference to common humanity. Moreover, it will, I believe, demonstrate that North Vietnam has, for a long time, steadily pursued a communist regime which was deliberately designed to produce a subjugation of other countries by the threat of communism.

Patrick Scott English 101-001 May 24, 2011 The Bloody Cambodian Revolution Located in Southeast Asia between Thailand and Vietnam, Cambodia was home to one of the bloodiest political regimes to exist in the 20th century. In a country, in which American government reports in 1959 documented, was full of “ ‘docile and passive people…[who] could not be counted on to act in any positive way for the benefit of US aims and policies’”, the United States conflict in neighboring Vietnam brought about incredible changes to an unsuspecting people (qted. in Dunlop 70). The countryside was bombed by the United States in order to uproot suspected North Vietnamese holdouts and supply routes starting in 1969. These bombing raids, which devastated