The insurgency in Laos was a 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 United States for an alleged plot to overthrow the Laotian communist government. His arrest led to an end of various attempts to overthrow the Laotian Government by the Hmong people, the royalists, and right-wing rebellions.
Insurgent history
Background
Vietnam and Laos have a complicated past. After Vietnam invaded and destroyed Laos during the Vietnamese–Laotian War, the Vietnamese didn't interfere in Laos for more than 200 years. However, Vietnamese influence had grown radically since the conquest, and played a major role in absorbing Laos into Vietnamese foreign policy. The Hmongs at the time had yet to be touched, owing to their neutrality to the Vietnamese and Laotians. The Hmongs maintained a degree of autonomy from the Imperial Vietnamese Government, and at the same time demonstrated their role in developing Laos in the aftermath of the disastrous war of 1470s with Vietnam. So while Vietnam kept interfering on Laotian affairs, the Hmongs were mostly left alone until the French conquest. Under French rule the Hmong mostly converted to Christianity, though large segments remained Buddhist, and allied with the French while maintaining their tie with Laos. This would put up the future conflict between Vietnam, the Laotian communists and Laotian insurgents.
Lao Hmong insurgency
The conflict stems from three events prior to Laos independence: a failed coup attempt by the Red Prince Souphanouvong, Hmong aiding the French in Xieng Khoung against Lao and Vietnamese forces, and the French giving Hmong rights in Laos equal to the Lao.
In 1946, with the end of the Japanese occupation, Prince Souphanouvong and his half-brothers Prince Souvanna Phouma and Prince Phetsarath formed two separate independence governments, briefly overthrowing the Laos King Sisavang Vong, who wanted to hand the country back to the rule of imperial France. The Hmong people had, for over half a century, been closely allied with the French, who treated them as equals of the Lao people. Touby Lyfoung, an important Hmong leader, was decorated by the French administration for leading a combined French, Lao, and Hmong force to relieve the village of Xieng Khoung from a combined Communist force of Laotians and Vietnamese and saving the French representatives in the village. This action was part of the larger First Indochina War.
When the French withdrew from Indochina shortly after their defeat in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the Americans became increasingly involved in Laos due to the threat of Communist insurgents in Indochina. They saw Laos as one of dominoes in their Domino Theory. Under the leadership of the General Vang Pao, Hmong forces with US support prevented the Pathet Lao and their Vietnamese backers from toppling the Kingdom of Laos. They also rescued downed American pilots, and helped the US, from their base in the "secret city" of Long Tieng, to coordinate bombing missions over Vietnam and Laos.
By 1975, with the collapse of the South in the Vietnam War and loss of American support, the Pathet Lao was able to take control of the government. Hmong people, especially those who had participated in the military conflict were singled out for retribution.