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U.S. Imperialist Foreign Policy

Modern Communism continues its examination of U.S. imperialist activities around the world since the Second World War.

Laos

In October 1945, after a protracted guerilla campaign against the French colonial occupiers, nationalist Laotian forces declared independence. However, France, determined to hang on to its empire in Indochina, sent thousands of troops and crushed the uprising. The Laotian revolutionaries, a coalition of communists, socialists and nationalists, fled to the countryside, but renewed their campaign against the French. By 1954, the communist-led Pathet Lao (Lao Nation) controlled most of the provinces in northeastern Laos. With the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam, Laos, along with neighbours Cambodia and Vietnam, won independence.

In response, the Americans immediately began funnelling money and arms to small groups of Laotian anti-communists, including some of those who had fought against independence. The country was plunged into civil war, which pitted pro-American and pro-Western forces against a nationalist/communist coalition.

In 1956, an armistice was signed and a coalition government was formed, which held general elections in 1958. The Pathet Lao won 13 of 21 contested seats for the National Assembly, a result which horrified the Americans. However, an American-backed candidate, Phoui Sananikone, did win the premiership. The following year, under Sananikone's leadership, the democratically elected Assembly was dissolved, to, in his words, "counteract communist influence and subversion". What followed was a string of short-lived pro-American regimes, each one overthrown by a coup after implementing any policies which the Americans disliked.

All through this period of contrived instability, the Pathet Lao continued organizing, winning support from different ethnic groups throughout the countryside and in towns and cities. In response, the Kennedy administration moved quickly, negotiating an official neutrality treaty in Geneva in 1962. This established Laos as a neutral nation in the escalating war being fought by the Americans in Indochina. In return for Laotian acceptance of the treaty, the Americans promised not to intervene in Laos, and a coalition government including the Pathet Lao was set up. The ink on the treaty was not yet dry before American agents in the country began organizing some of the tribes living in the hills to revolt against the government. This now infamous Armée Clandestine, which grew to number some 30,000, all paid directly by the Americans, committed acts of atrocity which far surpassed the brutality of the French colonialists. They were responsible for mass killings, rape and torture of civilians, particularly in the northeast of the country.

In 1964, the coalition government was overthrown in a right wing coup led by the CIA-trained Phoumi Nosavan. The Pathet Lao launched a guerilla movement, which swelled in numbers as those fleeing the Armée Clandestine joined. The Americans responded by launching secret air raids against Laos - between 1965 and 1973, more than two million tons of bombs were dropped on the Laotian people. This was more than the U.S. had dropped on both Germany and Japan combined during the Second World War.

At first the bombing was concentrated in provinces controlled by the Pathet Lao, although the vast majority of targets were civilian. However, the campaign slowly expanded, with village after village being destroyed, and the livelihood of future generations in the countryside wiped out by the widespread use of white phosphorous and napalm.

The outcome of these American atrocities was to unify much of the country behind the Pathet Lao, which was organizing clinics, schools and other institutions throughout the country. For the first time since French colonization, Laotian children were being taught in their own language. A massive literacy campaign amongst adults was also successful, and was the first introduction of many people in remote areas to the Pathet Lao, whose numbers continued to grow. By the end of 1973, the Pathet Lao took the lead in a new government of national unity. The Americans had been defeated.