As World War II drew to a close, the Imperial Japanese military seized control of Laos, a French protectorate, and encouraged nationalist movements to forestall the revival of French power in the region. Despite these efforts the French re-entered Indochina and methodically retook the protectorate. By 1957, the government of Laos and the core of the Communist Laotian forces, known as the Pathet Lao, entered an uneasy truce, which plunged the country into 15 years of war. This text explores the resulting war, providing a summary of events and profiling the Laotian government forces, the government Allied forces and the Communist forces.

Ken Conboy was educated as an undergraduate at Georgetown University and took his graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University. He also studied at Sophia University in Tokyo. He is the Deputy Director of the Asian Studies Centre, a Washington based think tank, which studies US strategic and economic policy towards South-East Asia, and he has travelled extensively in that region. Ken has written widely on the military forces of South-East Asia including two titles in the Men-at-Arms series on the wars in Laos and Cambodia, and Elite 33, South-East Asian Special Forces.

The Course of the War
Laotian Government Forces
Government Allied Forces
Communist Forces
The Plates