Laotian Civil War

Civil war from 23 May 1959 to 2 December 1975 between the communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government, fought as a Cold War proxy conflict and a covert theater of the Vietnam War. The United States backed the royalists in what the CIA called the Secret War while North Vietnam supported the Pathet Lao; the Pathet Lao won and Laos became the Lao People's Democratic Republic in December 1975.