Pathet Lao

Pathet Lao , left-wing nationalist group that was ultimately victorious in the Laotian civil war that began in the mid-1950s. The name was first used in 1950 by Lao forces after the they joined the Viet Minh 's revolt against the French, and it became the generic term for the Lao Communists. In 1956 an official party, the Neo Lao Hak Sat (Lao Patriotic Front) was formed. In the 1960s and early 70s, the Pathet Lao fought the U.S.-supported government and finally won control of Laos in 1975.

Pathet Lao Laotian communist movement. In the independence struggle after World War II, Pathet Lao forces cooperated with the VIETMINH against French colonial power. After the Geneva Agreement (1954), it emerged as a major political and military force within Laos, seeking the alignment of their country with communist China and North Vietnam. Between the mid-1950s and mid-1970s the Pathet Lao and its political wing, the Neo Lao Haksat (Patriotic Party of Laos) under the leadership of Prince Souphanouvong, waged a prolonged political and military struggle for power with non-communist government forces, eventually emerging triumphant with the formation of the People's Democratic Republic of Laos in 1975.

Pathet Lao (Lao Nation/‘Land of the Lao’) A term originally used to describe the areas in Laos freed from French control in the First Indochina War by the Communist guerrillas. It was then increasingly used more generally, as a descriptive term for the Communist movement in Laos. This emerged in 1950 with the formation of the Free Laos Front, which closely coordinated its campaigns in the Indochina War with the Vietminh forces. After the Geneva Agreements, it was transformed into the Lao Patriotic Front (1956), under the presidency of Souphanouvong. Given its association with the Vietnamese Communist movement under Ho Chi Minh, it was closely involved in the Vietnam War, as a crucial Vietcong supply route: the Ho Chi Minh Trail went through the territory controlled by the Pathet Lao. Meanwhile, in tandem with events in Vietnam, a cease-fire ending the civil war between the forces of Souvanna Phouma and the Pathet Lao came into effect after the Paris Peace Accords of 1973. Together with Souvanna Phouma it participated in the compromise government of 1974. After North Vietnam's takeover of South Vietnam and Cambodia in 1975, the Pathet Lao (now officially the Lao People's Revolutionary Party) gained military and thus political control over the entire country.