Once part of Indochina, Laos was a “hot spot” in the Cold War during the Kennedy years.
The deteriorating political situation in Laos was a matter of serious concern in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy took office. As one of the three separate states of the formerly French-ruled Indochina (Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos), Laos was a key to the rest of Southeast Asia.
After the surrender of the Japanese in World War II, the French attempted to reassert dominion over Laos, and the Communist Laotian nationalist movement, the Pathet Lao, was formed. The defeat of the French, and the Geneva Accords of 1954, established the sovereignty of Laos. Civil war soon broke out, however, as the Royal Lao Government, supported by the United States, fought Pathet Lao insurgents, supported by the Communists in neighboring North Vietnam.
The Eisenhower government committed millions of dollars in aid as well as sending teams of military advisers in an effort to prevent the takeover of Laos by the Pathet Lao. That effort was on the verge of failure when, shortly before Kennedy's inauguration, President Eisenhower warned his successor that United States military intervention might be needed.
Kennedy moved cautiously. He rejected a variety of proposals to send American forces and concluded that a negotiated settlement with the Soviet Union and other interested parties was the best he could achieve. A 1962 peace conference in Geneva produced a Declaration on the Neutrality of Laos and a three-part coalition government divided between pro-American, pro-Communist and neutralist factions. From Washington's standpoint, the arrangement was flimsy, but it was the best of unattractive options.
Soon after the accord was reached, civil war resumed. As American military involvement in Vietnam grew, Laos became another battlefield in that region. The Ho Chi Minh trail, a North Vietnamese supply route, ran through East Laos. In an attempt to destroy this supply route, the United States subjected Laos to heavy bombing for nearly a decade, until a ceasefire agreement was reached in 1973. In 1975, the Pathet Lao took control of the country.