`` Barrel Roll '' and the `` Secret Army '' attempted to stem Preventing_or_letting an increasing tide of People 's Army of Vietnam ( PAVN ) and Pathet Lao offensives .

The Laotian Civil War ( 1959–75 ) was a civil war Military_operation in Laos fought Hostile_encounter between the Communist Pathet Lao ( including many North Vietnamese of Lao ancestry ) and the Royal Lao Government from 23 May 1959 to 2 December 1975 .

The North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao eventually emerged Coming_to_be victorious in 1975 , as part of the general communist victory in all of former French Indochina that year .

A total of up to 300,000 people from Laos fled Escaping to neighboring Thailand following the Pathet Lao takeover .

The Lao royal family were arrested Arrest by the Pathet Lao after the war Military_operation and sent Sending to labor camps , where most of them died Death in the late 1970s and 1980s , including King Savang Vatthana , Queen Khamphoui , and Crown Prince Vong Savang .