None of the events affected the North Vietnamese usage of the Ho Chi Minh Trail to send troops into battle in South Vietnam.
Despite Yost's best efforts to curb the activities of the CIA and the anti-Communist stance of the Eisenhower administration, the American mission would continue to increasingly involve itself with both political and military operations within Laos.
Siho gathered and trained two special battalions of paramilitary police during the latter part of 1960, dubbing them the Directorate of National Coordination.
Siho's new battalions helped carry the day at the Battle of Vientiane, when General Phoumi Nosavan seized power in December 1960.
The increased activity in the southern Laotian panhandle threatened the neutrality of the Kingdom of Laos, as well as the very existence of South Vietnam.
In mid-month, Lao Defense Minister Phoumi Nosavan flew to Dalat, Vietnam to confer with South Vietnamese senior officers.
[5] On 18 April 1964, Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma met with his brother Souphanouvong, leader of the Lao communists, on the Plain of Jars.
Communist forces promptly moved into the defensive positions strung along the north edge of the Plain of Jars that had been abandoned by GM 17.
Unger confronted Siho and Kouprasith and informed them that the United States supported Souvanna Phouma and the International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos of 23 July 1962.
Unger ordered Siho and Kouprasith to release their captives while announcing they had taken Souvanna Phouma into custody to secure the national government.
No sooner was Phoumi stripped of power than Siho and Kouprasith wanted in on his gambling rackets, and his opium and gold smuggling operations.
Meanwhile, on 3 June, Souphanouvong announced that the Pathet Lao no longer recognized Souvanna as Prime Minister; this effectively ended their participation in the coalition.
In the meantime, Phoumi's powers were so diminished that he was allowed little input into the successful July 1964 Operation Triangle Kouprasith headed.
Having been forced by circumstance to side with the rightwing politicians who held him in power, he would be opposed to the communists for the remainder of the Laotian Civil War.