In the following insurgency, the Indochinese communists formed the Pathet Lao, a Laotian nationalist movement and a North Vietnamese/Viet Minh ally in the struggle against France.
In 1962, a peace conference in Geneva produced a Declaration on the Neutrality of Laos and a three-part coalition government of pro-American, pro-communist, and neutralist factions.
[3] The agreement was contravened almost immediately by the United States, the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, North Vietnam, and the Pathet Lao themselves.
The United States started a bombing campaign that supported both the Royal Laotian Government and American efforts in South Vietnam.
The Pathet Lao and the North Vietnamese continued to use and to improve the supply route, which would become known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail.