Under orders from Mao Zedong, the People's Liberation Army provided 115,000 guns, 920,000 grenades and 170 million bullets, and trained more than 700 of its military officers.

Key Pathet Lao leaders include Prince Souphanouvong, Kaysone Phomvihane, Phoumi Vongvichit, Nouhak Phoumsavanh and Khamtay Siphandone.

[3] The organization can trace its roots from the Second World War, similar to the Khmer Issarak in Cambodia and the Viet Minh in Vietnam.

This was an attempt to give a false front of authority to the Lao communist movement by claiming to represent a united non-partisan effort.

[citation needed] Two of its most important founders were members of the Indochinese Communist Party, which advocated an overthrow of the monarchy as well as the expulsion of the French.

[7]: 90–3  The area was used as a transit route for men and supplies destined for the Viet Cong insurgency in South Vietnam which became known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

[7]: 141–4  The typical strategy during this era was for PAVN regulars to attack first but then send in the Pathet Lao at the end of the battle to claim victory.

[7]: 113–5 By the mid-1960s, the country had fallen into proxy warfare between pro-US and pro-North Vietnamese irregular military groups.

[7]: 188–9 The Pathet Lao supreme headquarters or center was located in the Viengxay caves near Xam Neua manned by approximately 500 personnel.

[4]: 75–6  Recruitment into the LPLA was based on appeals to the patriotism of young Laotians who were told that their country was rich in natural resources but the people were poor because of capitalism and US imperialism.

[4]: 86  The LPLA were entirely dependent on the PAVN for the supply of weapons and munitions and were generally outgunned by the RLA.

[4]: 73  In September 1969 the RLA attacked PAVN/Pathet Lao positions on the Plain of Jars and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

On 2 February 1971 the PAVN/Pathet Lao launched Campaign 74B temporarily capturing the Plain of Jars and shelling Long Tieng, the base of Vang Pao's RLA aligned army before withdrawing.

[12] As of 26 July 2019 the DOD's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency listed 286 Americans as missing in Laos, of which 263 were classified as further pursuit, 12 deferred and 11 non-recoverable.

On 14 December 1974, the Pathet Lao killed Charles Dean and Neil Sharman, backpackers who were captured near Vientiane.

[citation needed]In late February 1975, the Pathet Lao, with PAVN assistance, began attacking government strongholds on the Plain of Jars.

[citation needed]Vietnam afterward forced Laos to cut any remaining economic ties to its other neighbours, including Thailand and Cambodia.

[citation needed] In 1977, a communist newspaper promised the party would hunt down the "American collaborators" and their families "to the last root".