Laos was colonised by France in the 19th century and won independence in 1953. As communist forces rose across South-East Asia, America secretly trained armies in Laos to fight the North Vietnamese and the Pathet Lao, Laos's own communist forces, relying heavily on the Hmong ethnic group for soldiers.
In 1964 the Americans began bombing the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a jungle supply line used by the Viet Cong which ran through Laos. The bombardment continued until 1973 and unleashed more ordnance than the Allies dropped on Germany throughout the second world war. The deluge failed to defeat communist forces and instead gave them a huge propaganda victory.
Phnom Penh and Saigon fell to communist armies in April 1975. Eight months later the Pathet Lao conquered Laos. The king was forced to abdicate and thousands of people were sent to prison camps for indoctrination. Hundreds of thousands of Laotians fled to Thailand.
Market reforms were introduced in the 1980s, but Laos remains relatively poor. It is heavily indebted, mostly to China, and its currency has weakened badly since the covid-19 pandemic, making imports more expensive.
Vientiane.
Laos long refused to accept deportees from America. In January 2017, during Donald Trump's first term, Homeland Security officials visited the American embassy in Vientiane and asked diplomats to encourage the Laotian government to accept deportees, but Laos refused. Trump restricted Laotians from visiting America in response. The Biden administration reversed this policy, but when Trump returned to office in 2025 he reintroduced the restrictions along with a 40% tariff. This time Laos folded. Nearly 5,000 Lao-Americans who had signed deportation orders at some point suddenly faced removal to Laos.
The chief cause of problems is solutions.