<P> The actual fighting in Laos involved the North Vietnamese Army, U.S. troops and Thai forces and South Vietnamese army forces directly and through irregular proxies in a struggle for control over the Laotian Panhandle . The North Vietnamese Army occupied the area to use for its Ho Chi Minh Trail supply corridor and as staging area for offensives into South Vietnam . There was a second major theater of action on and near the northern Plain of Jars . </P> <P> The North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao eventually emerged 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 to neighboring Thailand following the Pathet Lao takeover . </P> <P> After the communists took power in Laos, Hmong rebels fought the new government . The Hmong were persecuted as traitors and "lackeys" of the Americans, with the government and its Vietnamese allies carrying out human rights abuses against Hmong civilians . The incipient conflict between Vietnam and China also played a role with Hmong rebels being accused of receiving support from China . Over 40,000 people died in the conflict . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (May 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table>

What happened in laos during the vietnam war