Known by Laotians as Thang Nay, or the Big Road, Route 7 has long been used by North Viet Nam’s Reds to truck men and guns to the Pathet Lao (up to 400 vehicles a day), in open violation of Laos ...

The year-old war in Laos is fought by words and guns, by strange antagonists for curious motives. Many of the Meo people battle the Communist Pathet Lao rebels because the Pathet Lao interfere ...

They took up arms against the Pathet Lao and the North Vietnamese, fighting a battle they would not win. Vang doesn’t talk much about his days as a child soldier, though he shared a single story.

Trying to survive meant living in constant fear and being faced with difficult choices. At the end of the Secret War, Hmong women and children often surrendered to the Pathet Lao—but trying to ...