User blog comment:MisaoFan/Why Laos is a puppet government of Vietnam/@comment-26997191-20170311004354/@comment-4425142-20170311090354

It matters for me because Laos, during the Vietnam War at least, used to be a very honest constitutional monarchy that tried maintaining it's neutrality according to the 1954 treaty but failed because the North Vietnamese invaded the country so strongly that the Americans has no choice but do a covert operation to counter Laos from NV. Sadly it failed in 1975 when the Pathet Lao take over the country under communist government since and are very closely aligned with Viet Minh for some reason, namely the fact Ho Chi Minh was handpicking selected members just to toy with them. If it isn't for Vietnamese control and invasion as well the communist takeover, Laos would at least continued to survive as a monarchy free from military attacks like Switzerland is. Unlike Lao PDR, it is actually democratic and held real independent powers.