The Royal Lao Army (; – ARL), also designated by its anglicized title RLA, was the land component of the Royal Lao Armed Forces (FAR), the official military of the Kingdom of Laos during the North Vietnamese invasion of Laos and the Laotian Civil War between 1960 and 1975.
History
The ARL traced back its origins to World War II, when the first entirely Laotian military unit, the 1st Laotian Rifle Battalion (French: 1ér Bataillon de Chasseurs Laotiens – BCL), was raised early in June 1941 by the Vichy French colonial authorities.Sicard, Les Unités Indochinoises jusqu'en 1945 (2002), pp. 54–56.Stuart-Fox, Historical Dictionary of Laos (2008), p. 50. Intended to be used on internal security operations to bolster the local sections of the mainly Vietnamese Indochinese Guard (French: Garde Indochinoise),Stuart-Fox, Historical Dictionary of Laos (2008), p. 118. the 1st BCL did not see much action until after March 9, 1945, when the Japanese Imperial Army forcibly seized control of French Indochina from France, including Laos.Stuart-Fox, Historical Dictionary of Laos (2008), pp. 73; 144–145. The battalion then retreated into the mountains, where they linked with the Laotian irregular guerrilla fighters (French: Maquis) operating there. These guerrillas were supplied, trained, and led by teams of Free French agents who had been trained in special jungle warfare by the Force 136 unit of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in India and were subsequently parachuted into Indochina in December 1944 with the aim of creating a local anti-Japanese resistance network.Stuart-Fox, Historical Dictionary of Laos (2008), pp. 106–107. The then Laotian Crown Prince Savang Vatthana called upon all Laotians to oppose the Japanese and assist the Free French, and many risked their lives to supply and inform the French-led resistance. Thanks to the support of these Laotian partisans, five resistance groups (divided into 26 subgroups comprising some 200 French agents and 300 Laotian 'Maquisards') held out during the six-month Japanese occupation, supplied in part with air drops by British Royal Air Force aircraft flying out of Calcutta in India.Stuart-Fox, Historical Dictionary of Laos (2008), pp. 16; 381–382.
Under the command of their Free French cadres, the Laotian soldiers from the 1st BCL engaged in guerrilla actions alongside the irregular 'Maquisards' against the Japanese occupation forces in Laos until Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945.Stuart-Fox, Historical Dictionary of Laos (2008), pp. 144–145. In November of that same year, the various Laotian guerrilla groups were consolidated into four regular light infantry battalions and, together with the 1st BCL, integrated into the newly founded French Union Army.Conboy and Greer, War in Laos, 1954–1975 (1994), p. 5.Conboy and Morrison, Shadow War: The CIA's Secret War in Laos (1995), p. 2.
Meanwhile, confronted in early May 1945 with the Allied Powers' victory over Nazi Germany and sensing their own imminent defeat, the Japanese military authorities in Laos began stirring up local anti-French nationalistic sentiments. On 12 October of that year, a group of Laotian nationalists led by Prince Phetsarath Ratanavongsa deposed King Sisavang Vong, proclaimed the independence of Laos and announced the formation of a new government body, the Committee for Independent Laos () or Khana Lao Issara and Lao Issara for short, which was based in Vientiane.Sananikone, The Royal Lao Army and U.S. Army advice and support (1981), p. 8.Stuart-Fox, Historical Dictionary of Laos (2008), pp. 252–253; 381–382. Taking advantage of the temporary absence of French authority in the country's main cities, the Lao Issara promptly established a police force, the Civil Guard () and an armed defense force, the Army for the Liberation and Defense of Laos or ALDL (), to exercise its authority with the support of Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh Hanoi-based government in the Tonkin and the Nationalist Chinese.Sananikone, The Royal Lao Army and U.S. Army advice and support (1981), p. 9.Stuart-Fox, Historical Dictionary of Laos (2008), pp. 18; 174. The Lao Issara's ALDL was essentially a lightly armed and poorly trained militia, provided with a mixed assortment of small-arms captured from the Japanese, looted from French colonial depots, or sold by the Chinese Nationalist Army troops who occupied northern Laos under the terms of the 1945 Potsdam Conference.Stuart-Fox, Historical Dictionary of Laos (2008), pp. 55–56.
The Laotian National Army 1946–1955 By early March 1946, the French Union Army aligned some 4,000 Laotian troops organized into five light infantry battalions () – the 1er, 2e, 3e, 4e, 5e, and 6e BCLs – led by a cadre of French officers and senior non-commissioned officers (NCOs), which participated actively in the French reoccupation of Laos by sweeping the Bolovens Plateau. On 21 March, the Laotian battalions provided infantry support to French Far East Expeditionary Corps (CEFEO) airborne, armoured car and artillery units fighting Lao Issara ALDL troops under Prince Souphanouvong at the Battle of Thakhek in Khammouane Province, in which the latter lost approximately 700 men and 300 civilians were killed, leaving behind 250 dead and 150 prisoners before being forced to withdraw.Stuart-Fox, Historical Dictionary of Laos (2008), p. 25. On 24 April, the Laotian battalions had assisted the French in the recapture of Vientiane without facing any significant resistance, followed on 9 May by Luang Prabang, which forced the Lao Issara leadership to flee to exile in Thailand in September 1946.Sananikone, The Royal Lao Army and U.S. Army advice and support (1981), pp. 9–10. Upon the successful conclusion of the campaign, the Laotian battalions continued with small counter-insurgency operations against remnant bands of Lao Issara ALDL insurgents over the next three years, assuming responsibility for internal security duties in the areas located along the Thai border. In May 1946, the French established the Lao National Guard (French: Garde Nationale Laotiènne – GNL), a paramilitary Gendarmerie with a paper strength of 1,250 men, which was to be exclusively composed by Laotian nationals.Conboy and Morrison, Shadow War: The CIA's Secret War in Laos (1995), p. 14. Although the new GNL was technically subordinated to the Laotian ministry of the interior and placed in 1947 under the nominal command of King Sisavang Vong,Sananikone, The Royal Lao Army and U.S. Army advice and support (1981), p. 14.Creak, Embodied Nation: Sport, Masculinity, and the Making of Modern Laos (2015), pp. 91–93. it was kept under the close supervision of French gendarmes from the Republican Guard units stationed in Indochina.
However, faced with the potential threat posed by the growing Viet Minh insurgency in neighbouring Vietnam, the French instituted on July 1, 1949, a separated Laotian National Army ( – ANL) of the French Union to defend Laos following the signing of the Franco–Lao General Convention that same year.Laos, 1948–1989; Part 1: A Failed Experiment – http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_347.shtmlStuart-Fox, Historical Dictionary of Laos (2008), p. 177. Its formation actually began earlier in 1947, with the creation of the Land Forces of Laos ( – FTL), an informal gathering of several indigenous irregular auxiliary units made of ex-Lao Issara ALDL guerrillas raised early by the French to reinforce their regular CEFEO units alongside the regular BCLs, whose strength had increased from five to eight by July 1949.Sananikone, The Royal Lao Army and U.S. Army advice and support (1981), pp. 11–12.
The process of formation of the new Laotian army started on March 23, 1950, when its first regular units were raised, consisting of 17 Laotian Infantry Companies ( – CIL), subsequently grouped into two Laotian Infantry Battalions ( – BIL) officered by the French.Sananikone, The Royal Lao Army and U.S. Army advice and support (1981), p. 12. The 1er BIL was created in Vientiane on July 1950, followed by the 2e BIL in Pakse on October that year. By April 1951, out of a planned strength of 4,000 men, the ANL had only 1,728 troops but nevertheless continued its expansion with the creation on August 22, 1951, of the 3e BIL and 4e BIL by bringing together several CILs. On October 1951, an airborne unit, the 1st Laotian Parachute Battalion ( – 1er BPL), began to be formed and trained by the French.Conboy and Greer, War in Laos (1994), pp. 4–5. The ANL ended the year with a strength of 5,091 officers and enlisted men,Conboy and Morrison, Shadow War: The CIA's Secret War in Laos (1995), p. 4. though it was plagued by lack of Laotian leadership, and its weaponry was a hodgepodge.Conboy and Morrison, Shadow War: The CIA's Secret War in Laos (1995), pp. 3–4. To alleviate the leadership problem, the French began training Laotian officers and non-commissioned officers – in 1949 the first group of four Laotian officer student candidates () had been sent to the French-run Khmer Military Academy () in Phnom Penh, Cambodia to attend the three-year officer courseConboy, The Erawan War – Volume 3: The Royal Lao Armed Forces 1961–1974 (2022b), p. 3. – even as they continued to lead and train the new army.Sananikone, The Royal Lao Army and U.S. Army advice and support (1981), pp. 12–13. The expansion of the ANL accelerated throughout 1952,Savada, Laos: a country study (1995), p. 30. reaching by January 1, 1953, a strength of 13,420 officers and enlisted men, and on July 1, 1954, the 1er, 2e, 4e, 5e, 7e and 8e BCLs became the 12e, 9e, 10e, 7e and 8e Laotian Infantry Battalions; these were subsequently integrated with the FTL irregulars on July 16 into the new Laotian army, whose strength rose to 23,000–25,000 men.Anthony and Sexton, The War in Northern Laos (1993), p. 14.
Post-war developments 1955–1960 In July 1959, the ANL, the Laotian Navy, and the Laotian Aviation were gathered into the newly created Laotian Armed Forces ( – FAL), renamed Royal Lao Armed Forces ( – FAR) in September 1961.Conboy and Greer, War in Laos 1954–1975 (1994), pp. 5–7; 13.
Structure The chain of command of the Royal Lao Army was placed under the Ministry of Defense in Vientiane. The country was divided into five military districts termed Military Regions (MR), roughly corresponding to the areas of the country's 13 provinces.Conboy and McCouaig, The War in Laos 1960–75 (1989), p. 4. The Military Regions were the basis of the warlordism culture that affected the RLA and the FAR High Command, with most of the MR Commanders running their zones like private fiefdoms.Conboy and Greer, War in Laos 1954–1975 (1994), p. 14.