Souvanna Phouma admitted the presence of four or five battalions of Chinese Communists in north Laos, while the North Vietnamese were also advancing. The Communists were eventually driven back from the Plaine des Jarres by Laotian forces and Meo tribesmen, operating with U.S. air support.
In what was really the Laotian war, the North Vietnamese forces drove the Laotians back from the Plaine des Jarres, despite heavy U.S. air bombardment.
By 1970, an estimated 70,000 North Vietnamese troops occupied Laos. Nearly 1 million civilians, especially from the highlands, had fled their villages and become refugees. In 1971, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces entered southern Laos (See 1971, Feb).
